[karlooben]

part of my run { about 1 metre diameter } for some unknown reason is waterlogged  no matter what i do , i was wandering if it could be worth digging up the wood chips and going back down to bare earth adding sand and then slabbing 1/4 of my run would this help the drainage at all and also would it keep down the smell  . when i dig it over the smell almost kills me and although they are on the allotments i dont really have anywhere to put the old woodchips  and i dont want to keep on adding new chips onto old .

[Bonniebean]

Looby, as it is only a metre square would it be worth digging it out to about 2 feet and putting pea shingle in to act as a soak away? The only trouble with slabs is that the watterlogging could just move to another patch. If you recover the pea shingle with soil and then wood chip it might help. Sue

[karlooben]

good thinking    i have a very tall sycamore tree within the run  and this patch is about 1 1/2 metres from the tree i dont know if its anything to do with the roots or not , what about a load of old bricks only asking as a guy has taken on the plot behind me an there is tons of pure rubbish been left including milk bottles from the 60s an 70s ,i could dig down as deep as poss an then lay in the old bricks cover with soil or just tons of chips  its seems to be this section of the run that smells the most .

[neil9797]

Bricks and large lumps of rubble are best as they are cheap, fill the hole better and leave more space to hold the water - just remember to put them in loosely! Don't use bottles; they'll break up and cause the soak-away to collapse. Try and dig down to the bedrock if it is not too deep. If it is in a muddy run then it might be worth putting some weed-suppressing or other horticultural material over the bricks; this will allow the water through but prevent mud from clogging up the soak-away. Also, you might have problems with the tree-roots clogging it all up, so line the sides with a cylindrical section of an old bin or barrel.

HTH, N

[karlooben]

thanks for the help guys , the run isnt muddy as the woodchips are doing thier job its just this one section of the run u walk on it and u can feel the sinking feeling i shall start diging out the weekend an fill it back up .

[beulah59]

Tree roots should help as they drain moisture from the soil ... I wonder if the tree is healthy?

[karlooben]

the tree is healthy  , i have had an idea tell me what u think  i dont really want to be digging up the ground as the smell will be unbearable and i do need to consider other ppl around the site an houses what if i turned the boggy area into a raised bed i know it will be akward but i dont mind that but only as long as i remember its there at 6 am in the dark  { whats best to fill it with i have a rasied bed i could empty from my other plot its  horse poo an chicken poo rotting down full of worms or just horse manure from stables } . aslo i can screw gutting onto the sides as i have done before and use these as summer feeders