Has any one got any ideas about dealing with mud? My garden doesn't seem to drain the water at all - it just sits on top in puddles for days, the soil is quite clay type and sticky and there's so much of it :scream: is there anything I can do to help drain it? I don't want to spend a fortune as we'd like to move next year (to make space for more dogs....but don't tell the OH! ;) ). It's driving me insane

Is it on bare ground or Turf?
Have you treid sticking a garden fork into it and wiggling????????
Lea :)

it's supposed to be grass and yes we've tried the fork thing to no avail!

:( Is it soaked all over or in one area. If in one area you can do a soak away. If all over then am afraid there is not much else you can do. Apart from rip it up and gravel it instead :(
Lea :)

it's wet all over but worse in some places if you know what I mean - it's not particularly level! And its too big to gravel....how do I do a soakaway?

As long as you have forked it at about foot intervals (yes alot of work and takes a long time) Down as far as you can, brushed sharp sand in and there is still no improvement. Then I am afraid, it is either keep everyone off it to give it time to rejuvinate and get tough in time to sell up. Or live with it. Re turf and keep everyone off when you put the house on the market until you sell it and move :(
Sorry not much help. Could give you info on expensive ways to sort it, but not really much good :(
Lea :)

I've taken the ultimate step, and fenced off the grass for the winter - used some eletric fencing poles and some of the fencing workmen use round holes on worksites etc (from Travis Perkins - £30 for a VERY long roll).  I found out last year that my oldest dog will NOT poo unless she can do it on grass, so this year have left a strip of grass for her use - so far it's working well ;)

I have clay soil too, there is nothing you can do about it.  In the summer it drys rock hard and cracks, in the winter it is always sticky mud which is much worse to clean off then ordinary soil.

I have had to put the garden out of bounds in the winter, they have a fenced of concrete bit.

You will drive yourself mad if you leave them to it out there.

Sorry not much help
Sandra

Our (reluctant) solution..........was lots and lots and lots...........of paving slabs  :-)

But thats far from the cheap option!

I have the same problem. We had new lawns laid in the paddock this summer and now part of it is a swomp and winters not here yet .

This is the type of thing we had to do to combat the moorland feild where we keep our horse - bit drastic but worked well. try this link:   http://www.dwshottonlandscapes.co.uk/SportsFieldDrainage.htm

HTH

I have this problem as well and tend to try and put a "bath" - (childrens rigid paddling pool) so the dogs have to walk though this, which they don't approve of, but it does clean off their feet a bit before they come in.

I have the same problem, but have an unused extension that they all go into until they have dried off first before coming into the house, the only problem with that is that dried mud turns into inches of dust on my furniture and I feel as though the house is never clean no matter how much I try.