Clay garden with poor drainage, do I need land drains?

Question

Hi, I have a small grass area in my garden approximately 5.7m by 2.4m. The garden is on top of clay so I’ve dug out about 17cm of clay and intend on laying down a few inches of hardcore then a few more inches of black ash then an inch of top soil then lay turf on top. My big query is will I have done enough to keep a fairly dry lawn in summer or will I need to add some land drains. I’m trying to avoid adding the drains as it’s going to be difficult to drain the water off into an appropriate place.

Answer 1

Big question is do you live on high ground or low ground. How much rain do you get in the summer. Then I'm wondering if you thinking  is the garden going to flood your yard. If you live on higher ground you should not have much if any of a problem. Low ground then drains won't really help much if you have nowhere to drain it to. I would check out the neighbors and see what they doing  and how there lawns do in the summer because the probable have the same clay as you do.  Also how is you yard sloped.