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a_genghis_kuhn

new house with enormous yard troubles!

John Kuhn
4 years ago

Hello! This is a super long post but I hope you will be patient with me!


We recently bought a new house with a backyard that has a series of interlocking problems that we are somewhat at a loss to deal with. Minus the house and sheds, it's about 40' x 100'. A deep lot but not too huge. Here is the situation:


1. Terrible drainage: we had a lot of rain this spring but there is regular standing water any time we get more than 0.5 inch of rain. We live in Binghamton NY, which is very wet and so this is a fairly regular occurrence.


2. Some of these drainage issues are the result of the grade, which slopes down from the house. The backyard abuts a bunch of other backyards and is downhill from the house, which fronts the street (making drainage somewhat complicated as the only way for the water to get off the property would be to run it uphill).


3. But at the same time the drainage problems seem to be partially caused by the yard's soil composition, which is a really really terrible and compacted heavy clay that we suspect has not been amended or touched since the house was built in the 1890s.


4. The previous owners did not care for the yard, and the result is that the lot has a few scattered patches of grass but has mostly been over-run by creeping buttercup, smartweed, and some other stuff. We are not looking for a super-maintained lawn but would like something slightly neater looking and more controlled (possibly clover) that would edge out most weeds and not need to be mowed as often. We are also hoping to ultimately shrink the yard's footprint by putting in a path and some beds.


5. We figure that the first step should be to try to fix the soil composition before trying to get any kind of more regular lawn established (or even before chipping away at the size of the yard with beds + path). Is this what you, good people of the lawn group, would recommend? I honestly was just wondering if I should rent a rototiller and get the local Agway to bring a truckload of compost over and just go to town (and then seed with something low-maintenance). Do you think this would work? I am a total lawn newbie but have some gardening experience.


Thanks in advance for any advice!


JK (Zone 5b, Binghamton)

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