How to Recover a Water Logged Lawn

The degree of damage caused to your lawn by excess water depends primarily on the following:

• What is in the water, e.g. sewage, oil, debris
• How deep the water gets
• How long it lasts for

Let’s start with the least worst scenario:

Rain Sodden Grass with no Flooding

Generally, sodden lawns will have some of the following factors that increase water ingress or retention:

• Low-lying (maybe your neighbour has a higher garden)
• Run-off from hard areas
• Poor drainage due to a sunken lawn or a none draining sub-layer
• Clay soil – usually heavy clay

Though the above can be problematic, the lawn will usually recover once it starts to dry. Focus should be made on helping the lawn recover and regenerate new grass. This involves aerating or spiking depending on the soil type, using liquid seaweed to improve and maintain biological activity, and feeding seasonally to maintain strength in the lawn. Once the lawn recovers, you should look to address as many causes of the problem as possible, though this may be impossible in some instances. Therefore, compensation can be achieved by following a good lawn care plan. Any yellow or dead grass can be raked out once recovery has been achieved.

The Seasonal Temporarily Flooded Lawn

Many people enjoy living near rivers and expect their gardens to flood on occasion. If your grass is under water for a week or less, it will usually recover. As it starts to dry, rake off any excess silt, core aerate and add liquid seaweed and granular fertiliser. If you want to ensure a good recovery, over-seeding should be undertaken. Assess the recovery for further action after about 30 days.

Major Lawn Flooding

If the lawn is submerged for more than a week, the chances are that the turf will die. Further, if the water depth is greater than 10cm or 4″, it will have caused some compaction. Depths over 30cm or a foot of water will cause significant compaction.

Start by removing debris. Wear gloves as the area could be contaminated and contain glass and other sharp objects. Then, start grading the lawn to get levels back to normal. This will involve removing silt but may mean bringing in new topsoil.

The whole area will then need to be rotovated to work the new soil to relieve the compaction and get oxygen back into the soil. Adding humus (well-decomposed green matter) and perhaps a dash of chicken poo will help build the organic content and get the bugs, microbes and worms working again. These are essential for a healthy soil.

Now, you can continue preparing a new lawn with either turf or seed.