Clay soil and boggy lawn

Hello,

We have moved house and I am now the proud owner of some very boggy lawn, our garden is clay soil so drainage is a problem, I have used tool to poke holes etc but it is still very boggy, I am going to seed soon but is there anything else I can do to improve drainage before I cut my losses and pave the lot please?

I'd wait a bit. Everything is so wet you'd have nowhere to drain it to.

Keep poking holes, every 4 inches if poss and then brush in some sharp sand to aid drainage.   This will take time and effort but will slowly improve drainage.

The other alternative is to rotavate the lot adding plenty of sharp grit and sand as well as some organic matter such as garden compost to the soil then let it settle, rake smooth, go over it with a roller or with your heels to remove air pockets, rake again and then sow new seed in early April when it's warm enough to germinate the seed and moist enough for it to grow.

The very serious alternative is to dig trenches and lay drains then put back the soil and proceed as above.

If you do give up and pave it, make sure you use permeable blocks and joins to allow run off in wet weatther or you'll end up with a more serious drainage problem in the rest of the garden.

Cheers for the answers guys

Roses like clayey soil and big climbers drink a lot, so a pergola with a climber would help. Trees are also thirsty so, for example, some (smaller) conifers might add structure and help with drainage.The weather has been so wet that it is difficult even to get on soil to work it, and it is a bit early yet anyway but the rest of the answer is improve, improve, improve through digging in compost. We dug a drainage pit and filled it with stones before topping up with soil, because we live on a hillside and water runs into our garden, though you might think this a bit extreme.