Isle Of Wight, United Kingdom

I have a small garden (approx 37sq mtrs) which is completely laid to lawn. The house is about six years old and the garden is solid clay no top soil to speak of. In the summer the lawn cracks open to reveal quite deep fissures that you can sink your hand in and in the winter it floods. It is a north facing garden with 2mtre high fencing so particularly down one side there is little direct sunlight. The lawn itself is uneven and not of any good quality. Realising we have a drainage problem we have already installed a land drain running diagonally across the garden with two feeder drains, one either side. Drainage is then to a soakaway in the lowest and wettest corner. However this is of limited success as there is still dense clay in the garden making drainage to the drain difficult. I believe I now need to get some sand and compost into the soil. I would like to do this by using a small tiller. My question basically is can I just dig in the lawn (which is not worth keeping for reasons stated above) or must I remove the turf first? Or do you have any other suggestions? Afterwards I will level and lay a new lawn but long term intend to install a patio in one corner.

• 26 Apr, 2010