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WE all know that old song "It's raining again." What a blessing. It's one of those old fashioned Cape winters.

I can remember as a child walking in puddles wearing my "Wellies" and covered from head to toe in my warm woollies.

No problem for your garden as long as you have good drainage. If you have to slosh around and your lawn looks like a model for "Sea World," then you have a problem which, unfortunately, you'll have to wait for drier weather to correct.

For lawns that tend to have a hollow in the centre in which water accumulates, the solution is not too difficult, albeit labour intensive.

Carefully remove the sods in the depression then level the exposed area before filling with coarse sand. Replace the sods and stamp down lightly.

Lawns that tend to slope with water collecting at the bottom require more drastic measures. The best solution is the construction of a French drain. This consists of a series of pipes sunken into the collection area.

These pipes have holes drilled into them to allow the seepage to gather within them and then are sloped towards sunken tanks filled with stone or gravel.

Lawns that are "mushy" make it difficult to walk on and almost impossible to mow. Try aerating and filling the holes created thereby with sand.

Give a light top dressing with a sandy mix then feed with 2:3:2 in early Spring. (Never top dress tufted grass).

Even our hardy Buffalo dislikes a heavy top dressing. If you have hollows rather lightly top dress repeatedly allowing the grass to grow through before applying the next layer, until you've achieved the level you desire.

When preparing garden beds add plenty of organic matter to help keep the soil light allowing air in and water to drain as well as supplying nourishment to the new plants.

Its main value is improvement of the substructure and encouragement of the activity of beneficial bacteria. Why not invest in a compost bin this season. This will be also in keeping with the new recycling methods which requires separation of degradable material from dry waste.

Your composter need not be an ugly pile at the bottom of the garden. If you have limited space an aesthetically pleasing ready moulded bin can be bought from your local nursery.

Kitchen waste (not cooked food) eg tea-leaves, eggshells, newsprint (non-glossy) and small (they decay faster) garden trimmings. Lawn cuttings may also be used as long as you alternate with thin layers of sand. If you don't do it this way you'll have clumping and end up with a soggy mess.

An activator may be used to speed up the operation. Your compost should be ready in 8-10 weeks. When its ready, any larger, still un-decayed pieces may be returned to the bin for further processing with your next mix. In fact, if you have the place, keep two bins going overlapped in starting times then you won't have to wait so long for your "home grown brew." Just keep rotating. The earthworms will love you for it.

Happy Digging.

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