Solution to the Drainage Problem?

At long last I am hopeful that the water logging problems I have been having with the top half of my plot may be on the way to being sorted.



The start of the pipe



A couple of weeks back we had managed to get a mini digger to the plot which had deepened and lengthened the drainage channel which I had already dug.  The new channel went down about 10 inches from the surface which was great, but I discovered that the centre of my plot was about 8 inches lower then the edge, which meant that I still had a load of water trapped in the middle as the channel sloped upwards towards the path.

 

Drainage trench from my plot to the Orchard



Drainage trench through the Orchard



Yesterday afternoon I decided that I would have to manually dig this channel out to make sure that it sloped away from the centre, and after about an hour of hard work I managed to release all of the trapped water.

I didn't get rid of all of the water as you can see from the picture, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing as I a couple of inches of moisture deep down can be very useful, especially if we actually get a nice hot summer this year.

We already had several lengths of drainage pipe on site that had been donated last year, so I wrestled one of those into place.  During this wrestling I discovered that the pipe didn't like being stretched into place, it had to be unrolled along the trench instead.  Unfortunately I only discovered this when the end of the pipe had flicked loads of very muddy water all over me as it was being laid.

I now need to cover the pipe on my plot with lots of 3/4" stone and hardcore rubble to allow any water to easily filter down to the pipe, and then I can lay flagstones over the whole thing, both to protect it and also prevent me from inadvertently trying to plant anything over it in the future.

I may also need to dig side channels to encourage any excess water away from where I am planing to have my shed, polytunnel and a sitting area, but for now I think I will wait until we have had some more rain and see how well it drains by itself before digging any more.

After all the digging I didn't really have much time for anything else, but I did manage to get Bed 3 weeded.

This is the bed where I planted out all the brassicas that had been eaten by almost every pest you can get on a plot, so they had a very poor start and are still only about 3-4" tall.

Despite this most have survived the worst the winter has had to throw at them so far, but quite a few weeds had also take the opportunity to invade the bed and needed to be controlled before they became a problem.

This was the first time I had touched the soil here since planting the seedlings out back in October, so I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the soil structure was really fine, very few lumps and so the larger weeds pulled out easily with very little effort, and the smaller ones were dug in with a dutch hoe.

This bed was one that had been double dug and had originally been all huge blocks of soil on the surface - I guess that I can thank the freezing weather we have had recently for breaking it all down into a lovely tillth.

I had read in all my books that this would happen, but never realised just how much of a dramatic change there could actually be until I saw it for myself.

I also started to weed the Rhubarb bed, which was full of what looked to be very well established grass, but when I got going I realised that the top six inches of the bed was pure manure and therefore very loose.

This made it easy to chop up the grass with a hoe and push it under the surface, not something I would normally do but this grass didn't appear to be couch grass, and I am going to put another layer of soil and then a final layer of manure over it before transplanting the rhubarb crowns so I am hoping that it will simply rot down and not come bursting out again later.

If it does, I will deal with it then.

Late January on the Allotment - Video Update

I've not been able to get down to the plot much recently, either the weather has been too bad or I haven't had any transport, so I was quite anxious to see the state of my raised beds and their frames after the recent heavy snow we have had in Oldham.

When I got there it was soon clear that the majority of the plot had survived the worst weather of the winter so far with the exception of Bed 1 where the netting had been pretty much destroyed by the weight of the snow.

I was also looking forwards to seeing the results of the visit of the digger to the plot last weekend when the drainage channel that I had dug in Autumn was deepened and widened.

Hopefully this will allow most of the surplus surface water on the plot to drain away once I manage to get pipes and gravel into the trench on my plot.

I will report back once I have been able to make some more progress.

Autumn Blues and Water Problems

As we move through Autumn there is less and less to do on the allotment.

The summer plants have all finished and been removed to the compost pile, the over wintering brassicas are all in and looking healthy.

The overwintering onions and garlic have been in for about six weeks.  The onions are showing strongly, with about three to four inches of growth on the white onions and one to two on the red.

No sign of any life from the garlic as yet, neither the purpose bought stuff or the jumbo ones from the supermarket.  That seems to be the same with everyone else on the allotment though, so I am not too worried at the moment.

The perpetual spinach is still performing strongly, as is the chard.  I am hoping to be able to keep harvesting from these until Christmas.

I have had a first harvest of leaves from the purple kale which I planted out in early August, the plants are growing strongly and should have no problems in surviving the cold.

The Brussels planted at the same time are still causing me some worry - there are plenty of leaves and the plants themselves look strong, but there is no sign of any sprouts forming on most of the plants as yet.  I hope that I can get something off them for Christmas day - that would be really nice.

The rhubarb is finally starting to die back - recent frosts overnight seem to have done the job - so once the rhubarb bed near to the pond is completed they can be transplanted once they have gone completely dormant.

I am still having major problems with the lack of drainage on the top half of my plot - most of it is very sodden with standing water and lots of mud on the surface.

It looks like the drainage channels that I dug have been partly successful as the neighbouring plots and communal areas that used to be waterlogged are now pretty dry, so the water from them has apparently drained into my plot.  The solution appears to be just carry on with more of the same, and make the channels already dug deeper and a bit wider.

Another plot holder has arranged for a mini digger for the afternoon to help him to turn over his plot as it is completely full of tree roots, making hand digging almost impossible.

Once his plot has been done the digger is going to deepen the drain through the orchard area away from my plot, and will then dig channels through my plot to meet them.

The orchard drain will simply have a length of perforated drainage pipe laid at the bottom and then be back filled.

My drain will have a 3" layer of 3/4 stone under a drainage pipe, with the rest of the trench being filled with 3/4 stone.  As the majority of the drains will be under flagged paths I am hoping that this won't cause me too many problems with my planting next year and that it sorts out my water logging problem.

If it doesn't, I really don't know what else to try.

On a more positive note, we spend most of yesterday afternoon digging over bed 7 which had been getting a bit swamped with grass, and mixing the soil well with manure from the larger of the two piles.

Once finished this will be where I plant my bare-rooted strawberries for them to over-winter as I couldn't put them where I intend them to live permanently as it is currently too wet.

I have eighteen plants - six each of Malwina, Mae and Elegance.  They are supposed to crop at different times through the season, so I am hoping to have a succession of strawberries all summer long next year.

I have also got started on moving the first manure pile as I want to put a couple more raised beds where it is now - my son Will did a grand job in shifting loads of it for me, and with very little complaining about the smell (then again, it is now quite well rotted and lovely stuff) and there is now nearly enough space to drop frames for raised beds 10 and 11 down.

When I stop to look at what we have achieved so far, I am quite proud of my little plot.  Once the water problem is sorted out there will be no stopping us!