Advice on how to avoid my patch turning into a marshland in the winter

[Samuel1988]

Evening all,

I have been told that a large area of my allotment patch, after excessive heavy rain, becomes a marshland which I think is due to the heavy clay and the fact that the gas works which were previously done there made the allotment ditch at the bottom redundant. Thus drainage at that part of the plot is pretty poor.

So I have been trying to make my growing areas raised up into mounds which hopefully you shall be able to see from the picture. This is one way I hope to deal with this situation. I was also thinking of digging a ditch along the side of my patch and was wondering if anyone was in the same situation and what they did to cope with the winter weather?

In addition to the raised beds and ditch, does anyone recommend any other solutions? Perhaps plant a few 'thirstier' plants in this area to help soak up some water?

I would appreciate some advice and tips

Samuel

[Nicos]

That's exactly what we did in our last allotment...and it worked well.
You could of course board up the sides to make them fixed raised beds though?

The soil was peat, and really squelshy in the winter.
Sometimes ancient preserved tree trunks would slowly appear from under the ground!!!

[Olorin2001]

free range goldfish

We had a problem with flooding last year, in a normal winter it used to get very wet, but last year it got silly. Our site is along side a stream and the bank is higher than the surounding land which stops water draining away. So this summer we dug a storm drain incorporating a non-return valve, now we want some heavy rain to see if it works.

[Two_Sheds]

I'd just move to a better plot, if there was one available

[out in the cold]

It kinda depends on how far you are from somewhere to dispose of the water, how much you have to spend on the problem, and how much digging you are prepared to do.

Ideally, you will have somewhere to dispose of the water, such as a drainage ditch or a burn. If so, your best improvement would be to dig a couple of trenches and lay a new field drain.

If not, completely digging out and laying sand and gravel under re-laid topsoil will help improve matters.

The drawback is that these are a LOT of work.

[binley100]

willow........but it does get a bit invasive.....

[Soylent Green]

A French drain or a swale Swales For Water Harvesting