Allotments 4 All

Hi, all you practical people, if you've seen the other thread, what we have to deal with,
Steve has asked if we could find out how deep we need to dig a soakaway, he's going to get a mini digger from work, dig a big pit and a trench along the back of the plots to a disused lower part to soak away, we'll fill the pit with bricks and chippings etc and put a piece of piping we've got with holes in in the trench as well
so, any experts out there, advice please  :)

No expert but if you can drain it into a lower area it should work... wouldn't dream of it without a minidigger! My wet allotment is the lowest part of the site... hence it is so wet, came in useful this year!
;D

What saddad has said is basic but dead right - before you start, make sure that the place the water is draining to is lower then the land you're draining from.
An alternative is to build up the soil level where you're planting. Had to do this here as we are very low, there was nowhere for the water to drain to.

DH put a soakaway drain in our garden about twelve months ago.  It was a totally useless garden from about October to March because it would get so waterlogged.  Just asked him what he did cos I can't remember!

He dug a trench about three feet deep and filled the bottom foot or so with stones, placed the soakaway on top and filled about another 10-12 inches on top with stone.  He then filled up to the right level with soil and we waited about three weeks for it all to settle before we re-turfed the lot.  The trench was in a sort of tree shape with a long trench up and down the garden with lots of branches off it to maximise sudccess!  We have a land drain in the garden so he ended the soakaway there.

Have to admit that I was very sceptical about it working, but after seeing the brown patches in the grass over the hot summer where there was no moisture being held in the grass at all, I have to admit that it has worked!
Good Luck!  It's a lot of hard work but very worthwhile.

HTH Bob x

thanks bob, just what we need, should be easier with a mini digger ? will pass on the message  :)

Some infomation on this site may be of use.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain08.html

Gary

thanks for that, gary, ray's printed it all out, will take it to the plot so's steve can read it, lots of good advice on it  :)