Allotments 4 All

With the recent rain up north, my new plus has became quite waterlogged and although no surface water can be seen, it only takes a few steps to hear the squelching!

From looking at the other plots it seems to have been an all over thing and not just restricted to mine.

Other than waiting for mother nature to drain the water away and the sun to help dry it out, is there anything I can do to get the plot ready to transplant my leeks and onions that have been grown at home?

Also, if this happens to the plot with heavy rain, would it be better to put in raised beds to keep crops away from surface water?

Hi Lancelotte,  We have the same problem on our site & are tackling it by a combination of raised beds and drainage ditches round the plots.  I'm not sure how it's going to pan out as at the moment the ditches are full of water, green slime & beasties, so we'll have to keep an eye on things.

The drainage ditches work well where adjoining plot holders work together, but one of ours across the plot stops dead as the next chap over hasn't figured out what it's all for yet.  He's known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, so it may take us some time to get him dragged into the idea.

Your starter for 10 - I'm sure there will be more advice to come.

Cheers

I think your best bet would be to make raised beds. This gets your planting areas above ground level, giving your plants that extra depth before they become waterlogged.
Good luck with your ditches, I hope they work for you.

Lauren  :)

I dug a ditch through our garden where, due to some slope, the water seemed to want to run like a regular creek in wet weather. Then I sawed boards from pallets (didn't have the strength to pry them), nailed them to risers to make a very narrow boardwalk the length of the ditch. Whenever I dug up stones they'd get tossed in the ditch which deters erosion. Hubby made raised beds to run the length of the boardwalk. That has solved the wetness problem and I really enjoy walking on that tiny boardwalk.

Froglets,
When you say you dug drainage ditches, where did you dig them to? The end of the site? At the moment I'm the last occupied plot before 2 empty & heavily overgrown plots. My neighbour, to the other side, has had the same problem, so would you suggest we dig a ditch between our two plots joining one running along the front or back, which iwe then dig to the end of the site?

Sounds like a big job but if it needs doing, I'll have to do it.

As for the raised beds. I think I'm going to have to go down this route. Any suggestions for getting a large supply of top soil or similar on the cheap to fill the beds?

Thanks again,
Shane

Thanks for that Annie, very good tip with the stones. That would not have crossed my mind untill a few months down the line and my ditch was twice the width of what I first dug! hehe

This is a problem on our site, too. (And probably quite a few sites: allotments weren't always allocated the prime land!)

When the site was first established, nearly a century ago, there were obviously three ditches running parallel from the top of the site, near the road, into the stream at the bottom of the site. Over the years these have either become silted up or even disappeared completely. Recently, a few keen plot-holders have started clearing the ditches alongside their plots and water has started flowing again. We're now thinking about getting a working party together to renovate the whole system.

In the meantime, raised beds certainly help. Or any sort of cultivation: if the plot along from you has been left derelict, the ground compacts and the water can't get away. This has been a problem along one side of our site; now these plots have been taken & the land is being dug, the plots generally are less waterlogged than they used to be.

Lacelotte, our posts crossed.

I'd say those two uncultivated plots - even if they'rre not the sole cause of your problem - aren't making things any better. Sounds like a ditch would help solve it, if you've got somewhere to route the water to.

I have deep beds all over the place but I haven't brought in any top soil.  I think that if you dig two spade depth in the first instance and turn the earth over - then never walk again on this soil.  But you could - when you are doing this digging put a couple of spadefuls of stones on the bottom for drainage and then lop the soil back over!

They don't have be "deep" but so long as the soil is loose and not compacted that is my interpretation of deep/raised beds.  The do get deeper every year when you add manure or compost to them and because you never walk on them they don't get compacted so appear to be raised!

You probably knew this already - just me getting it straight in my mind!!

Good luck with it anyway!

Old Bird

Lots of digging this weekend  :-\ hehe

Out of interest, can anybody think of some very thirsty crops that I can put in the bottom corner to help soak up excess water from the neighbouring plots? Just another thought.

Nothing you could plant would soak up the water sufficiently to dry the plot, of course.

But celery enjoys plenty of moisture, if you're looking for crops that are compatible with wet ground.

drain the plot dig trenches 2ft down & fill with 9 inches of pea gravel,Thats if the plot slopes.

Drain it in a v method with a centre trench, make a small lagoon for the water to drain into & then them dry days you wont have to worry for water ;D

I like your thinking goodlife. The pea gravel filled trenches would make the ditches look a lot better than bare trenches. Hmm I feel an advert on the local freecycle coming up.  ;D

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Much appreciated

I took on my first plot - a fallow field newly divided into allotments - this year and it was flooded. I dug a trench at the bottom of the plot. This took in a bit of water, but i really only drained the neighbouring plot below me!!

Then i dug a rough trench at the top of the site and this really helped. Trouble was that heavy rain in March meant that i got flooded from the side - arrgghh!!! So i dug a 3rd trench and used the earth as a small wall on the side. The plot is now drained.

So my advice would be to dig a trench at the top - stop water going on your plot in the 1st place. However, you need somewhere for the water to go - mine went to the wooded area at the side. I also dug a deeper reservoir in one trench to act as a pond and a small water supply.

Raised beds - i dug one last month for potatoes and it was raised about an inch or two after double digging and adding manure and sharp sand. I dug another yesterday on the drained and dried plot and it is about 6 inches high - much better and easier to dig in too...

Good luck!

And grow watercress?

I was told about a simpler method than ditches on the allotments.

I have been trying it for a few weeks.

Dig a deepish hole down to the clay, wide enough to lower a bucket into and just keep bailing out.

I have filled several water containers with this brown water and intend to use it for watering during dry spells since I reckon that it will have nutrients in it. It should be good for the plants.

Already have raised beds and soggy paths!

The paths I cover with used horse bedding (supplied free by a local farmer) and when it gets soggy put it on the compost heap.

Not known wet weather like we have had over the past year before.

A good idea for clay soils PurpleHeather, called bore holes, they use this method before creating any man made lakes if you can manage to dig it deeper it wont require bailing out so much & i would invest in a solar powerd water pond pump, do a slight modification then it can pump itself to you water barrel ;D