Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Garden Drainage

By Scott Edward

Before spend money on expensive pipe drainage bear mind that too efficient a system will povcrish your soil as the plant nutrient will be leached out very easily. Try one several natural corrective methods first.

It is important for a gardener to know about the water table. This is the under the topsoil or subsoil, depend on the depth of these layers, to w water standing in the earth's crust rises. is not a horizontal line but confo roughly to the contours of the ground.

The gravel layer is essential to prevent the coarse rubble becoming blocked with silt and soil leaching through from the soil replaced on top. During very wet weather surplus water will collect in this hole and slowly percolate from it into the lower strata. A soakaway should always be sited well away from the house, as it may weaken the surrounding soil.

A rubble drain is a short-term drainage run, which may be all that is required on a new site to relieve temporary lying water. Dig a trench 300 mm to 450 mm deep, depending on the depth of cultivated soil (since water collects on the comparatively solid pan of undisturbed ground that lies immediately beneath). Fill the hole at least half full with coarse rubble then with a layer of ash or gravel and finally topsoil.

This channel should obviously run to some form of outlet such as a soakawayon no account allow your excess water to drain on to neighbours' property. The disadvantage of a rubble drain is that it becomes blocked comparatively quickly as soil leaches through from above.

Few plants like a lot of water ar their roots and in a soil which is consta wet the plant roots will remain near surface or will start to rot. Wet soils also cold, which retards plant gro When drainage is inadequate, not on air blocked from the plant roots but general lack of air in the soil means bacteria cannot live and the bacteria ai vital part of healthy soil.

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