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Help please.....

sven1980sven1980 Posts: 17
in Problem solving

image

I wanted to make a raised bed to plant my Snakebark maple in but it seems I've created a pond!

The water hasn't drained away in the past 4 days and it was under tarps while it rained. It seems impervious to water what is not good! When (or if) the water finally does drain, is it really feasible to build a raised bed here? I knew it was heavy clay when I was digging it out but I've never seen such poor drainage! Is there anything I can do to improve things. The bed was going to be 2feet deep with free draining top soil. Would that be deep enough for my tree to be safe from the worst of the water pooling? I'm new to gardening so please excuse my ignorance. Any help would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

Sven 

Posts

  • BLTBLT Posts: 525

    Wellcorrect me if I'm wtong but this is ahole and thewater table must be high.. A raised ned is raised you will have to put double the volume of soil and compost in it to fill it..

    Raised beds will drain because they are higher than the level of the ground.. I hope you are successful in the end..  Fingers crossed for oyu.

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016

    I presume, from you description of your raised bed, that you have dug out 6 to 9 inches in order to give a total depth of 2 feet with the top of the raised bed being about 15 inches above ground.

    My concern from the photo is that even a raised bed will soak up that water and itself become waterlogged in winter.  Drainage holes / slots in the side of the raised bed, along with filling the bottom 6 inches of the bed with rubble would held minimise the problem.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,145

    You can't just build a bed over that - you have a drainage problem which needs sorting out otherwise you're just storing up problems for the future.  


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    I'm not sure where you're building this, but take care not to breach your damp course around the property, otherwise you'll have damp coming in.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    I'd not plant a tree, even a small one so close to a wall/ foundations.

    Devon.
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