How do you know if your garden area is well drained or not? How can you make it to drain well?

Question

Thanks

Answer 1

The first answer is a good one. You could also apply water to the area with a sprinkler for a while until you have applied an inch of so and see how long it takes for it to go away. If it puddles and doesn't go away for a day or so, you have a poorly drained area. Adding sand will help or raising the level of the soil with any good soil amendments. Some compost along with the sand might be good. Depending on how much you want to spend there is always the option of putting in underground tile drainage but that can get very expensive.

Answer 2

Q: Well drained garden, how do you know?
A: Ball of dirt test: if you make a ball of dirt with your hands and that ball of dirt "sticks" together and is wet - that's too wet. If it stays like that for more than a day, you've got a drainage problem! And possibly also a soil problem. Adding peat, sand and other soil busters to a soil that is too dense can solve a problem of too much water retention. Also, if you dig a small hole and fill it with water and the water stays in the hole and doesn't drain out, that's another indicator of poor drainage.

Q: How to make your garden drain well?
A: There are a lot of good ideas here. Another good idea is to create a "raised" bed for your garden. By bordering your garden with railroad ties, 4x4s, a stone retaining wall, or the like, and then filling in your garden with 4" or more of fresh soil, the new soil level can drain excess water out naturally to the underlying ground.

Answer 3

Dig a 6 in deep hole when the soil is dry. Fill it with water. If it disappears within half an hour it's well drained.If it doesn't drain away in that time adding 2 or 3 year well rotted compost and or grass clippings or paper from your shredder or tree leaves by stirring them in with a roto tiller. adding sand is ok but undoubtedly not necessary.Unless there is an unusual amount of clay in the soil as in from an excavation for your basement , you r soil will grow a fine garden .Use a little 12-12-12 fertilizer ''follow instructions on the bag" and enjoy the fruits of your labor

Answer 4

It all depends on where you live and what you have planted near your garden if anything. Certain plants can absorb more water then others. Also different area's have different soil compositions. The best thing to do is observe how much water your plants are absorbing. Then go from there. If one plant takes less water than another that plant can be drowned. Basically in setting up a garden you have to do research ahead of time. The factors to look at are what you want it to look like, how much time you can spend on it, and how much you can spend. If all these seem a bit overwhelming then, then just buy a couple of potted plants to see how they do. Or you could like me make mistakes as you go along and enjoy the experience of learning and helping things grow.

Answer 5

First, dig a hole fill i with water the faster it drains the better drainage ( is that a word . . . ) you have. Now there are certain lawn company's that have devices to stick in the ground and it will turn on your water system (sprinklers) and will water it just enough then turn off the system. Then you would get the one that does not go under ground and it will turn off the water when it is raining and if or lawn still needs water it will turn it back on.

I hope I helped! :)

Answer 6

A good way to make a garden drain well is the layer of dirt. Gravel is a good way to drain and should be at the bottom next should be verying dirts and composts depending on what kind of garden you have (flower garden, vegetable, etc.).

Answer 7

dDig a hole and fill it with water. If the water sits there, it has poor drainage. There are soil building composts and clay busters that have gypsum in them . I found that really improved the drainage in one corner of my property when tilled in for a couple of years. A note of caution, gypsum is not good to use on very slanted areas, because the hill may just wash away, but on relatively flat areas it really is good.

Answer 8

Puddles. If you're growing rice the puddles are good. If not then puddles are bad. If garden don't drain properly try a trench to drain.

Answer 9

You should be able to tell just by digging and seeing if the soil is sloppy. Also, if you have moss growing - it indicates wet conditions.
If there is no way of draining water away from the property - mix sand into the soil and this will allow for more drainage as sand does not hold moisture.

Answer 10

It depends on what kind of garden you don't want it to drain too much.