Soakaway

We have some raised beds which border on to a lawn. The raised beds are watered each night through an automatic irrigation system.

The grass at the side of the beds has become very, very wet - and really never dries out: it is particularly noticeable in the morning after the night watering session. The raised beds drain very, very well.

We have removed a strip of the lawn adjacent to the raised beds - about a foot wide (and thrown the sods away: not particularly good quality grass) - we have dug a trench - about a foot deep today - and going to deepen it another foot tomorrow to make a soakaway.

It is our intention to fill the trench with aggregate(?) - put a permeable membrane over the top and then top with a mix suitable for growing a fresh strip of lawn.

Questions:

Is aggregate the correct thing to fill the trench with - or do I use course gravel - or something else?

What mix (peat/sand/topsoil/???) should I top the trench off with prior to sowing lawn seed?

How deep the "soil" layer?

Any other pointers please.

Reply to
Judith in England
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I think i'd turn down the watering and keep an eye on the plants in the raised beds.

Take a look at

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and possibly other parts of that site.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Could you not attack the problem at source by reducing the amount of water dispensed into the beds?

Reply to
Bob Minchin

+1

Sounds like a waste of a lot of water. Why do the beds need so much? what have you got growing in them?

Reply to
Chris Hogg

Sorry but like everyone else I also say cut down on the water, why every evening? Once every 2 or 3 days should be enough, though the plants probably have a poor root system as they haven't had to develop in order to find water.

Reply to
David Hill

Perhaps she's growing wasabi, watercress and water spinach :-)

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren

Anything really that has lots of voids and is bigger than sand.

2-3" of ordinary "topsoil" (sandy, not too organic) will be more than enough.
Reply to
Tim Watts

Would a soaker hose be more appropriate?

Reply to
Tim Watts

We have the watering coming on twice during the night - for 15 mins each time - six hours apart. I did this last year - and the raised beds did not get "soggy" at all. All the produce from them was fantastic. So I don't think the watering is the problem

- it is the getting rid of that water once it has left the raised beds.

Good site: thanks

Reply to
Judith in England

I think the amount of water the plants get is "good for them". I'd rather just make sure it soaks away.

Reply to
Judith in England

Why a waste? - the plants thrived last year: I have onions, courgettes, leeks, radishes,lettuces, parsley, strawberries

Reply to
Judith in England

Yes - I agree that it is not necessary to water every night: BUT my electronic timer does not have the option for selecting specific days of the week. I would rather water a little and often: two fifteen minutes during the night. The plants did well last year. I am pretty confident that the soak-away trench is the answer.

Reply to
Judith in England

Thanks

Reply to
Judith in England

Possible: but I have now have installed half-inch pipes in the raised beds and have various drippers and sprays running off them. I can vary the amount of water that each bed (and each different veg.) gets.

Reply to
Judith in England

That change is significant. Two 15 min periods are hardly enough to saturate raised beds to the point of running off. I'd suggest your timer may have gone faulty.

All the

That amount of water shouldn't have left the beds.

We have a large soakaway we constructed 12 years ago following the instructions of the pavingexpert, it's collecting and dispersing all the land drainage water we installed on a half acre garden (high rainfall here). It's still working perfectly, no soggy areas.

Janet.

Reply to
Janet

Thought you said the beds drained "very very well". Or are you really referring to the ground around? The fact that there is excess water some where shows that there is excess watering.

Meh, I and several others seem to think it is on the information provided.

There should only be enough water entering the beds to keep them damp enough for the plants, if water is running out there is too much of it. Not to menation it'll be leaching out nutrients.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Has it been a wet year so far for you ? Perhaps the water table is higher than last year if last year was very dry. If the water table was lower last year the 'excess' water would have gone down further and not affected the top layer of soil.

In the mean time I'd try turning off the system for at least one night and checking what effect this has on the raised beds. Do they get too dry ?

Years ago we spent money installing your type of system but found the upkeep too onerous. We now use sprinklers. The type similar to those used commercially, not those plastic surface mounted ones.

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We have a crude timer on the tap.

There are sophisticated monitors available which will control your watering system, turning it on and off as necessary.

Reply to
fred

I have said that the raised beds did not get "soggy" at all: and: The grass at the side of the beds has become very, very wet - and really never dries out: it is particularly noticeable in the morning after the night watering session. The raised beds drain very, very well.

Which information do you and others think was a problem? I cannot see anything conflicting.

Reply to
Judith

I think that that may be half of the problem: the water table being higher than last year.

I have had it turned off for a couple of nights the other week: - they did not get dry. They are filled with a mix of newly bought (last year) top soil - mixed with good quality peat compost.

Reply to
Judith in England

It comes on twice a day, every day, at the same times - not at different times on specific days

Reply to
Judith

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