When the Rain Won't Drain

In this video I talk about discovering a really poorly drained plot on our garden and discuss: how to manage poorly drained soils, farming on clay, managing compacted soils, how compaction and poor drainage affect photosynthesis, what poorly drained soils do to plants, living pathways, raised beds, and more!

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[TheNorseTexan]

I love your videos where you start off talking about a problem you yourself experienced. So many of these farm videos lack the humility to admit "here's what we missed, here's what we're going to try, it probably won't work either, here's the next thing to try, we'll keep you posted..."

[mikes]

On this one your pain is our gain. While I don't have this problem, it is great to see someone I respect dealing with it, and I suspect this will be a helpful resource for those that do.

[mooneym.]

If there is a layer of sand not too deep under your land then I think vertical drainage might be a good option. In summary, what you do is make small bore holes through the clay and stabilize them with perforated pipes (i think 2" dia pipe should work) these are filled with gravel and coarse sand. Then you cap it at the top and leave it undisturbed. What it will do is it will provide the water stuck in/on clay with a fast path down. It should also treat sodic and saline conditions if any over time. It is also suitable for no till farmers because there will be no machinery to disturb the top ends and all the organic matter will absorb the nutrients and keep them absorbed and only the excess will wash down through the drain. The number of drains and the distance between them requires calculation which will change from soil to soil.

[cherylanon]

we have always used wood chips 25+ years in paths, turn them into beds every 3rd year...applied usual fresh chips last year; this past winter was extremely wet and this spring---omg---the entire garden 70 x 120 ft (plus other assorted berry patches) is a sopping mess. The ONLY places where the soil has drained sufficient to plant is where straw was used in the smaller pathways. Going forward, I am only going with straw, the woodchips for under the trees & berry patches. And yes, we do have organic source for the straw!

[SimpleEarthSelfReliance]

Had this problem at our previous property as well.
It gets to a point where, after several months of winter rain (500-600mm), the water will lie on top for weeks and eventually go anaerobic. Have several solutions to planting trees (raised) and veg beds (raised), but got a lot from this viddy.
Good stuff, thanks for the posting.

[easybullet]

nice to watch... (even that I dont do any gardening) it was still nice to watch someone talk about something they enjoy and know about

[joshblick]

Great video. I'm in southern Indiana and I've thought about starting a "clay" farm it's so bad here. One of my biggest lessons was just looking at the soil out in the woods that has never been touched. It's beautiful dark loamy soil. Nothing like our yard or the field that was planted and stripped for years before we got it. It's almost like nature would fix it over time until some dumb human goes and tears it up.

[beckyjams]

I actually appreciated the clip of turning the compost pile at the end. Educational for me. So, thanks!

[walterbunn]

Interesting....
I live in western Oregon and water logging is a serious problem here.
I'm watching this with some interest, but, just from what you've shown and what i've dealt with in my limited garden space, I have a suggestion:

Don't build all the beds up.
Drop some of the grow beds down, 6-9 inches.
This provides some of the soil build up other beds, but, equally as important, it provides an area where water can run to.
You then can use that bed to specifically plant water resistant/ boggy plants and adapt them to your yard.
Radishes, chamomile, meadowfoam and asparagus all do well in bog. I think Asparagus would be especially useful here since it's a perennial, and the excavated bed is probably not going to fill in quickly or move around alot, making it's use somewhat fixed once it's installed.

After that you could try throwing mushrooms at the problem.
Getting mycelia to grow, especially if you've already got wood chips and are spraying compost tea, is actually pretty easy, but it may not be the major fix this seems like it needs.
If you go this route, blenderize the mushroom and add it to the compost tea the night before spraying.
Portobello/Cremini, King Stropharia, or Puffball mushrooms would be ideal for this. Puffball mushrooms need Alfalfa, clover, or a legume to really take hold in an area.

[forcesfarming]

GREAT video Jesse. So many people and farmers don’t even consider the drainage of a plant. Here in the UK we have massive issues of flash flooding of land and losing soil and sediment into rivers. The need for high OM soils is critical 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[brucelind]

Try adding some rocks ie gravel with fines or glacial rock to water logged clay area. They will slowly dissolve in clay area over a couple of years and help with plant growth. My backyard was like that.. and over years of experimenting, this was the quickest way to re-soiling.. the plants really appeared to respond to the rocks; I planted wild grasses on paths in that area.. About every three years I added more rocks because they would dissolve.. each time, soil deepened.. and the need to repeat was reduced.

[taxusbaccata]

If I were to do our fields with heavy clay and subsoil compaction again I would do a once off August subsoil then plant a mixed species cover crops as root biomass which converts the clay soil to lovely crumble in one season. I completely agree to avoid the plastic pipe advice which is given to conventional farming.

[flatsville]

Consider sorghum sudan grass as a cover crop to bust up compaction. There is a sterile variety if you're concerned you may miss cutting before it goes to seed. SARS has some recos on its sorghum sudan grass cover crop page as to height & timing of cutting to get good root infiltration & above ground biomass production. You could chop it for compost or dry it for a mulch. Grows big.

[johnmurphy]

Another more friendly option to help with drainage is subsoiling. We have a 4 foot subsoiler we use in spots on the farm with drainage issues!

[gmaster]

What's up Jesse!
I wish you luck brother!
Just some ideas I run into this problem at work all the time here in Pennsylvania
Besides building up add a combination of drainage amendments..bio char pre charged / soaked in your innocalunt
Rice hulls, pumice, lava rock, 3/4 " clean stone, river jack rock ...etx ..
Also maybe consider planting plants that are more tolerable to slow draining soils in the plot untill restored

Another simple option might be to plant some huge willow trees to draw excess mositure from the ground near that drainage tile..or smaller grasses if blocking sunlight is an issue

I use this technique with ortamental grasses as the tubers can break up clay and rejuvenate your compacted subsoil over a few seasons
Daikon radishes also work really well also
I'm sure your aware of these techniques thought I'd put it out there for other viewers.
Enjoy your weekend
I'm ordering your book
Keep spreading wise words!
Bill
Aka Blueberry Bill

[smhollanshead]

Here is Mother Nature’s rule: Plants up, water down. Get your plants up as high as you can. This means raised beds for gardeners or rowing your beds with deep furrows for farmers. The higher you get your plants off the ground the better drainage you will have. You have to give the water a place to go. Water runs downhill. Look at the grade of your plot, and row and channel the water downhill away from your plants. Next, allow for evaporation. The three big factors with evaporation are rain, sunlight, and wind. You can’t control the rain. You can expose the soil to sunlight and wind. If you have moist soil, do not use wood chips! Wood chips will prevent sunlight and wind from drying your soil. Wood chips will hold moisture. By the way, wind will dry the soil faster than sunlight. A strange but true fact. Lastly, consider a French drain. If you have low lying soil, a French drain may give the water a place to go.

[dandan]

I came back from abroad last sept and noticed a lot of erosion over my 18 acres farm, 2020 record rain fall.

A new growing area in a pasture of ~5 acrea. This area was compacted clay that, was cut n dropped for ten years into a beautiful green field.

First sub soiled knee deep to allow the water penetration deeper, letting it create a changed sub structure and removed saplings/roots.
After tarping, cat tunnels will be erected within a short period of time, create compost bed including irrigation and more.
With 250 ft out of the weather, it will be interesting to see how long for the worms to return.

Whatever they're spraying in the skies, has everything growing twice as fast.

No worries, it doesn't surprise me to miss a simple item as you explained! It's what we do to correct them... ?
Those compacted layer are crazy on growing.

A shortened summertime to grow, right or wrong, may we all enjoy a plentiful bounty.

As for me at 66 and having a great time with nature trying to figure out the next steps of assisted growing... have a great day! TY

[jamesedwards]

Youve answered a lot of questions ive had in my garden. Thanks for the tips.

[enatp]

Thanks very much. This was super helpful. Got a way better understanding of things to try. I've got rocky, mucky, sludge. Good luck!

[dogslobbergardens]

We just bought a place that has roughly 12" of heavy clay soil and then BLAMMO, bedrock. So we'll be trying some different approaches to deal with drainage as well. I'd love to just bring in a couple hundred tons of compost/organic matter but since that's not feasible... swales, raised beds, different pathways like you've described, probably at least one small pond... etc.
(the good news is, it all slopes slightly towards a creek... so it could definitely be worse.)