[randombod]

Get the drainage sorted before you rotivate! The path between your plot and the ditch is almost for sure acting like a dam. If you cut a few ditches across it, put drainage pipes (not ordinary plastic drain pipe!) or brushwood at the bottom, back fill with soil, putting the topsoil at the top. You should notice the difference in a matter of days!
Actually, if you're going to dig out the soil, there's not a lot of point rotivating anyway.

Digging out the soil, before placing the frames is a much better idea than importing soil from elsewhere, and you can line up the paths between the beds to the (filled in) cuts across the main path so that the paths act as part of the drainage system! Personally, I don't use wood so my arrangement can even double as irrigation ditches if necessary!

hi woodburner

i think i know what your saying but the ditch is at the bottom of the plot
if i dig a tranch like pic and put a drainage pipe in that should help right
but the only worry about that is the ditches all around the allotments need clearing out
some people have push there plots back that the ditches are filled in
the site warden says they going to sort out the ditches but could take the year and more to sort them out
for now i think i put a couple of raise beds in to get started and see if can get couple of other people on the next plots to help me clear the ditches out around our plots 

my post seams to have been a bit late.... but another thought is there no way you can divert that water trench in to a tank sunk in to the ground and reuse the water for irrigation ?

[madcat]

When we get that looooong hot summer they are promising us .....

you will be just so smug .....   

as those on stony, sandy soil that dries out in a moment are breaking arms hauling water to keep stuff going, yours stays nicely damp and fertile!   

You can't win 'em all!   

Good luck!