I got an allotment in september (half plot). The previous owner was on the committee, actually think he is the chairman but anyway it has a problem with drainage. The whole site slopes from south to north. I think there is a SLIGHT slope from east to west as when i dumped some water from bed 1 behind the shed (there is a tree there) the water flowed down from there and back into bed 1 where it came from! Anyways yes the previous owner moved to another plot so obviously that doesn't bode well. I think he wasn't well for a while or something because the treasurer (person ive been dealing with on the committee) told me the plot hasnt been worked for about 8 months. Anyways here is a picture of my plot.
where my bike is north and where the shed is south, so the slope is in that direction. I have 3 beds and have labelled them accordingly 1, 2 and 3. The plot hadn't been used for almost a year so there were a lot of weeds. I have been clearing them slowly but surely. The treasurer mounded up the earth in the three beds so the water seems to run off into the areas I have circled. Also I should add there is a band of clay running through the allotment site and it goes through my beds (1 and 2 mainly)
In bed 1 I was working my way down to the end and was clearing the trench of weeds but had to stop halfway through. After that it rained like crazy again and because I had dug part of the trench the water pooled as you can see from the above/below photos.
It has been like this ever since that time because it wont stop raining. At one point it did start to go down but then BAM! it rained loads again and filled up. I have been scooping up the water from bed 1 and moving it via buckets onto bed 3 as it seems to drain a little better there. The water does pool in the small trench in bed 3 but seems to drain unlike the other 2 beds.
Bed 2 doesn't flood as bad but its still a problem at the bottom end of the bed. see pics below:
I have been waiting patiently for the soil at the end of the beds to dry a bit but decided enough was enough with bed 1 as it was starting to smell, I guess because the water was mixing with the mud unlike the ditch in bed 2 which is filled with grass. I decided to dig a longer trench in bed 1 to hopefully stop the water standing in one small area (see pic below)
Not sure what I did was the right move but not really sure what else to do. Should I just leave that area until next year and hope we get a dry spring so i can do something with the ground? Any advice is welcome. My plot seems to be the ONLY plot with standing water. Everywhere is wet but nothing like mine. Probably because it hadn't been cultivated for a while and was very weedy, mixed with the clay and maybe some compaction. I don't think french drains would be a solution either because im surrounded by other plots so not really anywhere as an outlet as I can't go digging through other peoples plots!
So anyway are these trenches that were dug a good idea? i'm starting to think not and they seem to just invite water to sit there and stagnate (it smells!). I'm planning on double digging the whole plot when I can. Waiting for the allotment to get a delivery of compost in november so i can work that in as I go. Just need some advice on where to go from here. Don't really want to write off part of my plot.
Should I fill the trenches in and try and raise up the whole bed with compost?
PLEASE HELP!!