[North Devon Dumpling]

We moved into a new house (an old farm house as tenants)in the spring and have made  a veggie patch from a bit of old ground which had been used for a veggie patch many years ago and was the most availble land we could have (not digging up the nice lawns!).  The soil is in good condition and when dry excellent top soil.

I know we have had alot of rain this 'summer' but the plot is unbelieveably boggy.  We don't really want to create another plot in the garden (no-where else really suitable) so will want to continue to use this plot next year.  Any suggestions on how we can reduce the boggyness?  We have thought about raised beds and also thinking about a polytunnel.

Thanks

[Trillium]

An effective and no-cost way to minimize the boggyness is to make raised beds. After rotovating (or spading over) the soil, I simply heap it up into raised mounds in rows and in widths I need. Soil from paths are scooped onto the mounds. Flatten the tops a bit and you're ready. Poly tunnels can easily be placed on top or netting. In fall, if you're rotovating, just plough through the whole works and it'll flatten back out, ready for next year when you can again adjust bed sizes and locations.

By raising the main growing area, water will runoff and either collect in the paths, or the paths can be leveled so that water runs off to one side to grass or whatever.

[North Devon Dumpling]

Thanks, sounds like the raised beds are the way to go with or without a Polytunnel.  Will give it a go and hopefully next summer won't be quite so wet!!

NDD

[richyrich7]

Double digging can help. Sometimes you get a "pan" at about a spit deep of if the grounds been rotovated a lot, this stops the water draining.

Also digging in some grit helps too,

[Bombers]

Richyrich said:

Also digging in some grit helps too

Try digging a trench along where your paths are going, and then as  yo double dig the beds, remove all the larger stones, and toss 'em in the trench. then back fill over these. that should help to drain the beds.