Why Your Soil is Too Wet, and What to do About it
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2020
- A viewer recently asked me why my soil was so loose, and never seems to be too wet. In this video I give some possible explanations - and suggest some solutions for people with soil that's a little on the swampy side.
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Greg you answered it spot on. I knew you would.
Thanks man ! Glad to help :)
I made my first two huglkultur beds this fall for next year and glad to hear you say that is your first choice to fix a troubled bed. I'm hoping all the work will be worth for me. Basically used some half rotten logs, woody garden debris, leaves, horse bedding and horse manure, existing soil minus some of the clay, topped off with a layer of compost and finally leaf mulch. Wish me luck :)
Fingers crossed!
That garden will produce well! You still singing???😉
@@michaellippmann4474 haha no I retired for good this time.
@@maritimegardening4887 can't we use gypsum to make the soil workable especially for big concrete planters..?? Please help
Added 2 beds with logs retrieved from my municipal organic recycling facility at no cost. Glad that I've watched you for practical NO cost advice. Seeds, bloodmeal, and lime only cost. I never miss a show. Thanks so much.
Thanks man!
Thank you for these ideas. I will put them to use today.
Thank you. Bed is flat and water tends to pool more on one side than the other. Water comes from the yard behind me through the chain link fence. Hers used to puddle. So, I didn't think to make a slope, until after a hard rain, my perennials are sitting in water, until it slowly drains. No mulch there; just added compost from 2020. Plants did well, but an adjustment is needed. Thanks👍I wish I could post the picture. In Cleveland, Ohio; still chilly in April 😏
Thanks for the great explanation of the geographic, etc. aspects of water drainage. To become a Master Gardener Volunteer, the state's agricultural extension (UW system in SE Wis.) taught us 12 essential topics by excellent lecturers. It's an exceptional value in so many ways and gives valuable vol experience and continued ed! What sticks for this issue - from the Soils lecture - was the three components of soil:
~ sand: biggest, closest-to-rock particles that water flows through freely
~ regular soil, loess or loam: smaller particles - ignoring any organic matter - that can hold water longer than sand, but allows some flow-through
~ clay: smallest particles that stick together and can tightly bond -, especially if compressed - moist or saturated, blocks more water flow
Potting soil containing sand is a good product if you want a cheapish, natural increase in soil drainage. In amending urban crap-soil, I've added sphagnum (young, renewable peat) moss, composted manure, wood chips, and shredded, dried nitrogen-rich newspapers from the bottom of a friend's bunny cage. I'd think about a little bit of sandbox-sand if I needed to wick-away more water. Everything but the bunny-papers is fairly cheap at farm or bigbox stores. Digging in the city can unearth treasures: marbles, Native American ceramic trade beads around here, and a wide assortment of bottles and metal objects. I love urban gardening!
Thanks
That's funny!!! You're sense of humor is fantastic.😉
Drainage issues are a combination of excess water, incline or elevation, and soil. My motto is: “plants up, water down.” To get rid of excess water, you need to elevate your plants. Your first step is to build a raised garden bed. Greg’s hugelkulture method and his use of rotting logs is one of the best gardening ideas I have seen. Hugelkulture gives you elevation for your plants, improves the soil, and gives excess water a place to go. The greater the drainage issue, the higher you must make your raised garden bed. For soil composition, consider adding compost, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, or coco coir to your raised bed garden soil. While these amendments retain water, these amendments also drain well. I prefer to make and use my own compost. If you do not have access to quality compost, my second choice is peat moss.
Great segment! I have a thin layer of decent soil over heavy clay in my back yard (where the garden is) and our lower front yard is nice loose sandy loam ( where our lawn is...)!
Since I stopped using my roto tiller and slightly raised my beds and use lots of mulch and horse manure my soil has improved immensely and the yields are awesome (just ask the voles, squirrels, rabbits, etc.,)
But I have to agree $300 for a raised bed??? Mine are all built from scrap (free) lumber...the plants like them!
Amazing!
Anyway have a great day and keep up the good work - stay safe!
Going out to the garden to get some leeks and parsnips to go with my rotisserie grilled duck tonight!!!🙂👍
Oh man that sounds good!
Yep $2/pound utility grade duck, glazed with Thai dipping sauce! Just cut into big chunks and family just rips into it! Sticky fingers!!!! Mmmm
So useful video. Thank you very much
Thanks for the tips, helped me out a bunch. New subscriber.
Thanks for the sub!
Hello Greg, Very Good!! As the saying goes, ‘A picture speaks a thousand words’, in your case three pictures.😉
Many thanks!
this was incredibly informative. I'm just getting into gardening in the PNW and I have a wet spot on the S side of my backyard where I want to grow some massive giant Rhodies for privacy but they do NOT like standing in wet soil so I'm trying to figure out a solution for them. There's only a gentle slope in our property but we are at the bottom of two small "hills" and the soil is so wet there's moss growing everywhere and tons of slugs...I will plant the Rhodies in extra raised mounds and I wonder if I can adapt the basic concept of the Hugelkultur (didn't know about that until now!) by piling some wood chip mulch at the bottom of the planting hole to improve drainage....
It may help - but the main thing is that the water needs a place to go.
The last time I was in Atlanta I remember it to be very green with very tall pine trees. I also remember a red clay coloured soil.but not sure if that could come into play with wet soil. They are also in huricane territory which topically droos lots of rain over short periods of time. If this gardener is using native soil or a combo of nature and organic soil it could explain refined moisture.
Good observation!
Guy could just have a high water table. I have areas on my property where the water table is inches below ground level.
Irrigation - reverse irrigation actually - is a good idea - like you said, give the water a path.
I prefer to build some of my beds 2' tall simply to save getting up and down off the ground and bending over so much. The key is to embrace hugel concepts and fill them mostly with stumps, logs, branches etc. I try to fill in the gaps between the woody material with shredded leaves, native soil, and/or basically any organic material. Really just building a large, slow, carbon-heavy compost pile.
That saves a *lot* of money. Then, as you said, I've found I can grow basically anything in just a few inches of good soil. And my soil is sitting happily on top of all that water-regulating, microbial-growth-encouraging, slowly-composting organic material. I can work on them very comfortably either standing or sitting on a bucket.
That''s the best (and cheapest) way to build a raised bed I agree :)
my beds are a foot high also as I am 77 and cannot get up off the ground gracefully so I use a little scoot seat. It has wheels and I scoot along the 8 foot beds
I go with 10” high beds (1x10s) because my yard is sloped such that on a 10-foot-long bed, the top edge of the bed is at ground level to the west and the bottom edge is ground level to the east. Any shallower and it would be buried at the high end or hanging above grade at the lower end. And that’s in the least-sloped part of my yard! Would definitely go shallower if I had a more level space.
That makes perfect sense - I kinda do the same thing where my garden butts up against the base of the small hill beside it.
My soil is also like a hard pan,hard compacted clay was used as fill. Over the years making my beds on top I dug down in to fill with branches, leaves etc which gave a place for the water to pool until time allows it to go elsewhere.Thankfully the beds do well shedding the extra water. PS sounds like you may have new neighbours soon.
This area is in constant development. It was all just forest area about 15 years ago. Sadly - that nice view behind my house will eventually become a street with houses as well. I've got about 5 km of trail back there that I created with the hand saw and axe. At some point in time, some of that trail will cross land that people own! It's too bad - I love it back there and I love just being able to go out the back door and into the woods.
@@maritimegardening4887 yes I understand that feeling. We bought our property here in 1990 and are right on the lake and behind us was just farm fields, small wooded areas, etc., in the last 30 years it is all pretty much gone and we have hundreds of houses behind us to the North. Fortunately we have an acre and are directly on the water with an awesome view to the South so it is not all bad!👍
@@maritimegardening4887 Any chance you could buy that piece of land?
My 30cm high raised beds are on top of waterlogged ground were started using the huglkhultur method- with lots branches and small logs and some cuttings. And then filled with manure compost. However one of the beds is very waterlogged and it’s killing off some of the courgettes 😒. Would drilling holes along the bottom edge of the bed help with drainage? Allowing air in 🤷♀️
It's hard to understand how it could be waterlogged at 30cm high - but yes - some holes are a good idea if that's the case
@@maritimegardening4887 not all the way to the top, but the bottom half is very wet and soggy. I’ll drill some holes and see how it goes...
I put my chickpeas seeds in my soil that is overwatered will it grow
What if your hard pan is not parallel to your surface? How would you know? Will grading the surface to slope more help at all if you don't know the shape of the hard pan?
My plan is to dig and try to make a rain garden/swale and get the water to drain into it by moving the soil around with a shovel and wheelbarrow. Regrading the hard way, lol. It's a lot of work for an experiment.
In my case, I'm trying to build something more like a native plant meadow with paths, not really a garden. It's muddy for most of the year so I'm trying to make this a more usable space by encouraging the water to be somewhere else.
Grading the surface will help a bit, but if the hard pan is flat the water had no place to go - so raised beds are your best bet - though making a swale may help too.
Hey my friend, my soil seems very wet/more like muddy clay and I amended it before planting my seedlings. Weather here was in the 60's until this week, so it's possible I just planted a week early (it's now 80 since yesterday). Would you try to blend in more quality soil around the bed, pull the seedlings and amend the whole bed with more good soil, then replant (risks killing my baby cucs, squash and zucchini I spent 2 mos cultivating) or wait to see if the sun helps? Unlike your comment, our native soil here is NOT as good as any bagged soil, our entire area was built by blasting boulders 40 years ago, so our native soil is like muddy clay without being well amended. It's in SoCal on the edge of desert like climate. I'd appreciate your input and thank you for your work.
I'd have to see you soil to really give good advice. What did you amend it with? Organic matter or fertilizer. My advice, since you've already planted, would be to top dress with compost and see what happens this year. If the results are good - mulch in the fall and you're on your way. If the results are poor - find a source of manure this fall and work a bunch of it into your soil (and then mulch it of course).
@@maritimegardening4887 I'd like to send you a few pics...I don't have a composter yet, I planned to get one this spring. I amended my soil with a product called "Amend" sold at my garden center, home depot etc
I moved 10 giant green arbivatoe trees that were on the property line. I moved them 3 feet into my property. However, my neighbor built a wood retaining wall right on the property line. Water would pool in certain parts but my trees were healthy. I notice now the soil is saturated. Would mulch work? I can’t build a raised bed. I’m looking for the cost effective solution. Thank you.
I don't think mulch will help you in this situation. A drainage ditch is a better bet I think
@@maritimegardening4887 thank you for your response. My issue is that I can’t run the pipe to the street because of town regulation. I don’t want to run it to the back of the house because of my septic and leech fields. I’m in a dilemma but thank you for your response.
Hello Greg I got a question is irrigation of soil bad and what’s a solution?
It's not bad if you need it - can you elaborate a bit?
@@maritimegardening4887 yes,i have researched and found that irrigation can make diseases , it can affect climate and etc , I wanted to know if there is a solution for that and what is it ?
I added a foot of material on top of flipped sod in a hard pan area and my garden is going terribly. I made mounded beds to raise them above the level of where the water (doesn’t pool up but says too moist) I thought there was plenty of inches of material to mitigate this for a few tomatoes peppers and cucurbits. But they’re all yellow and my water meter always shows “too wet”. I’ve never had to water this bed. It never dries out feom 1-10 it never gets down to a 5 or 6. The native soil is clay and silt slimey stuff. I mounded the native soil up thinking that would be enough to create drainage. I wish I set it up differently now. I may move my peppers to another better draining bed but it’s so sad :( I put so much money and cattle panel trellises on this bed and it’s preforming so poorly. All plants are yellow and stunted. Flowering but stunted. I have a drain outback of the bed but it’s not enough. Water doesn’t stand in this area but it never dries out if that makes sense
That's too bad, sorry to hear that. Your raised beds may have to be raised higher
If your gardens are flat and is sandy soil and water does not get away because the water table has risen what can I do
Use raised beds
After 9:30 sec. I realized I couldn’t listen to another 12min. Thanx anyway.
Thank you for your amazing comment. It was so insightful and constructive. You should make videos about how to make awesome videos, so that all youtubers can benefit from your infinite wisdom.
What a load of babble... No help at all
troll much?
@@maritimegardening4887 no, not trolling. I wanted to learn how you can practically reduce the amount of waterlogging in soil and after 10 min of not hearing anything I can do to improve my soil, I would say that it is fair to say that it has been a waste of time...