Magwar:
Your garden bed from what I can see looked exactly like mine before I too the bull by the horns and solved the problem.
Two years ago I bought half and acre of what I thought was a beautiful property. It was all grass, I dug beds in the spring, about April, and was most proud. Then the rains arrived. I had one soggy mass of knee deep muck.
My solution.
I made raised beds using deck boards, and filled with soil and got some garden last year eventually, when things dried out. This was temporary.
During the summer I dug about 300 feet of trench in various directions, directing the terminus to the nature slope which was towards the street to storm sewers. The trenches were 1 foot deep and a shovel width wide. Gravel about one-quarter inch diameter was placed in the bottom of the trench for about 3 inches. On top of the gravel I place flexible weeping plastic pipe, three inches in diameter. The trench was filled almost to the top with gravel covering the weeping tile. Sod was placed on top of the trench after putting a little soil on top of the trench. The trench is now almost invisible. This year I added another 100 feet along one fence to drain my raised bed there.
I held my breath waitng for the final test. Two day ago the test arrived in the form of about 10 inches of rain in one hour. The trenches performed perfectly. The run- off disappeared within about an hour and the garden if perfect as far as mositure is concerned.
I did all the work by hand. It took me about 10 days work over a period of time. The gravel I hauled in my van in 20 litre pails, ten at a time, since each pail weighed 85 pounds. Thirty eight 20 litre pails are about equal to a cubic yard. Since then I made a wooden box with a removal board end for hauling compost and gravel. It fits into the van and is easy to shovel into a wheelbarrow for offloading.
The box is in two section high since I can haul a half a yard of compost, since it doesn't weigh too much for the van. For gravel I can only take a quarter of a yard at a time-about 850 pounds.
The biggest problem was getting rid of the dirt removed from the trench. I bought a hand sod removal tool (this kick device can be rented) which, facilitates sod removal, then wheel-barrelled the dirt, and placed it along one side of my back fence. This I am in the process of making into flower beds.
I have now removed almost all the bed board and put nice trenches in place, still slightly raised, but more attractive. There is more to accomplish, which I will do over time.
It sound like a lot of work, but if the garden is important, the work if worth the effort. It sure gets one in good physical condition. In fact his year I find it difficult to find something physical to do.
If you are interested, I can dig up the pictures of the work and will post them for your perusal. This work could be contracted out at great expense, but then it is not your creation.
In England I read that some people dig several large holes about 5 foot square and about three feet deep and fill it with gravel, covered with grass. This they use for a sump into which the drainage pipes terminate. This is similiar to a septic tank tile bed.
Another observation. The trenches are a good drainage sump simply by being,since they take a lot of water before the depth of water is such that flow starts.
The solution is two-fold raised beds, and drainage. Often raised bed simply are not sufficient.
Durgan1
