Drainage Issue in tiered bed

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sharonkt Farmington, MO Mar 10, 2008

We purchased our home last fall with this tiered bed in place. The top level is at the same level as our blacktop driveway. Last year I planted a few tomatoes in the top bed but the bottom level was too wet and the roots rot or the plants wash away at the first rain. The rainwater runs off the drive way into the top level, drains to the second level and does not drain away. I know in the near future this bed will have to be replaced, but I am not ready to do that just yet. I thinking about putting in some drain pipe along the edge of the drive to divert the rainwater, but have no clue how to create drainage in the second tier. Any Idea?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Mar 12, 2008

I have to say from looking at your situation there, the problem might really be that you have poor draining soil. Unless someone put a sheet of plastic in between the logs and the soil, I can't think of any reason why water shouldn't be able to drain properly. The gaps between the logs provide places for water to escape if necessary, and it looks like your ground continues to slope down below that 2nd tier, so if your soil is staying wet too long I think you need to replace it with soil that drains better.

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sharonkt Farmington, MO Mar 14, 2008

I planned on amending the soil and tilling in some sand before planting this year. In other beds I have dug into plastic sheeting 6 to 8 inched under the topsoil. Maybe this is the case here also.Thanks for the input. I will do more research on soil types.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Mar 14, 2008

I would not recommend using plastic sheeting under the topsoil, I'm not sure what you were expecting it to do but at best it won't do anything and at worst it can interfere with drainage and prevent beneficial things like microbes, worms, etc from living underneath where the plastic is and make it harder for your plants to get their roots deep into the soil. If you were using it to prevent weeds, putting 6-8 inches of topsoil over top of it will give the weeds that spread by seed plenty of soil to sink their roots in and grow, and for perennial weeds that are underneath where the plastic was trying to come up, I don't think you'll notice a difference between 6-8 inches of topsoil with or without the plastic.

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Len123 Adrian, MO(Zone 6a) Mar 14, 2008

i'm still wondering how the tomatoes did that were planted in the fall.

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gbirds Madison, NC Mar 18, 2008

ecrane, I don't think sharonkt is saying that she put the plastic sheeting under the soil, rather that the previous resident put it in the various beds. You just never know what you're gonna find when you move into a new house!

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