Let the Earth Provide. Drainage. Part 2

The same problem raised its head when planning the allotment and constituent elements…water. The area where the field lays is prone to flooding. As mentioned in part 1, drainage was added many years before in order to stem the flow that came from a natural spring. The spring was on another piece of land. As is still the case, everyone helps each other out and so it was the case with the flooding that occurred in the 80’s.

I like to carry out my own work if physically possible. This was a smaller piece of drainage that I decided to dig myself. I find the work enjoyable and the bonus is its healthy exercise. So why was this needed and what should I use to solve the issue. The field in question has an incline. A defence had to be created to protect areas needed to use the land for food and energy. I decided to produce a French drain.

If I was going to make a drain, it did mean digging into clay and gritstone. That part of Yorkshire had movement of large stones in the ice age around 340 million years ago. Millions of years passed and the ice melted, depositing the stones. When I say stones……I mean large, heavy ones that have to be levered out with long pry bars. That did make it hard and slow going. The idea was to dig deep enough to place a pipe and crate within it. As the layer is clay bound it would need the crate to be filled, like a reservoir and that will gradually soak into the soil. It would need a filtering geotex and gravel to make sure to take large amounts of water. This was completed quite a fews years ago and works perfectly to this day.