TIPS TO DEAL WITH POOR DRAINAGE Viost plants hate too much HOW MANY of you live next to a boat builder? If you do, you may have had to endure a few rude awakenings as they tend to fixe up the power tools as early as possible on the weekends; but still, only a minor annoyance. On the whole, they are 2 harmless lot. Most of them wrap- ped up in daydreams revolving around early retirement and sailing off to Tahiti. I wouldn’t have brought them up at all if I hadn’t noticed the guy down the street marshalling pairs of animals in his backyard early last week. And then this got me to thinking about drainage problems in the garden. You know how it goes with scatter-brained people such as myself. One minute I'm wondering how he managed to get a pair of lions to lie down with lambs, and next I’m wondering what to do with all that water in my backyard. The past week should have alerted yuu to the fact that fife on the North Shore can be a rather moist affair. Not the kind of moist promised by certain cake mixes and beauty creams. Here we are talking of moisture in the biblical sense. You know, the 40 days and 40 nights kind of moist. Another major revelation might be that most plants hate an over- abundance of moisture in the soil almost as much as not enough. Water-logged soils will quickly drown the roots systems of plants which are not. suited to bogs and swamps. At best, soils that maintain con- sistently low levels of oxygen and other gases will inhibit nutrient ab- sorption and therefore pliant de- velopment. At worst, they can break down the tissue of the root system much as paper would deteriorate if left submerged in water. In the interest of science, try sit- ting in the bathtub for four or five days. You will soon seen that even human skin tissue tends to over the garden gate Geoff Tobiasson disintegrate with too much water. And that’s not the worst of it. Water-logged soils tend to en- courage the development of harm- ful organisms which, if not attack- ing the roots directiy, will release harmfully toxic compounds into the soil. Even if your garden was not en- s cunrnenueTs cal Faewt ok oa iK BEDROOM DINING ROOM TV CENTRES WALL UNITS WATERBEDS CUSTOM WAREHOUSE HYBRIDS TUBE BEDS AVAILABLE SAVINGS BEDDING BUILDING DIRECT. CORNER UNITS ACCESSORIES BOOKCASES - ROUND, OVAL, SQUARE, RECTANGULAR AND TILE OCCASIONAL TABLES CHAIRS, DESKS, CHOICE OF COLOURS tirely under water during the deluge we experienced last week, it was (and probably still is) drench- ed. Luckily, most sites will drain quickly enough to handle this kind of flooding without causing any lasting damage to our plants. Some of you may not be fortu- nate enough to live on land that can dissipate the excess rainfall we receive. If you find this to be the case and wish to grow a healthy garden, you will have to deal with this problem in some fashion. First. let’s establish whether you have a problem. Dig 2 shallow basin, one foot deep by four wide in the questionable area. Slowly fill it with a garden hose until the sur- rounding soil is saturated and water begins standing in the bot- tom. If the puddle stays for much more than an hour, you have drainage problems. (As an aside, if you can’t get a puddle to form no matter how much water you add, you have a different problem. Your soil’s drainage is too good. More about that later.) Once you Know you have a problem, think about how you want to solve it. The solution may be as simple as growing only those plants that will abide excessively wet soils or as complex as building an elaborate drainage system. Let’s start with the easy way out. If your problem area is small you could consider growing only those plants that tolerate wet feet. Here are a few examples: Trecee — Red maples (acer rubrum), Birch (betula), Plane trees. (platanus), and Willows REGIS_p A family business Committed to qual to quality fc for over 19 4 years. North Vancouver 1425 Marine Drive 984-8469 Kitsilano Kerrisdale Burnaby-Coquitlam NEW Warehouse S.E. Marine Dr., Vancouver THPIOAL DRAIN DETAIL (salix). Sbrabs — Some Bamboos (bambusa, phyllostaciiys, etc.), Papas grass (cortaderia), shrub Dogwoods (cornus_ stolonifera, etc.), salal (gaultheria shallon), shrub Willows (salix), some Spireas, and some Viburnums. Herbaceous perennials — Monkshood {aconitum), some aster, astilbe, Marsh Marigolds (caltha), many ferns (adiantum, blechnum, polystichum, etc.), many iris, lythrum, mints (men- tha), Monkey Flower (mimutus), Bee Balm (monarda), Forget-me- nots (myosotis}), some primulas, and Globe Flowers (trollius). Of course there are many, many more, but these should give you a few ideas. If you have a favorite plant 7 lowest point in yard lawn at 2x slope (1/4" per foot) aN a . c ASS \\ 4” drain pipe 18" below 3/6" drain rock which you feel you must grow and it is not listed as one of the ‘Wet Ones,’ be prepared for some work. You must either lower the water table by draining off the excess or raise the planting site to a level that will lift the root zone out of the wet zone. The latter is obvious- ly preferred. If you have the opportunity, grade your site so that the surface water will flow in a predetermined direction. This should be off the property (unless you are about to pass the problem off to a neighbor) or into a collection area where it can be drained into a storm system. Grades should be at 2 per cent or one-quarter inch per foot. 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