The site of the Hope Garden is at the lower end of a clay rhos pasture field in West Wales. As you can imagine, there is a lot of water, and it all flows through the garden!
Note the new earthern banks that impede the flow of water
When the new track was made, the topsoil was used to create the earthern bank at the rear of the garden. This is a lovely feature, which provides an instant barrier that can be planted up with less water tolerant species. However, it was also a barrier to the water flowing through the garden, as you can see in the drone photo above! As a landscaper friend once told me, the first question in landscaping is “Where does the water go?”
So it is really important for Gary, the super-helpful all-round digger driver, to add french drains. He‘s installed one drain from the gate post, all the way along the edge of the track to the hedge, and another drain running along the rear earthern bank where the water was. He‘s also reinstate a ditch by the hedge.
Where indeed does the water go?!
As you can see from the photo, the water is backing up because the ditch needs to be connected to another roadside ditch. But it‘s vast improvement for now, and once the raised paths are in and the garden is fully planted up, there will be far less surface water.