garden "washed out"

[rockriver]

our garden is parallel to a barn...
ground is pretty well compact from barn to garden..
garden is slightly "downhill" from barn.
we've had multiple heavy rains.
and now garden is bad shape... real bad..
we will be re-planting some of garden.

but main concern is how to prevent this next year.
we had water from barn and compact ground flow into garden..
I could gutter the barn and harvest that water. that would help some...

but I'm thinking of digging a shallow ditch along barn side of garden to divert water..
"this" year the garden being flooded won't hurt our ability to eat..
but in another year, the loss of produce could be catastrophic...
hmm. on second thought, we are now eating pickles, beans, tomatoes, etc... that we "put up"
several years ago...
so, yes it will be a blow to the pantry if we don't have lots of veggies to can this year...

[Lowdown3]

Can't totally divert water but all that you can do will help.

Also consider the direction the rows are running in relation to the "flow" of the water.

We are letting a larger garden area rest this year and using just a small 50x50 area closer to the house. It's been really wet, we use the few dry days to plant, do tilling, etc.

Losses to too much rain have happened with us a couple times. In my mind another reason to go large. If you go large and lose 20%, it's not the end of the world. If you go small and lose 20% it's a good portion of your food gone.

[protus]

Ours has been flooded two...three times now. Not much I can do. Sides go raised beds. I try and ditch around the areas...even down the rows. But with rain and elevation here its a fight. Lost dome stuff but not much. Onions don't Care for it...had harvest a few early.
Were gonna add two raised beds here soon to have not only more harvest but to have a way to plant even in wet /flooded times.

[rockriver]

thanks guys...
my rows do run perpendicular to barn... (which is downhill! slight, but still downhill)

raised beds... would be a gread idea... put them along the uphill side of the garden. even outside the fence!
they would absorb some water... divert some water.

[Tackleberry]

Real sorry to hear about all of the rain you guys have to deal with. Too much rain is not really a problem we have here in AZ but then we have a lot of other issues related to water in a SHTF scenario. Like a lack of water.

Even in an arid setting raised beds are a good idea because it traps the moisture longer. We have a number of folks at the community garden who have raised beds. I have raised planting rows. Most of the folks who have the raised beds say they make weed control and cultivating a lot easier.

[Bama]

I have also been flooded a few times this year. I wound up putting in a drain pipe. My garden is a series of raised beds that will drain if there is a good place for water to go. It was alot of work, but it did keep the garden from flooding with the recent rains we've had.

[WiseOwl]

I had a similar issue. My garden is behind the garage. Our deck steps down into the garage and underneath is like a small stream when it rains real good. When I tilled this area last fall I saw how much water would shoot down under the stairs and into the garden area. In February when I amended the soil it got really muddy right there. And there are 2 gutter spouts as well in that water lane.

So I took some scrap 4x4 posts from a small crane pallet and built a retaining wall. I brought some clay from another part of the yard and packed it up against the wall. I then put some angle braces cut at a 45 on the back side of the wall for strength. We have had 3 good rains since and no unwanted water is getting in.

[tech]

We terraced the hillside for our garden plots...each area was about 75 x 20 ft with a 10 ft path between sections. This seemed to eliminate wash-out issues, even when Hurricane Agnes came through.

At this location, hilling veggies and allowing the furrows to flow to the ends has been doing well.