{"id":10475,"date":"2019-01-20T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=10475"},"modified":"2018-10-22T12:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:54:38","slug":"all-about-soil-drainage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2019\/01\/20\/all-about-soil-drainage\/","title":{"rendered":"All About Soil Drainage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Flood barrier from walkway<\/p><\/div>\n

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Trunk filled with amended soil<\/p><\/div>\n

Many landscape plants die because they were planted in soil that was too wet or soggy. Poorly drained soils are generally poorly aerated. A high water table\u00a0in an area limits\u00a0your choices of plants that you may grow. Plants that grow naturally along streams and ponds are good candidates for poorly drained sites.<\/p>\n

During periods of\u00a0heavy rainfall, water may stand on the\u00a0ground surface. Consistently wet soils eventually becomes a breeding area for anaerobic soil\u00a0 bacteria; an odor may indicate their presence. Soils that are poorly drainage may have a dull or slate gray color.<\/p>\n

During construction heavy equipment may compact the soil reducing air space or create a hard pan. Frequently, on construction sites, contractors may pile up topsoil\u00a0and return it to plant grass seed or sod. Unfortunately, some\u00a0topsoil may be remove and sold off leaving only subsoil for new homeowners.<\/p>\n

Drainage\u00a0issues may\u00a0result from poor grading of land, permitting road, street, or sidewalk runoff to flow onto garden beds\u00a0 or lawn. Runoff water may also come from plugged eaves and downspouts.<\/p>\n

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Excellent\u00a0soil drainage a must with Daphne shrub<\/p><\/div>\n

Perform A\u00a0Perk Test<\/strong>\u00a0before planting a new\u00a0garden or lawn. Dig a hole 12 inches deep and 2-3 feet wide. Fill the hole with water and time how quickly the water drains out the bottom. If water drains out slowly or stands for longer than 24 hours, your soil\u00a0is\u00a0poorly drained.<\/p>\n

Alternative Perk Test…<\/strong>\u00a0remove the top and bottom from a large 3 lb.\u00a0coffee or tin can. Dig a 4-inch deep hole and as wide as the diameter of the can; insert the can into the hole and fill soil around the outside of can. Fill can with water and measure the water level after one hour. If the water level drops 2 – 5 inches,\u00a0soil\u00a0drainage is good.\u00a0If\u00a0the water level drops less than 2 inches, soil drainage is poor.<\/p>\n

Soils with good porosity (drainage) in the top 12-18 inches are ideal for most plant species.\u00a0Amend planting soil with perlite or coarse sand to improve soil drainage or\u00a0opt to grow plants in containers or raised beds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many landscape plants die because they were planted in soil that was too wet or soggy. Poorly drained soils are generally poorly aerated. A high water table\u00a0in an area limits\u00a0your choices of plants that you may grow. Plants that grow naturally along streams and ponds are good candidates for poorly drained sites. During periods of\u00a0heavy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[605,1037,1362,1208,1383,853,1330,551,843,847,729,159,1317,643,777,1287,630,767,113],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10475"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11074,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10475\/revisions\/11074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}