How to Drain Wet Flower Beds

Waterlogged soil can drown and kill your plants. When water fills the air spaces in the soil, this keeps oxygen from getting to the plant roots, produces stagnant soil and stunts root growth. If your plants are wilted with yellow leaves and the soil has standing water on it, the flower bed is not well-drained. Various techniques can be applied to properly drain your flower bed and get plants looking beautiful and healthy again.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Compost
• Coarse sand
• Bricks
• Aerate machine
• Lime-free sand
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Dig up waterlogged plants and replant in well-drained soil. Remove any dead or dying stems. Pick a new spot to replant that is on raised and even ground.

2. Build a raised flower bed with topsoil and place bricks along the edges. Use a mixture of one part compost and one part coarse sand to ensure proper drainage.

3. Install a drainage system. Dig ditches that are six inches wide and as long as the flower bed to encourage water to flow to them. Fill the ditch with gravel.

4. Use a motorized spiker machine to poke holes in the lawn and aerate it. Apply lime-free sand to the soil to help improve drainage.

5. Apply mulch near the base of the plants to help keep water away from the roots.

Tips & Warnings

• --Do not walk on top of wet or water-logged soil or this will further compact it.

• --Apply fertilizer only during the spring and summer to encourage new root growth.

• --Water plants regularly during dry periods to prevent water-logging.

• Use organic matter such as peat moss or vermiculite in clay soil to help drain it.

• If plants are inside, use pots that have holes to help drain them and most importantly do not over water plants.

References

• Waterlogged Soil
• Perennial Flower Gardening