Draining the Soil

The most important factor regarding soil fertility is drainage.

Sometimes good drainage is a natural condition of soil.

However, if the land needs drainage, it will be difficult to grow crops.

Drainage is designed to remove excess, stagnant water from the soil and to allow air to circulate through it.

If the soil is not aerated, healthy plants cannot grow.

When water doesn't drain, it evaporates. Evaporation makes the soil colder.

This means that well-drained soil is warmer than undrained soil.

The air above well-drained land is also warmer than the air above undrained land.

Draining can be difficult and expensive, so a draining operation should always be well planned.

Water percolates easily through some soils, so it is not necessary to use pipe draining with them.

Other soils are very open; draining them would be harmful.

It is useful to drain heavy clays, as long as you make sure the pipes are not too deep and not too far apart - a mistake made by many people.

In farming, or in similar situations where shallow cultivation takes place on close-textured soils, it is common to dig water furrows between beds of crops, and this is usually sufficient.

However, when working deeply in the soil, as when cultivating a garden, pipe drains are essential.