We moved here to the wet and wind far west of Cornwall 2 years ago. After clearing the garden we noticed pools of standing water after the first winter.

It longer than it is wide and I put a slight camber on, with gullies along either side leading to a 300mm deep sump in the middle. Although the land was more-or-less this shape before, it still needed days of work moving many wheel-barrow's full of earth to achieve. We back-filled the sump with 30mm then 12mm gravel for a future Zen garden.

Well, http://landsendweather.info/ are reporting about 80mm rain month to date and 200mm year to date and yesterday, after two fine days, I was able to dig over about 100m2 and to fork it clean. The soil is pretty free draining, with quite a lot of course gravel, but I think the drainage may be working. Of course, without a control patch next door I can't be sure. Can I have cracked it?

Wind next....

Peter

http://www.pendeengardeningclub.co.uk