I can sympathize Arlene. This will be the third year gardening in this location. It floods twice a year without fail. It's surrounded on three sides by hills so when it comes a downpour it floods everytime. It had high noles and low swales. The clay noles dried out too quickly and the swales held water so nothing would grow there.
Most of the first year was spent with an 8" flat shovel and a line level. The raised beds were put in by hand, wheelbarrowing dirt from the high ground to the low spots. The beds are 100' long and 4' wide with 3' middles (I may have the only handicap accessible garden in the county.). They run North and South and have an inch of fall in 10'. During a normal rain the grass in the middle slows down the runoff so more soaks in and when there's a downpour now the water just floods over the grass in the middle and runs off without flooding the raised beds. Works great and was the only practical way to make a garden there. Did I mention shoveling is good exercise?
From 2012 when we started.
Also from 2012.
From 2013
