Viewing post #966026 by sooby

RoseBlush1 said:Thanks, Sue. I guess that means I have to excavate the rest of the soil that is still in the bed, about three wheel barrows worth so I get the whole bed down to the densely compacted soil around the foundation. That will leave me with two layers. Since I am planning to put plants that only need shallow watering in the bed and the compacted soil is down about two feet, I shouldn't have a problem.

Layers the way you'll have them wouldn't have the same effect as the perched water table because you will have coarser material over finer rather than finer over coarser. It's the latter that causes the perched water table. It's hard to say whether you need to go down as much as two feet. What happens if you pour water on it now that you've got partly there? Does it take a long time to soak in and puddle on the surface?

What plants have you tried there that didn't make it?