One of the first things I tackled in the backyard was figuring out why the two strawberry patches were holding so much water. The left patch was empty. The right one held a dense stand of strawberries that Bryon has kept going for years. Long before I started gardening, he would pick strawberries there with Ivy. Alena remembers doing the same at her grandparents’ house, so I think having this strawberry patch here is a nice tradition that Bryon wanted to do for his grandchildren.
After digging around, I found broken PVC pipes in both patches. I replaced the damaged sections and capped the sprinklers. I wanted to switch this area to hand watering for two reasons. First, even with the plumbing fixed, the soil still held water too well. Second, I read that overhead watering, especially with sprinklers, can be a problem for some plants. Longer term, drip irrigation will be the play.
Amending the soil has taken real effort. Some areas smelled sour at first, which lines up with how waterlogged it had been. We’ve kept adding organic matter and planting a mix of things to slowly improve structure and biology.