Soil Drainage Test
1. Dig a hole roughly one foot deep by one foot wide.
2. Fill the hole with water.
3. Time how long it takes to drain.
| Fast drainage | Under 30 minutes |
| Medium drainage | 30 minutes to 1 hour |
| Slow drainage | Longer than 1 hour |
If water doesn’t drain faster than 1 hour, reconsider the site.
Highly compacted, degraded soil can be amended somewhat to improve percolation, but the ideal site would already have decent drainage without such efforts.
