A friend, who also has drainage issues due to the water table being quite high and having clay soil which wicks up moisture gave me an idea to use in what I call my "bed-of-death". She planted moisture thirsty plants near her roses. Since plants compete for moisture, the plants that by nature are more thirsty grab the moisture first leaving the soil around the roses dryer.

My "bed-of-death" is a raised planter bed that the previous owner of my home installed and doesn't drain well at all to the point of actually killing anything planted there. Using my friend's method of moisture control, I am planting tall water thirsty plants at the back of the bed. Since I don't want a climbing rose in that location, I have chosen to build a low raised bed to place over the bed-of-death and will plant my smallest miniature and micro minis in that bed.

The water thirsty plants will be watered when I water the raised bed and the soil won't sour, but those plants won't die because they want all of that water and the smaller roses planted in the shallow raised bed will not need to anchor themselves in the soil of that planter.

My friend's idea seems adaptable to many drainage issues in a garden.

Just a thought.

Smiles,
Lyn