Chastity,

What you want to know is your soil percolation rate. If the underlying soil is too clayey or tight you will need the drainage system you are describing or better. I can give you advice on that as well as the soil mix to be used for the plants. Dig a hole which in essence you have done. Usually a 2 foot diameter by 2 foot hole. Fill the hole with water. Record the time it takes to drain. After it drains, fill the hole once more and time it again. Let us know the time it took. If it doesn't drain let us know that as well. JMHO Aloha

The picture above was from 2-3 days after it rained. I had to go out and use a shovel to remove the water so it could dry up. The other corner gets really wet but since there is more soil there the soil gets really soggy and a smaller puddle can form. This has happened the last 2 times it rained. We are expecting thunderstorms overnight, tomorrow morning and afternoon. I'll check after it rains but I'm fairly confident that I'll need to set up something to drain it properly.

Sweetness,

The next step is to find the outlet point for your drainage water. You will need at least a 1% slope to your drain line. That is 1 foot of elevation drop for every 100 ft of horizontal drain length. Can you drain to side yard drainage swale or an already installed drain line system? If not, you may have to install a drain to the street or create a sump pump system. How much rainfall do you experience a year? The system you want to set up in the garden itself will be a herringbone pattern of holed-laterals(1" pvc) to a main solid-pipe backbone mainline (2"pvc) that will move water out of your garden area to the main drain line with spaced cleanouts(4" pvc). The one-inch hole pipe is a cloth sleeve with gravel around the pipe. This is what they use under golf course greens and is not that expensive but works well. If you draw and post a layout of your garden shape and size I can describe it in more detail. Hope this helps you. Aloha