we have poor sandy soil too, and although soil improver is good it's also expensive. You need to add as much 'roughage' as possible, leaf mulch, well rotted manure, straw, etc anything that will add something to the structure of the soil and is organic.We rarely have such rain as we had last year, so hopefully we can all build up the soil again. However, a channel around the plot does sound a good idea if it works, so you could try that as well and let us know how you got on?

Thank you so much for your reply! I went up to prep an area for some minarette fruit trees this morning with a friend. She is in agreement to put channels in. The only thing that worries me is the plots behind mine becoming flooded if I do channel mine as my plot is slooping downwards. We had another look today and mine unfortunately is at the lowest point. I have a load of manure under cover, had intended to put it on plots in the autumn but given the combination of saturated ground and severe frosts I have not got it done.

Have you added the manure yet?It should make a difference.If the channels overflow into a neighbours plot as you think, it could be a problem, but if YOU are at the lowest point anyway, then maybe not.Just giving the soil some structure might do the trick. Good luck!