I think so PP but as Joyce G says, you may need to chose your trees fairly carefully. Most native British trees are used to wet feet to some extent but won't tolerate permanently saturated bog. Alder, willow, poplar, river birch and there's a cypress that doesn't mind it, are your best bet if it's always like that, even in Summer. My clay soil is like that now, but as the trees around us put on leaf, the ground dries out a bit, so holly, blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel will all grow here without 'special measures'. Apples won't though - they get canker and die, including crab apples. I'm not having much success with plums either. The main hedgerow tree here is beech, which hates wet ground, and they are generally planted on a hedgebank - a couple of feet high earth bank, faced with stones and the beech growing out the top - probably too much work and too much space for what you want but it can be done, if you really want a dry soil tree on wet ground.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I've gone for trees that are supposed to be able to stand wet conditions, e.g. alder, birch, hornbeam, willow, even a pear! And dogwoods, they seem to thrive down on the stream bank so I'm expecting those to do well. We have a couple of well-established Swamp Cypresses too, paradoxically in what seems like a dryish area (maybe the trees are making it so). I do like those so I may see if I can find some from somewhere.
I've been rushing around doing other things this morning, but I did manage to pick up a carload of "general purpose" compost. Of course it's looking like rain now so I may have to put mounding/planting on hold for a few hours
I'll dive out and try FD's "give it a good prod" test, but I'm not hopeful.
Too much space??? There was talk on Sunday of putting in a haw haw to deal with the different levels and get us all up out of the wet!!!! I'm trying to plant up my space and I thought a little stand of birch would be nice on the far side of the pond. They don't mind the wet but I suspect even they have limits. Nothing's ever simple! I'll maybe take him up on that haw haw after all.
have a look at betula nigra, pp. They do seem to be able to cope with pretty extreme conditions, but it may depend what else that area is like - sunny, or not, etc
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
@Freddies Dad Gave some of the water-filled holes a good jabbing with a big bar, but nothing happened over the next hour or so. I've bailed some of the holes out to see how long they take to refill.
Meanwhile I'm barrowing all the soil I dug out and barrowed away, back again. I do so hope I don't end up digging it all out again in a year or two (after the trees have died!) and barrowing it off again ... there are times when I hate gardening
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My clay soil is like that now, but as the trees around us put on leaf, the ground dries out a bit, so holly, blackthorn, hawthorn and hazel will all grow here without 'special measures'. Apples won't though - they get canker and die, including crab apples. I'm not having much success with plums either.
The main hedgerow tree here is beech, which hates wet ground, and they are generally planted on a hedgebank - a couple of feet high earth bank, faced with stones and the beech growing out the top - probably too much work and too much space for what you want but it can be done, if you really want a dry soil tree on wet ground.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I've been rushing around doing other things this morning, but I did manage to pick up a carload of "general purpose" compost. Of course it's looking like rain now so I may have to put mounding/planting on hold for a few hours
I'll dive out and try FD's "give it a good prod" test, but I'm not hopeful.
I'm trying to plant up my space and I thought a little stand of birch would be nice on the far side of the pond. They don't mind the wet but I suspect even they have limits.
I'll maybe take him up on that haw haw after all.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Meanwhile I'm barrowing all the soil I dug out and barrowed away, back again. I do so hope I don't end up digging it all out again in a year or two (after the trees have died!) and barrowing it off again ... there are times when I hate gardening