Help with plants for boggy garden
Craig Booth
Posts: 3
Hi I don't really know much about gardening and I am looking for some advice on what plants to put in my garden. I prefer ever green plants. My garden can get quite boggy in the winter months (basically most of the year when it is not sunny). This I think is down to there being a large clay content. I re-turfed my garden last summer and turned all the solid over and added about half a tonne of sharp sand as I read this would help the drainage. In all honesty it hasn't done too much as when the weather is bad there is still quite a lot of water that sits on the top do my lawn And can get quite sticky and slimy feeling. I have recently put holes all over my garden with a long fork to help drainage but the weather has been quite good so don't know if this has worked yet. I'm looking to put some plants in that are easy to grow and maintain with nice colours that are quite thirsty to try and help me in my drainage problem.. There is a section of my garden that is mainly in the shade and gets maybe an hour of sun a day so can get quite wet there. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks
Posts
Hosta - astilbes - goats beard - lysichiton like moist/wet soil. maybe you should make a pond
and get some aquatic plants
There seem to be several different ways to approach your dilemmas. I garden in the West of Scotland and we have a lot of rain. Not much soil left in many places either. So I do have some experience with what you are struggling with.
Some of my thoughts on the subject:
1. Drainage. It may be necessary to consider digging some drainage channels and filling them in with drainage pipe gravel and then some soil on the top.
2. Don't try for a lawn till the problem has been solved. Do you even need a lawn? What about getting rid of it and planting a lot of bushes and having a path winding through it. It will give you the opportunity to be adding lots of compost and improving the soil over the years and no lawn to mow!
3. If you want to know about plants that grow in damp places, go to a boggy place and see what grows there. Irises, Bog myrtle, Alders, Willows, Mint, Rushes, there are lots and lots
I hope this gives you something to work with...
Hi. Thanks for your replies. I will look in to the plants suggested. I do need a lawn but that's on the basis that I like grass. Sorting the drainage could be something for me to look in to to stop me constantly battling this problem. It doesn't help either the fact I have a puppy. Thanks
Is this the sort of bog that turns dry, rock hard and cracked in summer or is it always wet?
In the sticks near Peterborough
The sort that dries rock hard in the summer. It's completely solid at min with no wet boggy areas but as soon as the weather turns and the rain comes back it just turns boggy again.