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Bee friendly plants for plot with natural springs?
Dazed & Confused
Posts: 3
in Plants
Hi, I'm not a gardener, but I'm trying to learn. We bought a house last year, with a neglected garden. I now have most of it under control - lawn patches seeded, roses planted, apple tree pruned, snowdrops, daffodils and tulips came up nicely, etc. However there is one plot that I don't know how to approach. It faces east, is sloping, and has natural springs in it. It's currently very overgrown, but I've weed killed it, and will turn over the soil, pull up stumps, neaten up rocks, etc. But I don't know what to plant. The soil is clay, it is always damp, but never boggy, as the spring runs down the hill. It gets the morning sun, and is in shade after about 2pm. Currently a haven for frogs, slow worms, and robins under all the weeds there. We would like to plant a wildlife garden there to attract butterflies and bumble bees, but that is also nice to look at for much of the year, and requires minimal maintenance, as it's a tricky site to work on, and the rest of the garden is keeping me very busy. We thought lavender to start us off, but someone told me it won't like the conditions. What would people recommend? Please keep it simple, as I'm a total novice! Many thanks!
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Posts
Lavender wont like wet clay.
You could plant hostas, candelabra primulas, ragged robin, and Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) which the bees love.
Hi D&C ... sounds like it could be a lovely area.
Some plants to consider include:-
Filipendula purpurea (purple meadowsweet)
Rodgersia aesculifolia
Ligularia przewalskii .
(Just buy one of each plant .... they are easy to split).
Astrantias might also be nice there.
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
I think I might start with a few coloured stemmed dogwoods. It will give you something to admire in winter and can stand the terrain. Some spring bulbs, snake's head fritillaries wouds be good and probably narcissi but not tulips and crocus.
All those mentioned above plus marsh marigolds and cuckoo flower.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I'll hit Google, but are these things I should be planting now, or have I missed my window for this year?
Thanks again.
You can plant all of these now. You should be able to obtain pot grown plants, ready to plant.
Ferns would be nice too.
Might be a wee bit late for 2015, but I had the same problem-but just as an experiment I bought a cheapish packet of wild flower seeds and scattered them-they all came up-some better than others-but those that the conditions suit will thrive.
Purple Loosetrife, and Eupatorium maculatum Autopurpureum are a couple more from me. Camassias are a spring bulb that would like it there.
You're lucky; there are some really choice plants for spots like yours so you can make us green with envy