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Swale
MayLane
Posts: 203
We moved to a new housing estate and look out onto a swale, followed by woodlands. The swale down the road looks lovely with reeds; ours is just a deep empty pond (no water) gathering liter. The developers are not going to plant it up.
Any ideas on how we could get it planted up? It would help act as a corridor and contribute to maintaing biodiversity.
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Is a swale a bit like a drainage ditch? You could plant it up with water loving plants. Dogwoods; Non invasive Bamboos; Hydrangeas might do the job for you.
A swale is a dry ditch intended to fill up with water when it rains to slow down water run off into rivers and sewers - flood prevention in other words. The plants would need to be ones that will grow when it's dry - most of the time - but won't turn up their toes should they be flooded for a time.
Some types of willow (salix) maybe, - the ones with colourful stems. Alder trees grow in the wet if you wanted to merge the swale into the woodland - some of them do get pretty big though. There's a tree that was really fashionable a couple of years ago - betula nigra (or river birch) - it's a small tree with lovely flaky bark. Quite a lot of plants that are described as 'marginal' for ponds will tolerate switching from wet to dry - some of the carexes and irises (beware flag iris which can be very invasive).
You could approach a local wildlife group of contact the sustainability officer of the local council to find out if there is a biodiversity action plan in your area which may provide grants and/or volunteer workers to help plant it up as a wildlife habitat or green corridor
Last edited: 15 March 2017 20:17:01
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I think I'll look into the biodiversity plan to start with, thank you. It is rather a large, steep and deep swale and the crows throw the rubbish they pull from the bins down there.
It did have water in it twice in the last year and two ducks came to visit.
Although Severn Trent are taking on ownership so no idea if that would work?
As long as what you plant doesn't compromise it's function, I can't see why Severn Trent would mind it being planted up - grass is not a particularly good absorber of water compared to a tree or other plants that loosen the soil rather more (I'm sure I read somehwere that ground with a tree in it will absorb more than 60 times as much rainwater as ground with just grass per square metre). It possibly makes a difference if your swale is very close to a river? If not then plants which speed up the soakaway effect are helpful. Flag iris is capable of terra-forming and could raise the ground level in the bottom of the swale so you'd need some advice on what to avoid but ST Water may be able to tell you that. Also what local birds, animals or insects are in need of habitat help, is there a particular species in your area that you could help and then which plants would suit that purpose. The local wildlife trusts should be able to tell you that sort of thing. I know that there's a particular push to make hedgerows suitable for dormice in my local area, for example.
Most big companies have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy and I would expect ST Water to have one as well. They may even be prepared to put up some cash for a biodiversity planting scheme if you do the leg work for them.
Last edited: 15 March 2017 22:44:49
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I agree with the suggestion to contact a local wildlife group, or the relevant section in the council. They should be in a better position to work with the land owner to come up with a workable solution.
There would be no point in doing work independantly only for others to come along with the official plan and undo all the work again.