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From extreme wet to dry...
julie363
Posts: 2
I have an area at the bottom of my garden that gets exceptionally wet in the autumn/winter, sometimes even flooding but dries out in the summer. Can anyone recommend any plants that would be suitable for this area?
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How much sun does this area get? Also do you know the PH of the soil? This will allow others to give you a much better range of plants to choose from.
When an area suffers from floods or extreme dampness, that can be hard to deal with, but you can bulk your soil up so that it doesn't dry out so much.Lots of compost or manure and mulch will definitely help. After the initial rake in, subsequent years, it will just be a good layer of mulch.
Vigorous plants always do well in extreme areas. Alchemilla Mollis, evergreens like Vinca Major and Minors are very good ground covers. There are variagated leaved versions, and they offer lovely mauve flowers in early summer. Tiarellas and some Heucheras do well in these conditions as well as Thalictrums. Day Lillies can also cope in some of these conditions, provided there is a bit of sun. The taller or larger flower varieties tend to be very robust.
Last edited: 28 May 2017 12:07:26
Thank you Borderline for your prompt reply.
The area has full sun. The problem is that a neighbour's well is linked to a pipe under her field and it is broken. Therefore the water comes over the top of the field and into our garden. So it floods in the winter. The neighbour, sadly, won't do anything about it.
I will take your advice about building the area up. I have plenty of soil that I can transfer to that area and I have lots of mulch too. We have also dug a ditch in the hope that the water will run through that and not into the garden. I wondered whether bog plants would be good but, as I said, it does dry out in the summer. We also thought about creating a natural pond but a sink away from a neighbours cess pit runs underneath our garden and someone said that it could leak into the pond - not a good idea then!
I'm struggling because we are getting our garden straight but have an unsightly area at the bottom because we don't know what to do with it. We are amateur gardeners too so don't want to make expensive mistakes.
Hi Julie, I have no experience with ponds I'm afraid, I'm sure someone may give some advice on that one...but having a pond will really add to a garden and bring in wildlife. If the area is likely to be damp in winter and you now want it to be damp in the summer time, it will probably require a lot of soil conditioning to keep it damp in the summer time. Since you say you have lots of soil and mulch, why not turn it into a bog area. The ditch idea sounds good too, let's hope it works when winter returns.
Most bog gardens have a very strong spring and early summer display, so from my list above, you can add these too. There are lots of different Candelabra Primroses. If you have the space and want a statement plant, Gunneras will do that. In the summer to autumn time why not try a variety of Persicarias, Sanguisorbas, Rodgersias, and Astilbes.