Seasonal brook/deep damp area - help for wildlife

ascourfield1

I have a tiny brook ( actually much smaller than a brook) that runs into my garden from my neighbours  garden. Neighbours have a concrete slab that ends at their boundary and the water trickles down a slab into my garden. The water is meant to trickle for 1.5 meters down a 40cm drop a then go in a pipe under the lawn and out into a drain at the end of the garden. This does not happen and I have uncovered many layers of plastic between the boundary and the pipe which I am pulling out, any water seems to go under the plastic not on top of it and the water just seeps around the pipe so we have a soggy patch of lawn in the winter. Sadly I do not have finance or skill to have the pipe pulled out and a lovely trickling brook properly reinstated. Instead I was hoping I could plant up the steep edges with some wildlife friendly plants to help stop the erosion and help the wildlife. The plants coming through from next doors garden on the boundary are holly, ivy and brambles! Any suggestions greatly received.

Obelixx

Where are you, roughly?  How cold do you get in winter and how much rain?  Acid, neutral or alkaline soil?

The answers will affect the kinds of plants you can try to make that corner beautiful and a refuge for wildlfe.

ascourfield1

We are in Wiltshire, fairly heavy clay soil.  My neighbour a few doors up has made three big ponds from the spring so we get less water than previously. Currently its just damp, almost dry. Through the winter the flow is probably similar to what a hosepipe would put out. Bog plants?

ascourfield1

Oh and temperature can go down to about -8C

Obelixx

Have a look at filipendula, rodgersia, ornamental rhubarb, hemerocallis, iris sibirica, mimulus which will give you a wide variety of height, leaf form and flowers to provide shelter and nectar for a range of wildlife and disguise that pipe end.

You'll need to clear some more of that plastic and maybe work in some well-rotted manure to improve fertility but you should be able to create something lovely and not too high maintenance.

nutcutlet

Iris pseudacorus, the yellow water Iris, Comfrey and Figwort put up with sometimes wet, sometimes dry. Insects love the comfrey flowers and loads of them like Figwort

ascourfield1

That's great, thank you both, I will start sourcing some of these. I have taken out all remaining plastic and chopped the end of the pipe of as well as I can. I was wondering if I should also dig away some of the sides to make them slightly less steep? Before planting should I clear all the grass or include any rocks or pebbles on the base and sides? You can tell I'm a complete novice

Obelixx

Have a read of this first to help you get ideas about what's needed.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=356