plants or shrubs
freelander 56
Posts: 2
hi, i need help. we have some land at the end of our garden that belongs to local councel, and its just wast land, people use it to walk dogs some times i say some times because most of the time it is just grown over. also we get fallow deer browsing. the bit of ground behind us is very wet most of the time and has soil mounds all round because the man that lived here befor tried to make it a garden but no good it is to wet. what i need is advice on what plants or shrubs would help this problem so i could make this spot look nice to look at. just one other thing drainage is not possible. thanks for reading.
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Neither dogwoods nor willow mind wet soils and they would regrow readily if browsed by the deer. Dogwood (Cornus alba) Is mostly grown for its colourful winter twigs (scarlet / red, greeny yellow and purple/black) but there are varieties with either golden or variegated leaves instead of plain green. Both would be best coppiced every two years. This means cutting down nearly to ground level. In the case of dogwoods the new growth has the brightest colours, while it would keep the willow as a shrub and prevent it becoming a large tree, with the possible risk of damage from the roots to any nearby buildings. Both are easy to propagate: when you cut them back just stick the twigs in the ground and you will probably end up with several new plants. There are plenty of plants for wet soil (just look up bog plants) but some carex might look good in between. These have grassy leaves in a range of shades and make nice tussocks that could help to disguise the uneven ground. A number of them can be grown from seed which would be useful perhaps as it is not your land!
You could plant marginal pond plants and any number of bog plants such as pontedaria cordata and shrubs such as alnus cordata as well as colourfully stemmed cornuses and willows as Buttercup suggests.
Filipendula purpuria (meadowsweet) would be a good choice and you could also try lysichiton americanus (yellow skunk cabbage and a bit smelly but striking). Hemerocallis do fine in moist soils but would need slug protection and deutzias should be OK too.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Is it boggy all the time or does it dry to concrete in the summer?
In the sticks near Peterborough
thanks everyone, its great to get all this help and it all looks good. also the answer to nutcutlet is, its boggy all winter and nice and damp in the summer it never dries up. I live on the west coast of Scotland and we get lots of nice rain all year round. thanks again everyone .