At wits end-very wet and shady garden

Hello everyone, my first post here and instead of introductions thought I would get straight into it so my apologies for that.

I moved house last year and after a series of problems I was go glad it all went right that the garden was not the first thing on my wish list!

I love the house and where it is but it is very very wet and shady.

The garden is a foot lower than next doors so their garden is also draining onto mine making the problem worse. Its only a small garden- approx 66foot by 48 foot and is heavy clay. my last garden was also clay but nowwhere near this. The previous owner had a dog so it was all grass. last year i dug up borders and on the sunny side dug in a lot of sharp sand and grit and compost. The 'dark side' gets direct sunlight in summer for only about 2 hours

Last year was exceptional for rain and i had to dig a little channel down the dark side as the new shed I had installed onto slabs was getting flooded as the water was lapping over the slabs even though it was raised. All down that side the soil is smelly, claggy and even in summer was very moist. I did put some plants in but they didn't do very well so i have now resorted to planting in containers all down that side .

If I was to walk on the grass now you def need wellies -its not underwater but is very very squelchy and last year this didnt get better till about april or may. It doesnt help that behind my garden is a council owned wilderness full of trees and brambles , this has a footpath about 20 foot from my back fence but this is raised from the level of my garden by about 8 foot so that also drains into garden but when i moved in i found under a load of rubbish a channel which goes across a few gardens about 10 inches deep and this gets full sometimes but does eventually drain away

I thought of getting a sump pump and digging a hole near back door as garden slopes to house but think this would be permanently full as it would also be draining my neighbours and probably also be noisy next to mine and neighbours bedrooms.

I am so fed up with it as everytime I search for plants that suit wet areas they also need sunshine which I havent got I have even thought of looking at somehow slabbing over the dark half of the garden but that may just look silly.

I cant be the only one that has these conditions and i would love to hear from others that have a 'garden' like mine and how they cope. Sorry to have had a moan on my first post! I am not usually a moany person. honest!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

I can sympathise there, I live in a caravan on a flood plain, just had to put gravel down to stop myself slipping over when I step outside.

My veg plot is on the same level, got a few raised beds on that which keeps the veg above the water table, which is currently at ground level.

 

Hi there and welcome.
If it were me, I'd be putting a sump pump in. It could always be switched off at night, if noise is a concern.

 

Hello Pink Pixie to GC.
Oh this all sounds very familiar! Our renovation project is about 1/3 of the way down a slope and the plateau where the building stands seemed to attract surface water from all over the place. The solution was to put French drains on every level possible, to channel the water away. It sounds as though they would help on your plot too, but the problem in urban areas is where you channel the excess water to? I'd be tempted to get someone to dig a great big hole to bury a 3000l water recuperation tank then turf over it, but even that would probably overflow in a wet winter!
Can't really suggest a solution without seeing photos but have a Google of 'French drains' to see what's involved and whether you think that might be the answer on two sides of your garden.

 

Can we see some pictures please?

 

Thanks everyone. Pictures it is I will take some on friday as thats my day off as by the time I get home from work its pitch black!

 

Hi Pink Pixie and a warm welcome to the forum. I can see many aspects of your garden in mine. My road is on a slope so next door's water drains into my garden. My lawn was very soggy for long periods - though I have now gravelled it over - for other reasons like I hate mowing.

You clearly know the benefits of sharp sand and grit. Other than that I can only suggest that you have to accept the position and concentrate on plants that will thrive in your conditions.


This picture is of the north side of my garage which gets less than half an hour of sun a day. Its also very damp, but some plants seem to do OK. The orange is Hemerocallis (day lilly). It seems to be a very tolerant plant because it also does well in a pot that rarely gets watered. The others are more traditional damp plants. The pink spikes are Lythrum salisaria 'Blush'. I really like that colour. The bright red is Crocosmia 'Lucifer'. Behind that the smaller red spikes are Persicaria amplexicalis - which is very long flowering, and behind them are Dicentra splendens and Aquilegia, which have finished but which also did well.


In another very damp part I am growing another Hemerocallis, a tall purple Astilbe chinensis - not yet open and a pink Astilbe. Also, but you can't see, a Hydrangea and Eupatorium atropurpurea.


Another damp lover is this Filipendula rubra 'Venusta', though sadly it doesn't flower for that long. The others are all pretty long flowering.

 

hello,

yes you do seem to have a similar one to mine. your border looks great. I will investigate those flowers as mine really has no colour on that side at all.

I am thinking I may have to grin and bear it also. I will get the photos friday so you can see

 

Plenty of good advice above.

Maybe, instead of fighting it, take advantage of what you have.
Rather than trying to change it, and dry it out, make it more wet!
Put in a pond, surrounded by a bog garden - and plant up with ferns, hostas etc.

 

Also candelabra primroses would be good

You can get small ground cover gunneras as well as the large chilean rhubarb one

Shuttlecock ferns

One of the great british revival programmes had joe swift talking about bog gardens so that would be worth checking out

 

I took some photos tonight as soon as I got home in case it snows in the next couple of days and can't take any more,

Looking at photos it all looks very sad! The only plant there when I moved in was the Hebe and the rest I planted last summer. I did have to dig some up and put them into pots as even by June the soil was so wet that they were dying from lack of air and soil was very smelly. The channel I dug goes from the shed all the way down towards house. Last year and from October onwards it regularly almost fills up then takes a week or so to drain. In summer the water gets stagnant and I had lots of mosquito problems.

I will look at the plants a couple of people have mentioned but concerned that with the very claggy soil and lack of sunshine they will not thrive.

For info I had some building work done when I moved in and builders had to dig footings and it was solid clay from about an inch down to over 2 foot down .

Any comments or advice is very welcome !

 

Thanks for the pictures Pixie. We can get a better idea.

One thought is that you could afford to have a bit of a raised bed. If you had some tall edging material along the front, you could afford to raise the soil level by several inches as you have concrete behind, rather than wooden posts. A long plastic planter with the bottom cut out would do the same thing - of raising the soil level several inches above the grass level.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about that. Most plants that like boggy wet conditions prefer shade and not full sun anyway