Damp grassy area

[maude]

Hi Folks.I have a very damp,always green area of grass,aprox100square metres.this is a pain as the grass grows at the speed of light,and always looks as though it needs cutting.has anyone any ideas what to plant in this area to drink up the excess water and reduce grass cutting.needs to be cheap and labour saving-no ponds,lakes or rice fields.constructive advice most welcome.

Maude

[Iceni]

Willow tree(s)

John

[Chancer]

Sheep?

[val douest]

What about

Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire'

"Dramatic winter feature plants grown for the brilliant, flame-coloured stems that glow in the watery winter sunlight. This deciduous shrub produces small, creamy-white flowers in May and June hidden amongst the oval, mid-green leaves, which turn orange-yellow in autumn. This fabulous dogwood looks best planted in groups in damp areas of the garden, beside water, or in a winter border where it catches the low sun. It works particularly alongside red or purple-stemmed varieties of dogwood. About 2.5 metres high by 2.5 metres spread."  If you planted several of these, well spaced, you could underplant the edges with hostas.

If you can afford to wait, then a really cost-effective solution would be to take hardwood cuttings - cornus is an easy plant to root.  If you have a neighbour who has one then that's great, or buy one well-established plant at a garden centre and use that - or even look out for them growing wild.  We have a wonderful line of them along one of the fields nearby, and they are a striking shade of red at the moment.

See http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1001/hardwood_cuttings.asp for how to do it.

Sedges and rushes

Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag iris) and other irises

Wildflower and grass seed mixture to give a prairie effect (you may need to rotovate and resow with the mixture but it should then only need cutting a couple of times a year as it is supposed to look wild and woolly!). See http://www.jubilee-seeds.co.uk/acatalog/wet_moist_soils.html

Hope this helps,

Val

[ukhostland]

Hi Maude,

There are many shrubs and trees that will grow well in damp soil and others have mentioned a few. If you use trees, try to put them on the north side, so you dont end up with a damp, shady area which will become mossy.

In addition to the Cornus and Willow options, consider Eucalyptus, which removes huge amounts of water from the soil and has the advantage that it can be pruned back if it gets too tall.

As others have also noted there is a large range of 'marginal' plants that will give you plenty of flowers in your damp area.

[maude]

Thanks folks for some good suggestions.Sheep and other livestock are out,so dogwoods,eucalyptus etc seem the way to go.Dont want hostas ,cos of the slug attraction.Meanwhile will fit flotation bags to the mower!!! Thanks for the responses Maude

[Dog]

Eucalyptus should be avoided unless you have koalas it supports very few if any  native species of animal or insect in europe. It has been grown for wood pulp in Portugal and it kills everything else off.

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="maude"]Hi Folks.I have a very damp,always green area of grass,aprox100square metres.this is a pain as the grass grows at the speed of light,and always looks as though it needs cutting.[/quote]

Before you think of planting anything make sure the the area is NOT a drainage site for the fosse or your land drains.

Willows and conifers are great for sucking up excess moisture but very bad news for drains which could block and cause damage!

[Théière]

[quote user="maude"]Thanks folks for some good suggestions.Sheep and other livestock are out,so dogwoods,eucalyptus etc seem the way to go.Dont want hostas ,cos of the slug attraction.Meanwhile will fit flotation bags to the mower!!! Thanks for the responses Maude[/quote]

Maude don't plant a eucalyptus, damn things grow 200 + feet, just cutting my one down as it already up to 60 ft.

[Kitty]

[quote user="teapot"]Maude don't plant a eucalyptus, damn things grow 200 + feet, just cutting my one down as it already up to 60 ft.[/quote]

But eucalyptus has a lovely foliage for flower arranging.

[ukhostland]

Everyone seems to have it in for Eucalyptus but in Cornwall we used rows of them to drain marshy ground so that we could grow other crops in the field.....the results were very successful. We also grew it as cut foliage - we had about an acre of them - but the plants in the marshy ground were not good for this in our case. Eucalyptus grow once cut from buds hidden under the bark....the more you cut the more these buds grow so it is not hard to have very vigorous but quite modest sized trees.

Colin

[Pierre ZFP]

Don't put them anywhere near a swimming pool though.  I had one of these little above-ground jobs and my neighbour had a eucalyptus.  Nice tree but the leaves falling into my pool did ....interesting.....things to the water [+o(]