Garden Studios

Persistent rain, coupled with poor drainage, has left many UK gardeners with soggy borders and troublesome areas where “normal” plants struggle to manage. But instead of battling against the weather, growing bog plants and other moisture lovers is usually a creative solution. 

Site and situation

Most moisture-loving plants want a sunny situation so in case your problem patch is in partial shade, your choice might be more limited. 

Grand designs

For a natural-looking bog garden, edge puddles in low-lying areas, natural depressions or sunken hollows in lawns with sand or stones. If you want to run a path through it, choose bark chippings or sink railway sleepers into the bottom (tack over wire netting for grip). Make a handrail from rustic poles.

For a modern look, excavate a geometric shape, comparable to a circle or rectangle, and line the perimeters with natural stone. Make paths from slatted timber and incorporate a “bridge” over a boggy hollow to feature a transformation of level. 

Soil preparation

If the world is boggy all year round, work in many well-rotted compost or peat-free soil improver any time between now and planting time in spring. This incorporates air spaces and improves the moisture-holding capacity so it won’t dry out in summer. Improve the feel of heavy clay by digging in a bucketful of organic matter per square yard.

In a local that dries out in summer, dig out the soil to a depth of 18in to 2ft. Line with a sheet of heavy-duty plastic to within 6in of the soil’s surface then refill with a mix of topsoil and organic matter. The plastic will create a reservoir that keeps the soil moist during dry spells so in case you do ought to water over summer, the water won’t drain away. But when we’ve got another wet winter like this one, surplus water will spill excessive of the lining and forestall the bog garden changing into a pond.

Choose your plants

In winter, do soil preparation and installed paths or other hard landscaping, then start planting in spring as moisture-loving plants become available. April is one of the best time, though pot-grown plants could be added all the way through the summer even if they’re in flower.

For a wild and natural look: choose native moisture-loving species and their close cultivated relatives together with lythrum, lysimachia, epilobium, marsh marigold, Equisetum scirpoides, flag iris, gunnera and bogbean. 

For a cultivated/glamorous look: choose monarda, sanguisorba (pink, fluffy bottlebrush flowers), hosta, astilbe, rheum, Primula rosea, P denticulata and candelabra primulas comparable to P japonica and P pulverulenta.

For partial shade: choose hosta, primrose and ferns, especially ostrich fern and soleirolia (the bottom-hugging, mind-your-own-business plant).

Winter interest

Most bog gardens look their best from mid- to late summer so in winter, when the perennials have died down, you’ll want to add visual interest with a sculpture, gnarled tree stump or natural-looking ornaments. There are plants for winter effect: if space permits, plant red-, orange- or yellow-stemmed shrubby willows and either coppice them every two to 3 years in spring, or grow one as a tree and pollard (prune) it regularly so it has a trunk topped with a twig of young shoots. 

Hydrangeas will thrive within the damp area round the bog garden. Their late flowers will dry out naturally at the plant and last well into autumn. 

Make full use of early spring species corresponding to marsh marigold (and its cultivated varieties with double flowers), early primulas and peltiphyllum (pink flowers in spring before the leaves appear and in autumn, large saucers on stick-shaped leaves that tackle colourful tints). 

Plant of the week

White forsythia 

If your garden needs a midwinter pick-me-up, white forsythia, or Abeliophyllum distichum, is a good choice. This unusual deciduous wall shrub has a delicious fragrance that some people say reminds them of almonds or marzipan. Plant it somewhere sheltered so the wind won’t disperse the scent. The flowers are forsythia-like in size and shape, but white to pale pink in colour with a centre full of gold stamens. Left to its own devices, the shrub is very floppy and straggly, so it’s best trained flat against a wall. It could reach 8ft by 8ft, although you are able to easily prune it to suit available space.

Its season of glory runs from now (counting on the severity of the winter) until late March, within which time each stem would be lined with flowers. Abeliophyllum isn’t difficult to grow – all it needs in all fairness well-drained soil and entire sun. And because it conveniently has just a thin covering of leaves in summer, its branches make the appropriate support framework for a summer-flowering clematis (one of several sort which is reduce hard in winter).