Good trees for a boggy garden?

s4uv3

Will be moving house soon, and the back garden is quite long and sloping away from the house, but is still quite wet and 'spongey'. Are there any compact trees that I could plant a handful of around the place that would help drain it, without filling the garden with coppicing (sp) etc? Particularly fruit or something that would look quite nice?
I know, I'm asking a lot here!

Thanks

Ultimanemo

Drainage is the best remedy.

macraignil

s4uv3 wrote: »

Will be moving house soon, and the back garden is quite long and sloping away from the house, but is still quite wet and 'spongey'. Are there any compact trees that I could plant a handful of around the place that would help drain it, without filling the garden with coppicing (sp) etc? Particularly fruit or something that would look quite nice?
I know, I'm asking a lot here!

Thanks

There are a number of trees tolerant to some amount of dampness in the soil in the following RHS list. I have a similar situation in my garden with a north facing slope and have found examples from the list worked well for me: Amelanchier (look good but fruit is small), Liquidamber (looks great in autumn but no fruit), prunus/cherry (some varieties might be too big for what you are looking for), pear (conference variety has done best), Weigela (nice flowers but no fruit), prunus spinosa (if you're OK with the thorns) and sambucus nigra.

Lumen

First figure out the source of the water. Unlikely to be rain on the grass if its that bad with a slope. Probably runoff from somewhere. If you can intercept and divert that water you may be able to avoid digging up the whole garden.

s4uv3

Thanks everyone, some great advice there- much appreciated.

magicbastarder

trees won't necessarily help drain a site - they may make it drier when in leaf, as the tree transpires, but this won't apply in the winter.
also, if there is a water source keeping the ground wet, the trees may not be able to keep up.

that said, alder and willow are two of the native trees that will cope with wet feet, but alder tends to prefer flowing water and willow is better in still water.

macraignil

magicbastarder wrote: »

trees won't necessarily help drain a site - they may make it drier when in leaf, as the tree transpires, but this won't apply in the winter.
also, if there is a water source keeping the ground wet, the trees may not be able to keep up.

that said, alder and willow are two of the native trees that will cope with wet feet, but alder tends to prefer flowing water and willow is better in still water.

I think trees also assist with drainage by sending their roots deep into the subsoil and opening up compacted layers to allow drainage down through the soil where it was not possible before. Adding bulky organic material also helps this process of opening up the soil and giving it a better structure for drainage. I have seen this effect even in winter when trees I have planted are not in leaf.

Where I applied this in my parents back garden I did use some constructed drains to help get the soil less waterlogged to begin with. After the fruit trees planted and organic material had its effect I found the drains no longer spouted water when we had torrential rain as they had done when I first set about improving their back garden. They had very little slope and a heavy clay soil so I think the drains were necessary to start the process but once the fruit trees were established the drains I put in were no longer necessary and the soil now seems to drain effectively without requiring the drains.

Ultimanemo

macraignil wrote: »

I think trees also assist with drainage by sending their roots deep into the subsoil and opening up compacted layers to allow drainage down through the soil where it was not possible before. Adding bulky organic material also helps this process of opening up the soil and giving it a better structure for drainage. I have seen this effect even in winter when trees I have planted are not in leaf.

Where I applied this in my parents back garden I did use some constructed drains to help get the soil less waterlogged to begin with. After the fruit trees planted and organic material had its effect I found the drains no longer spouted water when we had torrential rain as they had done when I first set about improving their back garden. They had very little slope and a heavy clay soil so I think the drains were necessary to start the process but once the fruit trees were established the drains I put in were no longer necessary and the soil now seems to drain effectively without requiring the drains.

Be careful about that, when you put drains in wet soil, in the beginning it pours out, then the flow of water slows down as the water content of the soil is reduced, trees may help drainage, but I don't think that will be very significant, trees don't send roots very deep especially in wet soil as there isn't much oxygen down there.

macraignil

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Be careful about that, when you put drains in wet soil, in the beginning it pours out, then the flow of water slows down as the water content of the soil is reduced, trees may help drainage, but I don't think that will be very significant, trees don't send roots very deep especially in wet soil as there isn't much oxygen down there.

Not sure what you mean by "be careful about that". The garden I was talking about had drains put in well over a decade ago and an area that was completely waterlogged every winter is now draining without a problem. I'm not likely to dig up the fruit trees I planted but going by their size now I would estimate the roots would be going at least a few feet and probably a couple of metres deeper than the drains that were installed to help them get established.

As the soil structure improves by adding organic matter and the growth of deeper rooting plants more air does penetrate deeper into the soil so I can't see how your comment about oxygen in wet soil impacts on what I was saying. I'd like to disagree with your opinion that trees are not significant in helping with drainage. I found this article that has a number of references that support what I am trying to say.

Lumen

macraignil wrote: »

I found this article that has a number of references that support what I am trying to say.

That's a really interesting site. Also, maybe support for the idea of overplanting young trees and then thinning out, so that the decaying roots create drainage voids in the soil?