The ground is shale and dense clay here on a mountainside, so my small herb,
lettuce and rhubarb garden lives in an 8' x 16' raised bed. Along one of the
16' sides, my husband dug out a 3'-wide strip - not a raised bed, but into
the ground - for a perennial border, which is doing quite nicely the past
four years, except at the bottom end. The ground slopes just enough that
heavy rain accumulates at the low end. The perc rate of this soil is very
slow, so the clay/mud wall at the end of the bed is backing up the water and
killing the plants at that end. So far, a Hylotelephium "Autumn Joy" (fka
Sedum) and a little mound of dianthus rotted out and failed to re-emerge. At
the top end and the middle of the bed everything's fine, with coreopsis,
astilbe, columbine, dianthus, lamb's ears, hyacinths, species tulips and
peonies coming back and proliferating.

We're not going to do more digging in this area. Later in the season,
nasturtiums and four o'clocks are quite happy at the wet end. But I'd like
to have a perennial or two at the wet end that come out on their own, and
survive, so the bed doesn't look so lopsided in the early spring.

So far, I thought of digging up some of the Virginia bluebells and bloodroot
plants that I have at woods' edge (they prosper, even in areas where the
water stands after a heavy rain) and installing them there. Any other ideas
of something that might survive these advense conditions? The bed gets about
3 hours of direct sun in the morning, then dappled light the rest of the
day. Zone 6.

Rachel wrote:
The bed gets about
3 hours of direct sun in the morning, then dappled light the rest of
the
day. Zone 6.

Check into Ligularia. Sounds like perfect conditions for it.

Rachel wrote:
The bed gets about
3 hours of direct sun in the morning, then dappled light the rest of
the
day. Zone 6.


Iris and Japanese Iris may prosper.

Bill

--
Zone 5 S Jersey USA Shade garden in a Japanese manner
Vision problems? http://www.ocutech.com/ we own two.
Tell folks where to get your files FREE at http://www.DropLoad.com
"oeuf tôt pique " Lover

in article , Rachel at
wrote on 4/14/05 1:29 PM:

The ground is shale and dense clay here on a mountainside, so my small herb,
lettuce and rhubarb garden lives in an 8' x 16' raised bed. Along one of the
16' sides, my husband dug out a 3'-wide strip - not a raised bed, but into
the ground - for a perennial border, which is doing quite nicely the past
four years, except at the bottom end. The ground slopes just enough that
heavy rain accumulates at the low end. The perc rate of this soil is very
slow, so the clay/mud wall at the end of the bed is backing up the water and
killing the plants at that end. So far, a Hylotelephium "Autumn Joy" (fka
Sedum) and a little mound of dianthus rotted out and failed to re-emerge. At
the top end and the middle of the bed everything's fine, with coreopsis,
astilbe, columbine, dianthus, lamb's ears, hyacinths, species tulips and
peonies coming back and proliferating.

We're not going to do more digging in this area. Later in the season,
nasturtiums and four o'clocks are quite happy at the wet end. But I'd like
to have a perennial or two at the wet end that come out on their own, and
survive, so the bed doesn't look so lopsided in the early spring.

So far, I thought of digging up some of the Virginia bluebells and bloodroot
plants that I have at woods' edge (they prosper, even in areas where the
water stands after a heavy rain) and installing them there. Any other ideas
of something that might survive these advense conditions? The bed gets about
3 hours of direct sun in the morning, then dappled light the rest of the
day. Zone 6.


celandine (wood poppy); euphorbia spurge (be warned...it DOES spread); sweet
woodruff; wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); MINT!!! mint LOVES water.
oh!! and some nice golden thread and jack-in-the-pulpit. oh, one mo
Impatiens capensis-orange (or pallida-yellow)...'cept that's an annual but
OH GOODNESS!!! it self-sows with a vengeance!! })

In article ,
says...
celandine (wood poppy); euphorbia spurge (be warned...it DOES spread); sweet
woodruff; wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); MINT!!! mint LOVES water.

NOTHING spreads like mint :-).

--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description

"RAINDEAR" wrote in message
...
in article , Rachel at
wrote on 4/14/05 1:29 PM:

But I'd like
to have a perennial or two at the wet end that come out on their own, and
survive, so the bed doesn't look so lopsided in the early spring.

celandine (wood poppy); euphorbia spurge (be warned...it DOES spread);
sweet
woodruff; wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); MINT!!! mint LOVES water.
oh!! and some nice golden thread and jack-in-the-pulpit. oh, one mo
Impatiens capensis-orange (or pallida-yellow)...'cept that's an annual but
OH GOODNESS!!! it self-sows with a vengeance!! })

Thanks to you and the others for these ideas. Actually, the mint patch is
around a tree-stump 3 feet away from the bed in question, so I have no wish
to bring it into the bed. Nor anything else that spreads. As for
Jack-in-the-pulpit, I have another dampish part of the yard reserved for
unrestricted native-plant expansion (Virginia bluebells, bloodroot,
Dutchmen's britches, etc.). And Sweet Woodruff is off on the other side of
the house, spreading into an 8 x 20 area and beyond, so putting a little bit
of it in two square feet doesn't make sense. The Ligularias are interesting,
but only the 15" variety would be a possibility, since the ones that grow 4
or 5 feet high would be out of balance with the stuff at the other end of
the bed, and might even block 10 minutes of sun from reaching my basil,
which is not acceptable. ... The idea I like best is William's for a clump
of Japanese or Siberian Iris.

"RAINDEAR" wrote in message
...
in article , Rachel at
wrote on 4/14/05 1:29 PM:

But I'd like
to have a perennial or two at the wet end that come out on their own, and
survive, so the bed doesn't look so lopsided in the early spring.

celandine (wood poppy); euphorbia spurge (be warned...it DOES spread);
sweet
woodruff; wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); MINT!!! mint LOVES water.
oh!! and some nice golden thread and jack-in-the-pulpit. oh, one mo
Impatiens capensis-orange (or pallida-yellow)...'cept that's an annual but
OH GOODNESS!!! it self-sows with a vengeance!! })

Thanks to you and the others for these ideas. Actually, the mint patch is
around a tree-stump 3 feet away from the bed in question, so I have no wish
to bring it into the bed. Nor anything else that spreads. As for
Jack-in-the-pulpit, I have another dampish part of the yard reserved for
unrestricted native-plant expansion (Virginia bluebells, bloodroot,
Dutchmen's britches, etc.). And Sweet Woodruff is off on the other side of
the house, spreading into an 8 x 20 area and beyond, so putting a little bit
of it in two square feet doesn't make sense. The Ligularias are interesting,
but only the 15" variety would be a possibility, since the ones that grow 4
or 5 feet high would be out of balance with the stuff at the other end of
the bed, and might even block 10 minutes of sun from reaching my basil,
which is not acceptable. ... The idea I like best is William's for a clump
of Japanese or Siberian Iris.

"RAINDEAR" wrote in message
...
in article , Rachel at
wrote on 4/14/05 1:29 PM:

But I'd like
to have a perennial or two at the wet end that come out on their own, and
survive, so the bed doesn't look so lopsided in the early spring.

celandine (wood poppy); euphorbia spurge (be warned...it DOES spread);
sweet
woodruff; wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); MINT!!! mint LOVES water.
oh!! and some nice golden thread and jack-in-the-pulpit. oh, one mo
Impatiens capensis-orange (or pallida-yellow)...'cept that's an annual but
OH GOODNESS!!! it self-sows with a vengeance!! })

Thanks to you and the others for these ideas. Actually, the mint patch is
around a tree-stump 3 feet away from the bed in question, so I have no wish
to bring it into the bed. Nor anything else that spreads. As for
Jack-in-the-pulpit, I have another dampish part of the yard reserved for
unrestricted native-plant expansion (Virginia bluebells, bloodroot,
Dutchmen's britches, etc.). And Sweet Woodruff is off on the other side of
the house, spreading into an 8 x 20 area and beyond, so putting a little bit
of it in two square feet doesn't make sense. The Ligularias are interesting,
but only the 15" variety would be a possibility, since the ones that grow 4
or 5 feet high would be out of balance with the stuff at the other end of
the bed, and might even block 10 minutes of sun from reaching my basil,
which is not acceptable. ... The idea I like best is William's for a clump
of Japanese or Siberian Iris.