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How to safely plant a soakaway?
On 9/1/08 12:22, in article ,
"Eddy" wrote: Sacha wrote: Try the giant rhubarb, the inedible one! Gunnera manicata http://tinyurl.com/2rd8mr Some Gunnera Manicatas would look great, Sacha. But how deeply do the roots grow? They're not evergreen, are they? They'ld be something that the frost would turn to "cabbage", wouldn't they? I've been mooching about in Google this morning, and until you suggested Gunneras it seemed that ornamental grass is the only safe option. Stuff I've been reading this morning has made me start to worry about the roots of three large ornamental cherries on the edge of my leach--plain/soakaway. Eddy. Very unlikely, we think. My stepson had to dig out a Gunnera this year because a drain had become blocked and then having removed the Gunnera, he discovered that the true culprit was a tree that was many yards away. The Gunnera was quite innocent. They're very dramatic plants and real talking points. No, they're not ever-green but in cold areas people just bend the fading branches over the crown to give winter protection, or put straw over them. Charlie's idea of tree ferns is excellent, IMO. They look good in groups or singly but are quite expensive and grow exceedingly slowly, so you would need to get the biggest you can afford and from a reputable source. In summer water them from the top so that the fronds are kept moist. Perhaps you could plant the truly beautiful shuttlecock ferns there, too. Matteuccia struthiopteris is its proper name and I look forward to seeing ours emerge every winter. Blechnum spicant is another fern and I think that's evergreen. I don't dislike grasses but personally, I think they're a bit 'overdone' these days and are just beginning to lose popularity a little. They're used in a lot of municipal planting, so I wonder if there is too much of that association in the public's mind, perhaps. -- Sacha http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove weeds from address) 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.' |
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