What to plant on a ditch side
 

Hello

We moved three years ago to the North Cheshire area and included in our new garden is an area which has been left wild. It grew nothing but Himalayan Balsam up to ten feet high. We are in the process of taming this area, which includes a ditch with one south facing side very steep and the other side relatively shallow sloped. The steep side is patchedly covered in ivy with a few Foxgloves after the balsam has been removed, with bare areas which are obviouly going to erode. We would like to plant something on this bank, firstly to retain the soil, and secondly to provide some colour and/or foliage interest. The soil is light sandy loam.

Thanks for any advice,

Chris

What to plant on a ditch side
 

On Monday, 16 July 2012 17:24:31 UTC+1, chrisjpotts wrote:
Hello

We moved three years ago to the North Cheshire area and included in our new garden is an area which has been left wild. It grew nothing but Himalayan Balsam up to ten feet high. We are in the process of taming this area, which includes a ditch with one south facing side very steep and the other side relatively shallow sloped. The steep side is patchedly covered in ivy with a few Foxgloves after the balsam has been removed, with bare areas which are obviouly going to erode. We would like to plant something on this bank, firstly to retain the soil, and secondly to provide some colour and/or foliage interest. The soil is light sandy loam.

Thanks for any advice,

Chris

If it's reliably moist and has a reasonable humus content you could consider things like candelabra and other primulas, meconopsis, rogersias, great woodrush, sedges like Carex pendula, I'd let some of the foxgloves live, hostas,rheums,Leucojum 'Gravetyegiant',astilbes,aruncus.................. ...etc
This looks like the beginning of a fairly wild (informal) area if you like that sort of thing.

Rod

What to plant on a ditch side
 

You could take a look at Hypericum calycinum. We've recently seen a
couple of banks planted with this and it looks terrific.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com

Thanks Sacha,

That was one I had not thought of, and it will look good, and should be strong enough to suspress the inevitabe weeds.

Thanks again,

Chris

What to plant on a ditch side
 

On Monday, July 16, 2012 6:25:06 PM UTC+1, Rod wrote:

If it's reliably moist and has a reasonable humus content you could consider things like candelabra and other primulas, meconopsis, rogersias, great woodrush, sedges like Carex pendula, I'd let some of the foxgloves live, hostas,rheums,Leucojum 'Gravetyegiant',astilbes,aruncus.................. ....etc
This looks like the beginning of a fairly wild (informal) area if you like that sort of thing.

Rod

Thanks for all those Rod, I will look up the ones I am unfamiliar with. I also thought of Gunnera in the very bottom and we could then pretend we lived in a Stately Home. I was realy after something low to cover and retain the steep bank, which is very dry in comparison.

Chris

What to plant on a ditch side
 

"chrisjpotts" wrote ...

Rod wrote:

If it's reliably moist and has a reasonable humus content you could
consider things like candelabra and other primulas, meconopsis,
rogersias, great woodrush, sedges like Carex pendula, I'd let some of
the foxgloves live, hostas,rheums,Leucojum
'Gravetyegiant',astilbes,aruncus.................. ...etc
This looks like the beginning of a fairly wild (informal) area if you
like that sort of thing.



Thanks for all those Rod, I will look up the ones I am unfamiliar with. I
also thought of Gunnera in the very bottom and we could then pretend we
lived in a Stately Home. I was realy after something low to cover and
retain the steep bank, which is very dry in comparison.


It can't be that dry a bank if it grew HB to 10 feet tall, they demand lots
of moisture, effectively a bog plant. If it's sunny maybe some Iris, the
normal flag type, but not the native yellow iris as that is invasive IME.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

What to plant on a ditch side
 

On 16/07/2012 17:24, chrisjpotts wrote:
Hello

We moved three years ago to the North Cheshire area and included in our new garden is an area which has been left wild. It grew nothing but Himalayan Balsam up to ten feet high. We are in the process of taming this area, which includes a ditch with one south facing side very steep and the other side relatively shallow sloped. The steep side is patchedly covered in ivy with a few Foxgloves after the balsam has been removed, with bare areas which are obviouly going to erode. We would like to plant something on this bank, firstly to retain the soil, and secondly to provide some colour and/or foliage interest. The soil is light sandy loam.

Thanks for any advice,

Chris


A plant that seems to have gone out of favour is Polygonum affine,
http://www.gardensandplants.com/uk/p...?plant_id=2362
I like the way that the flower heads start out pink and mature to red
and remain in colour for a couple of months, and the plant goes on
flowering.
I remember that they planted up a long bank outside the Olympic stadium
in Rome in 1960, and it survived the Italian summer,
I've grown it and once you have it it propagates easily from cuttings or
self rooted bits.
David @ the (for once) rain free end of Swansea Bay.