Ideas for a boggy area

[huporhaha]

I'm really stuck! Our remote little hamlet has just been put on main drainage as we live in a shellfish area and it wasn't cool that some people were letting sewage drain into the sea! The trouble is we now have a drainage ditch through our garden. It seems that it has diverted an underground spring. Instead of laying the pipes on gravel and back-filling with gravel, I think they used a lot of clay and heavy soil they brought in. Now we have a long thin boggy area through our garden. Having put fin drains in several years ago, and then having the water board digging up our front garden, we don't want to dig it up again.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can put in the rather cold, boggy area in my lawn other than gunnera or miscanthus? Ideally I'd like something fairly wind resistant, evergreen and interesting. It is surrounded by a woodland garden and is a mixture of dappled shade and sun. Am I asking for too much?

Thanks

[Markby]

Hi H,
I would think about skunk cabbage and shuttlecock ferns - big leaves, bone hardy and will tolerate a bit of shade. I am planning a bog garden myself, so just recently checked these things out...

[huporhaha]

Thanks Markby - I think you may be on to something. Skunk Cabbage seems to do well up here - will have to research the ferns - I've got some giant chain ferns that need a home but I think shuttlecock ones may do better in such a damp area.

[MikeC]

Petasites Japonicus?

[MikeC]

Acorus Calamus Variegatus?

[Adam D]

If you can live with herbaceous stuff then go for Rodgersia pinnata or Astilboides tabularis or Darmera peltata.

It is always a shame to see them go over when the frosts arrive, but the re-birth in Spring is worth waiting for

[huporhaha]

Thanks Mike, I like the look of the Petasites Japonicus - not sure if it would tolerate wind. We've grown a shelter belt of trees around the garden so it is not too windy just there, but do you think the leaves would tolerate sea air? - we are about a third of a mile from a sea loch.

[huporhaha]

Thanks Adam - I've tried to grow some Rodgersia Pinnata from seed - nothing has come up yet in my propagator but will wait and see. The Darmera peltata looks quite interesting. I might follow that up.

[Adam D]

How about a bamboo like Indocalamus tessallatus?

From what I have read the leaves will grow bigger and bigger if they have access to a decent source of moisture.

[huporhaha]

No problem with moisture here Adam, the ground just there is very wet! I grew some phyllostachys heteroclada from seed five years ago - that is supposed to grow in the wet. I think that I'd need to buy a fairly mature clump as our summers are quite cool and most of my bamboos have hardly grown any bigger at all! I think I'd need to dig in some humous though as the soil there is very poor.

Thanks again

[fieldfest]

"giant rhubarb" ?