Advice Sought For Wet Ground

I joined this forum a few months ago and have learned a lot from reading the postings here. I have a few acres of land all on a gentle slope with good gardening soil and lots of sun. The land was used for years to pasture horses. It is mostly grass with a few large trees in places. The soil is more clay than sand with lots of earthworms seen every time I dig with the shovel. There is a patch of land about 100 feet wide that goes through the middle of the property. Apparently it used to be a creek bed. The surface water was diverted many years ago but water still flows underground. It provides me with a great source of well water all year round. During the rainy season from December to February the water table in this patch is very high. If I dig a hole more than 8 inches deep it immediately begins to fill with water even though the ground is on a slope. In areas of depression, the ground becomes muddy. For the rest of the year, between March and November, the water table drops up to 10 feet and this patch of land becomes like the rest of the property. Can I plant deciduous trees and fruit trees on this patch of land? Will the roots die from being under water during their dormant period (December to February)?

 

Drainage-wise, the property sounds very similar to some of the land in the developing Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden.

Certainly no problem to grow some trees there -- depends on what you want, though. Alders and willows will be easy (and perhaps they're already colonizing). Were you leaning toward native trees or would non-natives work?

As for fruit trees, I'll have to let someone with more expertise step in.

 

I also garden in Sooke on heavy clay that can be wet. I recently added an orchard after a years worth of amending the drainage and am very glad that I did. It was a lot of heavy digging and time consuming but the only trees actually thriving are the ones I planted in the well drained area. It will be interesting to see this year how the trees on the edge of the drainage area grow. Good luck

 

I wouldn't put fruit trees in that wet of ground. Daniel mentioned willows; those will grow, as will redtwig dogwood, ninebark some birches, and Oregon Ash (all natives). Non natives include Red Maple and Tupelo.

 

The 2002 Hillier manual lists the trees

Alnus
Amelanchier
Betula nigra
Betula pendula
Betula pubescens
Crataegus laevigata
Magnolia virginiana
Mespilus germanica
Populus
Pterocarya
Pyrus (most)
Quercus palustris
Salix
Sorbus aucuparia

and the conifers

Metasequioa glyptostroboides
Picea sitchensis
Taxodium distichum

for "damp sites".

The Visial Aid to Tree Selection table in Decorative Trees for Country, Town and Garden (Mitchell/Jobling, 1984, HMSO Books) has the "broadleaves"

Acer rubrum
Alnus cordata
A. glutinosa
A. incana
A. subcordata
Betula nigra
B. pubescens
Carya cordiformis
Cercidiphyllum japonicum
Crataegus oxyacantha
Liquidambar styraciflua
Populus alba [and multiple other poplars]
Pterocarya fraxinifolia
P. x rehderana
Salix alba [and some other willows]
Sorbus aucuparia

and the conifers

Abies alba
Cryptomeria japonica
C. japonica 'Lobbii'
Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Picea sitchensis
Pinus contorta var. contorta
Sequoia sempervirens
Taxodium distichum
Thuja occidentalis
T. occidentalis 'Lutea'
T. occidentalis 'Spiralis'
T. plicata
T. plicata 'Semperaurescens'
Thujopsis dolabrata
Tsuga canadensis
T. heterophylla

marked as "strongly recommended" for "wet soils".

 

I appreciate all the responses. Thanks Ron for that great list of possibilities.

 

This exchange is a wonderful example of how this forum can be useful for a wide range of people. I really appreciate browsing this particular thread, because we have a wet spot and spots on our condo grounds which can benefit from this background knowledge expressed above... the reference to the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden that Daniel makes is new to me and its website shows a work in progress there -- more information for plant and nature lovers developing in that locale! I would like to browse that and visit it too... also the books that Ron B suggests would be a great benefit to readers of this thread and others too... Ron, have you published or posted a horticultural bibliography any place which our readers could access?