Hi folks, A friend has just acquired some land and we in the process of planting it up as a small arboretum. However, we have just discovered that the vast majority of rain water from the field next door drains straight into our plot. Holes dug for planting into, fill with water in less than a minute. We have gone down the road of using Salix, Taxodium, some Cornus, Alnus and Populus already. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what other trees or shrubs can tolerate this in winter months? Its also worth baring in mind that until the trees are established, the site is fairly exposed. It faces south west and seems to be predominently clay (the nice, sticky, yellow kind that clings to your spade!). Hope you can help, Luke
Add: Metasequoia glyptostroboides Glyptostrobus pensilis Sequoia sempervirens Picea sitchensis (plant on raised mounds) Quercus bicolor, Q. michauxii Persea borbonia Liquidambar styraciflua, L. formosana Nyssa (all species)
And: Acer rubrum & A. saccharinum Gleditsia aquatica Ilex glabra Ilex verticillata Magnolia virginiana Chamaecyparis thyoides Cephalanthus occidentalis Lindera benzoin various Betula Larix laricina Picea mariana If you know the area is drier in the summer, just about any bottomland or floodplain adapted tree will thrive. That will give you many more choices. Simon
Hillier Manual has a list, as will other references. Unless a display of swamp plants is enough, it would be better if you could drain part of it or construct berms, it sounds like even those trees able to tolerate the existing conditions and grow large may then be subject to being toppled by winds during wet weather.
Thanks guys, We already have a few of the trees mentioned but also a lot I hadn't thought of. I had looked through my Hilliers manual but wasn't that inspired by what they had suggested. Good book though Ron. You were right about the liklihood of them toppling when older too. I imagine there will be some drying once the tree root systems have established but even so, I am going to suggest they reinstate the filled in ditch to direct the water away. Of the species listed above the Persea is something I've never come across. What does that do? I've found it near impossible to source Larix laricina and Cham. thyoides in the UK. Apparently our native mice have acquired a taste for the seedlings of these trees!
Is it within your budget to install a French style drain trench to collect the water, and pass it through from one side to the other in a solid pipe and let it release out of perforated pipe again? ADS drain pipe is very inexpensive - like $30 per hundred feet. The only other expense is digging and rock or gravel (dirt free gravel preferred) I've installed drainage before to gather from one back yard uphill, transfer the water down to the next fence line and release it. Nothing changed for the downhill nieghbor - they were getting the run-off anyway.
