# What tree for a wet boggy garden



## Gill (4 Feb 2018)

So in 2017 I moved house x3 due to family drama. 
I am finally settled in a lovely 3bed detached new build. 
Looking forward at redoing to garden. 
No grass going to astro turf once weather gets a little better here.
Looking at having a few trees. No clue whatsoever as to what to have.  
Garden is in the shade most of the day till after 2pm and boggy. So want a nice tree or large tree ferns that will like it. 

Do want to put it  some  passion flowers along the fencing as like those. And enjoy them blooming.  

And will be building a small pond for some temperate fish. Want to try medaka as they can overwinter easily.

Wildlife there is plenty.
Lots of song birds, squirrels, etc. And there is a park area at the side of the house. And fields surrounding the area within in few mins walk. Seen a few hawks aswell.  




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## zozo (4 Feb 2018)

!5 years ago i moved into a house with a north side garden. So it's wett and damp most of the year, depending on the summers it is doable from may till september, the rest of the year it's rather a mess. Planting trees in such gardens is tricky, regarding mess, it requires a lot of maintenance when foilage starts to fall off. Depending on the size of the tree and the type of tree it can be a daily task to clean the lawn, if you don't the lawn gets completely covered with a damp almost airtight blanket of dead foilage, the grass bellow it will suffocate, die and dissappear.

In my case i have a neighbour and he planted a huge about 15m tall American Chestnut 1 metre from my garden, so this tree hangs 50% over my ground.  This type of tree is particularly dirty.. It sheds 3 times a year, after the spring it sheds the blossoms, tons of it for weeks,




After the summer it sheds it's seed pots etc. And again tons of it. During that time i need a helmet when i need to clean it out daily for weeks.




After that it sheds it's leaves, again for weeks.. I clean it out 3 days later my lawn is covered again. I don't have the time to clean it every day. But it takes only a week to distroy the lawn. I have to reseed the lawn with grass every year because of this darn Chestnutter.

So planting trees in a damp and wet garden is something to think twice about considering the time you have and your physical condition and your neighbours temprament. As in my case, i could shoot my neighbour for it, planting such a dirty tree so close to my garden. Now i'm not the type to make a fuss about it, i don't, i don't hate and even don't like to use that word, that feeling doesn't excist in me and can't hate a tree. But it definitively is a nuisance i've learned to live with.

IMHO, plant one that gives you something more in return than debri only, worth the effort and worth looking at. 15 years ago I planted a Hedelfinger Cherry.. It has a rather beautifull appearance blossoming early in the year with white flowers and after that i have buckets full of delicious sweet cherries. Even the neighbours love it, because i can never eat them all myself and i say to them, take what ever you want.  You only need to wait about 5 years, for a young cherry to start fruiting. After that it's a cherry party every spring again.


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## Gill (4 Feb 2018)

Thanks for the input zozo. 
Like the idea of a Cherry Tree and the lovely blossoms. And would pair with a few acers. 
Neighbouring houses have mainly bushes and grassy trees, so may borrow some ideas from them. 

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## tam (4 Feb 2018)

Try the RHS search, you can pick plant and soil type etc.: https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/Search-Form

Bamboo could be an option - you want a clump forming one so they don't spread runners. Also tend to keep their leaves so less mess to tidy up! Can we good for screening too if you want to block some of the houses behind you - though take into account sun direction so you don't reduce it further.

We have a black lace elder which looks pretty nice - a bit acer ish really but faster growing and the flowers are huge: https://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/sambucus-nigra-f-porphyrophylla-eva/classid.2000004449/ it's sort of half way between a tree and a big shrub. It's leaves are quite thin so must rot away quick as we never need to tidy them up.


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## LondonDragon (4 Feb 2018)

zozo said:


> After the summer it sheds it's seed pots etc.


Free supply of chestnuts!! when can I move in?


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## jayp (4 Feb 2018)

Try Amelanchier ....buy it as a tree with a trunk not a bush.  It stays small , has glorious flowers in Spring ( bit like a Cherry) superb autumn colour . It really is a lovely tree ....also grows well in damp ground 
As a prof gardener I can tell you Bamboo is a total pain in the blahblahblahblah , it's clump gets relentlessly bigger , impossible to prune , impossible to kill and does shed its leaves but does it all year instead of once. In damp ground it will grow bigger and quicker

Acer Griseum (paperbark maple) is a stunning small tree, very slow growing , pretty leaves and beautiful cinnamon coloured bark that naturally peels off in strips 

For shrubs ...Camellia , Rhododendron, Azalea, Pieris, Halesia will all enjoy the shade below the fence line.

Enjoy


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## Gill (4 Feb 2018)

Thanks, 
I went to the garden centre here in Findern. 
I got a lovely Black Cherry Tree,  Tayberry and Gooseberry. As they were reduced to £4 each.
They did not have any acers etc yet, so may order online. 
Will have a look into the ones mentioned thanks 


The top right corner is full of very thick orangey roots about 2 inch thick. Had to use a cleaver to hack them out of the way. Dunno what plant/tree they were from. 


Definitely want a passion flowers for the back fence panels, will look great in think. 



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## zozo (5 Feb 2018)

LondonDragon said:


> Free supply of chestnuts!! when can I move in?


Anytime..  In the beginning i also collected and roasted the nuts, or made little puppets from them with matchsticks.. But actualy they aren't that special in taste and quite large. If you collect all that lands in my garden you'll have more then the whole neighbourhood will eat. I have to move at least 6 x 180 litre greenbin from that tree only every year. He also planted a Wallnut, but that one stands 10 metres away from my fence  the selfish basterd.


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## kadoxu (5 Feb 2018)

zozo said:


> !5 years ago i moved into a house with a north side garden. So it's wett and damp most of the year, depending on the summers it is doable from may till september, the rest of the year it's rather a mess. Planting trees in such gardens is tricky, regarding mess, it requires a lot of maintenance when foilage starts to fall off. Depending on the size of the tree and the type of tree it can be a daily task to clean the lawn, if you don't the lawn gets completely covered with a damp almost airtight blanket of dead foilage, the grass bellow it will suffocate, die and dissappear.
> 
> In my case i have a neighbour and he planted a huge about 15m tall American Chestnut 1 metre from my garden, so this tree hangs 50% over my ground.  This type of tree is particularly dirty.. It sheds 3 times a year, after the spring it sheds the blossoms, tons of it for weeks,
> 
> ...


I have a really big one right on top of my garden... it's a nightmare... went on holiday last summer and came back to a nice fluffy carpet of dead flowers... and I also have a conservatory that sounds like we are being bombed during those weeks the nuts are falling. And the squirrels... the squirrels will also try to kill you with nuts from up above!


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## dw1305 (5 Feb 2018)

Hi all, 





jayp said:


> Try Amelanchier ....buy it as a tree with a trunk not a bush. It stays small , has glorious flowers in Spring ( bit like a Cherry) superb autumn colour . It really is a lovely tree ....also grows well in damp ground





jayp said:


> Acer Griseum (paperbark maple) is a stunning small tree, very slow growing , pretty leaves and beautiful cinnamon coloured bark that naturally peels off in strips


They are both favourites of mine. I really like <"_Acer griseum">,_ but it is always expensive to buy, as well as being slow growing, it is difficult to propagate (most of the seed isn't viable, they are tricky to graft and difficult as a softwood cutting).





jayp said:


> Camellia , Rhododendron, Azalea, Pieris, Halesia


 I've got the first three of these in pots, but they won't grow in our garden, they need soil that is neutral or acid. 

<"_Halesia carolina">_ is a lovely tree.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo (5 Feb 2018)

And stay away from Birch, very decorative some people think.. But also extremely dirty and in a way they attract legions of flying insects.. Having a summer BBQ with a Birch close by than make sure all guests have a fly swapper.


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## Gill (5 Feb 2018)

Thanks for all the input guys. 
Lots of choices to think about. 
I really Do miss having trees in a garden. Was really lucky growing up. The Main House (weekends for me) had a 100x50  Enclosed x4sides garden. With a lovely big weeping willow, big rockery and loads of space to run around in. And a Rickety Barn to play in.  And the weekday house had a really long garden overlooking grazing pastures. 

Looking forward to spending time in this house and making the Garden a nice peaceful place to chill in, in the summer. As found a job here where I can work from home, and sitting in the Consevatory will be lovely. Not having to stress about travelling to and from work and being stuck in traffic for over an hour in the evenings was horrible. And my Health has certainly been on downward spiral of late. 

Looking forward to putting in a small pond aswell, Already got a few tubs going for live food and snails.


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## Gill (26 Feb 2018)

Have ordered a few bonsai cherry trees in a few colors to try out in seed format.  Will see what happens with them for a quid not too bothered. 
Found an online Garden centre that sells lovely shrubs in arranged groups of 15. For a reasonable price so going to order a few sets to fill the right border and along the back. That is once we tackle all the roots and get the soil ready. Just waiting on the weather to improve and then will get started. 
Still looking to put in a small pond. There are a few shops here where I can get the very large Indian style washing tubs that have used in the past for tub ponds. So looking at them. Still do keep my eye on the local listing incase there is a small pond going.Should have gone to the closing down sale at A5, but didn't. There were some real bargains to be had. 

Trees planted are doing well. And keep them nicely fed with water from the tank. 


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## Gill (15 Apr 2018)

All the trees are doing well, Cherry is budding. Tayberry and Gooseberry are also starting to bud. 
And have planted some Strawberries. 
Plum tree is doing really well. 
Have found something growing within the gap beweenconsevatory wall and next door, will try and remember to take pix.  
As decent weather is forecast over the next few days, I will be taking more pix of what i have incovered so far from weeding. Just so I know what to keep. Think there is a Bramble of sort, and some interesting flowering things.  
There is a Large Rambling Twiggy busg thing, that has rather large spines. I have cut this back yesterday with alot of procrastinating over the spines. Due having to pull one out of my finger with a bit of skin attached.
Bonsai Trees seeds finally arrived last week. So will be potting them up, so that they have a good start. Dunno how well they will look with Neon Blue and Pink Leaves, but for 99p for 20 seeds cant go wrong. 

Also there are loads of buttercups come up in the lawn. If i dig them up can they be replanted, as like them alot.to go along the back border.


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