How to look after your garden in a prolonged WET period

There are certain measures you can take to help prevent your garden from flooding or from being consistently wet in places:

  • Areas that flood need drainage installing. If it is a patio or hard surface then a channel drain may be appropriate, taking the water into either existing drains or a soak-away.
  • Areas can be drained by installing simple French drains or land drain channels taking the excess water to a different part of the garden or into a soak-away
  • Areas that flood could have a clay subsoil or compacted layer that holds the water. This can be rectified sometimes by simply breaking up or through the area, or by taking this layer away and replacing with a gravel layer with fresh top soil above
  • Some down-pipes drain into soak-ways which can make parts of the garden wet. This water could be captured in a water butt or rainwater harvesting system, firstly to stop as much water going into the soak-away and secondly, to use the water in dry periods. A rainwater harvesting system means that hose-pipe bans do not apply to you as you are capturing and using your own water
  • A specific part of the garden that floods could have a soak-away installed beneath it. This would take the water holding in the surface to a greater depth and so drying up the area

Other things to try

  • Plants could be potted, raising them out of the ground
  • Build a rockery or raised beds to raise soil levels
  • Install a pond in the lowest area
  • There are also lots of plants that are ideally suited to wet areas if you cannot drain the area, or if you would prefer to plant up a boggy area:
  • Angelica
  • Astilbe
  • Caltha – ‘Kingcup’ or ‘Marsh marigold’
  • Cimicifuga – ‘Bugbane’
  • Cornus alba
  • Eupatorium
  • Geum
  • Gunnera mannicata
  • Hemorocallis – ‘Day lily’
  • Hosta
  • Houttuynia
  • Hydrangea paniculata
  • Iris
  • Ligularia
  • Lobelia
  • Peltiphylum pellatum
  • Phyllostachys
  • Primula
  • Rodgersia
  • Trollius – ‘Globe flower’
  • Zantedeschia aethiopica