My Incredible Wetland Garden "Journey"

Looking into the swampy garden. If the pictures are good, Ron took them. That's Oscar, the recycled metal goat, off to the right behind the switch grass.

Things are looking pretty good these days in my soggy backyard garden. All I can say is, it's about time.  I've been at this long enough.

I know, I know: life's a journey, it's-not-the-destination-it's-the-ride, blah blah blah. Me? I'm an "Are we there yet?" kind of person. I like results.  

But let's pretend I'm a different kind of person - the kind who gushes, without a hint of irony, "This has been the most incredible journey." So come along with me, if you will, on my incredible soggy garden journey.

After a rainstorm, 2005. That stretch of orange is a river of clay.

Pictured above: the design challenge. When we moved to Cary in 2005, the back yard was basically a flood-prone expanse of grass. Behind it lies a forest and protected wetland. For the first few years, we wisely left it alone. 

I love what you've done with the place! Preparing for the pathway, 2007.

2007: the journey begins. We decided to install pavers in the driveway and extend them to a pathway around the house. A crew came in, excavated the dirt, then dumped it in the back of the yard. My pathetic remnants of a lawn were now gone. And since the contractors very kindly compacted all that excavated dirt, the flooding got worse. There was only one logical thing to do: make a garden. 

Just another stop on my soggy garden journey. 2011, after Irene breezed through.

My research (and my own two eyes) told me I had a fairly challenging situation on my hands. The bottom half of the yard is low lying, with two natural streams behind it. In a rainstorm, the water overflows the streams, floods the yard, and occasionally takes down a tree. Stage 1 is massive runoff; Stage 2, standing water. Even after amending the soil, I still wind up with only the underlying clay, since the topsoil and mulch invariably sail away downstream.  

If I had half an ounce of brains and unlimited funds, I would have hired a landscaper, who would have built a French drain, hauled in truckloads of topsoil and edging materials, and created raised beds that somehow managed to look neat and natural at the same time. Since I have neither, Ron and I did it ourselves, piecemeal. It was pure idiocy, I know. But I figured that no matter how it turned out, it had to look better than it did before.  

Below, summer bloomers in the soggy garden.

Crinum 'Elizabeth Traub'

Hibiscus syriacus 'Blue Satin'

Louisiana Iris 'Black Gamecock'

Salvia uliginosa (bog sage)

Monarda 'Raspberry Wine'

Hibiscus 'Crown Jewels'

Little by little, year after year, we put down paper bags to kill the weeds, then covered them with compost and top soil, which we hauled in bag by bag. Then, armed with my list of wet-tolerant plants and some shredded pine bark to help with drainage, I started digging. I had no grand vision and no design scheme; plant placement was determined initially on a first-come, first-served basis. I'm still playing musical chairs with the plants.  

Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips' (Turtlehead)

Helianthus simulans (swamp sunflower)

Ilex 'Sparkleberry' (Winterberry holly)

Callicarpa americana (Beautyberry)

Chelone glabra 'Black Ace'

'Purple Dome' aster.

Above, fall bloomers in the soggy garden.

As I continue adding to the wetland garden, aesthetics by necessity take a back seat to practicality. Can I sink my shovel into the ground without hitting too many tree roots in this spot? Good, I'll put something here. This area gets only filtered sun? Bring on the Turtlehead. Then there's the inconvenient fact that "wet tolerance" is not a one-size-fits-all definition. Some wetland plants can take days of standing water, some cannot. Very few can tolerate un-amended North Carolina clay. I "design" the garden accordingly.

We're getting there. Summer 2012, with Rose of Sharon, bee balm, bog sage, and crinum.

I also had to accept the fact that while some wetland plants are quite ornamental, many are not. But beggars can't be choosers. Juncus has its uses, as does Winterberry holly. Ron once weed-whacked my tussock sedges, thinking they were weeds. Which, in a certain way, they are. 

The beat goes on. Tropical Storm Andrea, 2013.

Rest assured that I lost many plants along the way, and will continue to lose them in the future. All of my Lobelias, for instance, decided to quit after a year in my soggy garden, so I am now Lobelia-less, despite its reputation as a moisture-lover that grows on stream banks.  

My soggy garden, October 2013. The juncus, cut back earlier, is only growing back now.

All things considered, though, it's not looking too bad, if I do say so myself. It may not be garden-magazine good, but it's certainly better than it was before. And of course I learned a lot along the way. 

Enough with the life lessons. Are we there yet? 

Another view of the yard, October 2013.