Plants for my moat

[ZuzuandZara]

Well alright, not really a moat.

We have a drainage ditch running along part of our garden, about 75', It's a trickle of water a few inches deep at the moment, with some tiny fish. It has high banks with a lot of overhanging trees so is very shady. Gets deeper with a lot of rain and in the winter and it almost dries out sometimes. It feeds into a deeper stream at the bottom of the garden, and on the other side is a small woods then fields/wasteland.

We've not long moved in and there is no fencing along these walls. We're planning on putting up low trellis fence and making a feature out of our moat.

So the question is (I'm getting there!) can we plant anything in the water, or on the banks? I'l love some attractive plants, flowering possibly. I also want to create some wildlife habitats in the garden (we have lots of birdlife and slow worms) I'd love to attract dragonflies, more birds and oh, I don't know, other stuff! It's all got be be fairly low maintenance and on a budget!

Sorry for huge ramble. I've got a busy couple of days, will be back when I can.

Thanks for reading.

gunnera, I loved it as a child as it made you feel as if you had shrunk.

Wow, there's a funky looking thing. I know what you mean about the child/size thing. I have 2 yr old twins, I could set up a great photo!

I don't think there's room unfortunately. Between us and neighbours is about 6' so I think that gunnera would block up the area too much. If I planted it in the bottom, so actually in the water it would catch all the bits floating down the stream and possibly block it up iyswim? At the bottom of the garden there is lots more room but already loads of greenery, not sure what if any nice plants, lots of nettles, small trees so I'd have to clear a massive area to plant gunnera. I do like the look of it though, thanks.

Yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) is a possibility - lovely yellow flowers in the summer and good for wildlife. It can grow in light shade.

Oh thanks astrantiaroma, you've answered another q I forgot to ask, which was - what's the pretty tall yellow flower we have growing in the bottom stream?! Great, I'll plant some more of that in the ditch along the side. It's all a bit overgrown at the bottom, I can't really see them for the weeds/nettles. We'll have to have a bit of a clear up in the bottom stream I think.

More ideas please

Candelabra Primroses will grow well in damp conditions as will the purple long stemmed ones [forgotten the name].There was a Gardeners World programme in the spring featuring a garden with a mass of stunning Candelabra primroses in slightly different dolly mixture shades.It would be well worth watching if you can find it.Thompson and Morgan have plug plants in these primroses at the moment.I'm very envious because i would really love to grow them -but my soil is too dry.

Thank you both, that's loads of ideas. Am feeling quite excited!

I'm a bit hectic at the moment (I was 40 yesterday and my celebrations are lasting for a few days ) but when I've got a while I'll sit down and look up those plants and see if I can see the GW programmes.

Thanks for you ideas, I really appreciate it.