reeds growing in a damp part of the garden - bog garden?

[whatcolourisyourthursday]

Hi there,

We currently have a rockery type affair where our small garden slopes up at theback.

however, I notice that at base there is a reed growing, like what grows in the wet patches on nearby moorland.

I would like to introduce more water but am not really up for maintaining a pond. Can anyone give me beginner's tips about a bog garden? I'll need some beautiful flowers to convince my husband it's a good idea and probably won't use the word "bog".

thank you.

This has a lot of good 'uns

www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/how-to-make-a-bog-garden

excellent, will take a look.

There are quite a few "bog" plants you could grow without going full bog. In terms of wild flowers I'd be looking at lady smock (Cardamine pratense), Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), Greater burnet (Sanguisorba), loosestrife (Lysimachia), also things like candelabra primrose - all of these like a damper soil. I've put in the scientific names because a lot of these have garden varieties.

thank you!

marsh marigold sounds like something that keeps on flowering a long time....

Papyrus grass and insectivorous pitcher plants (hardy sarracenias) as well. Oh and gunnera if you have the space!

She said 'small garden' in the OP ... I suppose one gunnera plant might be a novel approach.

Quite a few of my favourites are in the link above - some types of iris, candelabra primulas, astilbe.

Thank you.

marsh marigold sounds like something that keeps on flowering a long time.... 'fraid not. It flowers for a month or 6 weeks in the spring. It's in the buttercup family not the marigold family. Flowers about 5 times the size of buttercups, and leaves like mini-water-lily leaves.

There is a Gunnera species which has leaves about the same as a 1p coin and never grows more than a few inches high.