good plants for seasonally poor drainage?

15 years ago

My fiancee and I are renting a place in the northern Sacramento Valley, and we're allowed to garden in it. However, the drainage in the winter is atrocious. I already dug a drainage ditch from the back yard out to the street, but this has only improved the situation to the point that now, after a heavy rainstorm, the back yard is almost entirely underwater for about four days (rather than three weeks, as was previously the case). The soil is the heaviest clay imaginable, and we're surrounded by rice fields.

I would like to know what plants (other than rice!) I can grow in these conditions. I had been hoping for a native plant garden, but most natives can't handle the amount of standing water we have in the winter. My deergrass, Santa Barbara sedge, and Ithuriel's spear (all monocots) are the only plants that are really doing well in the low-lying areas. California golden poppies are doing all right around the edges, on very slightly higher ground. Coffeeberry is drowning even on the higher ground. I'm willing to consider non-natives to supplement these. However, I also have these requirements:

* I don't want to have to water very much in the summer

* the back yard is all in full sun, with 100-degree temperatures much of the summer and reflected sun from a white south-facing wall

* the yard is too small for trees or large shrubs

* I would very much prefer perennials over annuals

* I don't want to plant invasive weeds

I thought maybe some of you could suggest something that would work. I realize that I'm basically trying to garden in a vernal pool, but vernal pool plants are practically impossible to find for sale, and even if I could find them, they'd only look good for a few months and then die off for the rest of the year. I think I'm on the right track with grasses, sedges, and lilies, because they're surviving so far when nothing else is. But they all have essentially the same, grasslike foliage, providing no significant contrast to each other. I'd like to have at least a little foliage that isn't grasslike. Can anyone recommend other plants I could mix in?

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Comments (5)

dicot
15 years ago
The first two thoughts that come to mind are CA bog plants and to engineer yourself into drainage with raised beds - my solution after I lost most of my salvias and other natives to poor drainage as well.

Cannas and callas and ginger lillies might work, but will only look good until all that direct sun fries them. My lemon marigolds (tagetes lemmonii) have survived everything nature has thrown at them, as have the gaura. Salvia uliginosa comes to mind, but is invasive. Same for bamboo.I can't remember if cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) are a CA native, but it tolerates standing water.

If you are just renting, it wouldn't make sense to spend a lot on wood for raised beds and purchased soils, but even a gently sloping raised area with the existing soil and some added organic matter could help make sure some natives don't suffocate in wet months.

Here is a link that might be useful: San Marcos growers - bog plants.
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
15 years ago
As this yard has a persistent drainage problem no matter who lives there, talk to your property owner about hauling in about 5 yards of top soil to build a berm to give the yard some drainage. As a former owner of rental property, I would be delighted with a tenant who wished to garden and would want to improve the property. Al
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Mostly you can tell by the fact that plants that are considered reliably hardy in your zone, & grown by many people here on the forum in your zone, DIE in your garden over the winter, either never returning in the spring, OR by trying to return in the spring by sending out one sickly sprig & then quickly dying off, & they do these things for you over multiple attempts at growing them. Believe me I have plenty of experience with this. Why this happens is somewhat a matter for speculation. My experience has been that plants labelled with cautions about drainage (beyond the "moist but well-drained" nonsense that is on so many labels) may have considerable difficulty overwintering in my garden, despite zone compatibility. In addition, plants labelled for zone 6, which some people around here can grow, will almost NEVER survive winter for me, unless planted under the eaves at the highest point in the yard. Zone stretching is painful here. I blame this on "winter wet". My definition is somewhat broader, however, than Whaas's is. I can have this problem just about anywhere in my yard. I garden on very heavy compacted clay - where everything drains slowly. I have gardened on this clay (I still don't call it soil) for over 15 years now, constantly amending & improving it, with some gains, but a lot of plant losses. In very cold, consistently cold weather, with good snow cover, my losses are now usually slight. In a year with freezes, ice storms, occasional snow cover, odd warm spells, followed by winter as usual, losses are high. My theory is that many of these plants survive my winters, just not my sometimes nasty autumns & wicked springs. To combat winter losses I use every trick in the book. Amending soil & planting under the eaves I have already mentioned, & raising beds is certainly helpful, along with selecting plants that are moisture loving (remember most of these still need some air in the soil), always picking major shrubs and trees compatible with clay, & planting high, using mounding & little shelves, etc. I find that rock works the best, big rocks, little rocks, gravel & grit & granite fines, in the soil and on top of the soil. Commercial products like Profile (fired ceramic bits) can do wonders but are expensive. We could not keep a front curb tree alive in our (very non-urban) setting (probably because of the piled snow Whaas mentioned, rather than the dry heat so often associated with these locations) before we discovered it. A mailbox planting is out of the question, I'd have to raise the mailbox too high for the mailman. :))
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wanda
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I think Calistoga is right. All the plants I can think of that would tolerate standing water would be more or less seasonal and not look too good in summer with no water and the ones that would, would not tolerate that much water in winter.
One other option, if the clay is really heavy and drainage is really poor, then you might be able to incorporate riparian and/or pond perimeter plants if you are willing to flood the area once or twice a month. The clay should hold in enough water to meet their needs.
I have Yerba Mansa, Mimulus guttatus, Yellow-eyed grass, Epipactus gigantea (Stream Orchid), Lillium pardalinum, CA horsetail, and Mimulus cardinalis (all natives) around the edges of my pond and they work pretty well.

wanda
hosenemesis
15 years ago
Pond. Rental. Hmmm.

Yellow flag iris might do well if you can water it in the summer.
wilbilt
15 years ago
I feel your pain, living in the same general area and surrounded by rice fields and mosquitoes. The soil is a thick red clay, gumbo in the wet season and like concrete in the summer. About 32" down is a layer of blue clay that is nearly impenetrable.

I am not much of a gardener, although have tried my hand at some vegetables over the years without much success. Anything I plant in the ground will drown if I water it, and dry out if I don't.

Bamboo seems to do well, and I do have some Callas that have managed to survive for several years without any intervention. There is some sort of bulb with white flowers that comes back every year. They are common around here, and can be seen delineating old homesteads as they sprout up in neat rows or rectangles this time of year.

I also had some sort of onions volunteering in rows for several years. It's hard telling what the old-timers had planted around here, but I am sure they knew a lot more about it than I do.

If you have any commercial rice drying operations nearby, you may be able to obtain rice hulls at no cost to use as an amendment to improve drainage. I tilled in a couple of pickup loads one year, and it helped, but would need to be done yearly, as the clay swallows everything you put into it.

good plants for seasonally poor drainage?

Comments (5)

dicot

calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9

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