My favorite way to handle excess water in winter is to dig trenches or ditches to channel it away to an outlet. If there is no outlet but only a low place it could be dug lower and lined with rock to make a seasonal pond or marsh.

I personally hate grass, it is the source in my yard of weed grasses, and constantly invades my growing beds. If I had a city lot I would try to emulate the garden of Gail Austin, who used to sell perennials and has a lovely garden completely covered in chipped wood (which she managed to get free from wood chipping outfits, don't ask me how). She installed soaker hoses under the mulch in all the beds, and has meandering paths, gorgeous daylilies, hostas, lilies, iris, and posts with wire attached to grow clematis for height interest, interspersed with benches and solar lanterns for a really lovely garden.

I managed to find one video of her garden, you have to wait for a few commercials...

Here is a link that might be useful: Gail Ausin garden

Free wood chips are a good thing. I just want everything green though. We have 5 creeklets running thru yard so drainage is good.

Moss will be the permanent solution. Wish it would rain like it used to. In such an awful man-made drought. Just a little mist is all we ever get here. I've already started watering.

Those who scientifically MEASURE the rain with a rain gauge know it's way below average for the 5th year in a row.

That link says "broken" ...

cascadians- The link said that the first couple of times but I kept on. Sometimes if you go to another website then hit the back arrow back to the link then it will go for some reason. I did succeed in seeing the video.... it is an interview with Mike Darcy. Perhaps it can be found through his site.

Gail Austin's garden is amazing, even though she cut it in half. Most of the pictures were taken before the change. I sure wish my DH would let me get rid of the lawn and do this.

My pictures are here:
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p162/LeeAnne151/My%20Travels/Oregon/Gail%20Austin%20Garden/

>>Green green green anything to make it all green ...

With your drainage issue... you could plant one of each Equisetum species and see which one wins!

Ian, those damn horsetails are already overtaking my yard! Do you know they're the most pernicious weed ever? They spread 6' underground! And the only way to get rid of them is to pick every single one fast by roots for 3 years to deprive that root system of sunlight energy. Well, I do that in my yard but my neighbors don't. They have FORESTS of the stuff and don't care. I'm doomed.

They're too thick and drink too much and disturb other roots when they come up. And they're spindly and icky.

The yard actually drains well now. Only when there's a really heavy rain does it turn into a lake and then within 24 hours the water is gone. It doesn't rain heavily anymore. On New Years Day this year it rained about 3" and flooded everything but other than that, just light mist here.

I'm hoping the tree roots become aggressive enough over time to dig beneath the flagstones and that water gets under there too. 3 years ago when we put down one path with rustic basalt rock we went with the less expensive pallets which had been picked over, big mistake. Learned my lesson, bought 5 tons intact, a discontinued kind that's thicker than patio stone because we didn't sand or mortar and don't want cracking. Some of these flagstones are really big.

Will take pictures soon and post them to this thread.

Still no sign of a single slug! That possum ate millions! Yea! If God would only solve all our problems so easily :-) Elves, elves, we could use lots of elves, and I want a werewolf at the gate for security.

Here you go. If you buy this then I won't have to get one for you and put it in your yard when you're not looking.

Actually I think bboy needs one... maybe two!

Here is a link that might be useful: Equisetum

Ian! What a sense of mischief! Zounds, never could have imagined. You plant one of those here and I catch you and keep you imprisoned 40 years as slave yard boy pulling these. I could really use a full-time yard helper -- actually a werewolf is what I really want -- so if you let temptation overpower you I'll put it to good use.

It's not raining enough to water tree roots. Just barely misting enough for the emerging grass / clover. I have to go around dragging hoses in this mud to deep-water everything. All trees are now pushing buds and spring changes. Don't want to run sprinklers because they tend to slosh mud back over the stones. Once the grass is thick these problems will disappear ... and I'll get busy with the moss so when the grass goes away the green and non-mud will remain.

Will be taking pictures this week, getting them back next Sunday.

Still pulling black hollow tubes of last year's horsetails. Such persistent prehistoric pests!

Wait a minute.... you've got dry soil under mud? It sounds like your land is simply defective. You should file a complaint with the goddess of Oregon.

Yes, the tippy top is just wet enough from mist to be muddy on the hose since grass hasn't come up yet thickly. But the moisture isn't deep enough to water tree roots. 1/100th of an inch doesn't go very far.

The dirt is 4-way-blend, topsoil / cow manure / compost / sand, and very dirty gritty dirt.

I think anybody can see how far down the soil is moist by digging into the soil or using a water meter.

I've had to dig up trees killed by the snow/ice/cold, and the ground underneath the top surface is dry. So back to the hoses I go.

Yahoooo! It's finally rained enough to bring the water table up into standing lake mode. Now I know the dirt under the flagstones is wet. The rainwater pooling is clear but the ground water coming up is murky clay brown, very different. Streams are running hard. Water memory has held and is running underground.

We had to raise the topsoil in the whole 1/4 acre, anywhere from 1' - 4', to be sure trees would survive prolonged immersion and allow the top of the rootball to breathe. That was when it used to rain a lot more. Since then rainfall has been far below average and I've been watering like mad to keep the trees alive. Praying they're learning to dig their roots down into that wonderful dense clay swamp water table full of liquid and nutrients.

Today they're immersed in a giant swimming pool. No worries except dragging out the utility pumps and pumping out the crawlspace which fills in these times. 2300 sq ft of crawlspace is a LOT of water.

So glad I re-did my whole yard surface at the beginning of February when it was warm and dry. No way one could haul around 5 tons of quartz flagstones and 14 cubic yards of dirt now! Trees are definitely starting to change into spring bud phase. Eucs are shedding their freeze-dried leaves. Looking forward to finally seeing the miraculous intense growth spurt in most of my trees that is promised after they've been in the ground 3 years.

We didn't take many winter photos of our yard because it was too depressing. The ice and snow decapitated a lot of our trees and killed 2 Eucalyptus Scoparias which were very beautiful and provided much-needed shade on the west outer wall. The ice snapped off the top 2/3rds of our Edith Bogue magnolias which were finally getting full and lollipop perfect.

To our great joy we can now tell that the rest of the Eucs will re-leaf and survive. Big investment there. Last weekend pulled out lots of dead trees / bushes and replaced with hardier saplings.

The flagstones are working very well. Can run around yard without fear. But 1/4 yard, grass disappeared again. Went to ProTime and bought shade grass and reseeded. Will see if that works. Love grass. If it doesn't work we'll do the moss AND the ivy. I don't mind pruning and snipping. Just really desperate for all-green here.

Photos of beginning of February when we first laid down the granite sage flagstones and reseeded (like the 6th time now!).

1st pix from front east of yard, which we refer to as our "swimming pool." Our yard is a swamp in winter, very high water table. 5 creeklets. Anyway the grass has filled in this area really well and we've planted a whole lot of gorgeous trees / bushes / flowers since these photos. Here's the raw winter post-ice-apocalypse look:

West side of yard already had basalt rock path going down it. So that left the entire back swamp and east strip to lay flagstone paths to conquer the perpetual mud. 1/2, the grass has flourished, thick and beautiful, erosion control grass. But the other 1/2 of back may take drastic painstaking measure to turn green!

Wow. That's a lot of trees.

What a lovely woodsy look! The paths look great. Maybe the moss will come to your rescue. Pachysandra might be a good alternative to the ivy, and won't grow up your trees. I like the look of Wintergreen under trees, too. Have you walked the Audubon society's trails to see what native groundcovers do well?

Here is a link that might be useful: moss path

Hemnancy, that moss path looks fabulous! We're getting a lot of moss growing on umpteen retaining walls and some rocks on the ground. It will be a challenge with the amount of leaf fall to have the ground all moss which I expect will happen eventually anyway. Moss likes to stay free of debris. We do have a lawn vacuum. LOVE moss! The willows make constant litter.

Have not tried wintergreen yet. Says it needs good drainage and when it rains in winter, or like it is today. the yard becomes a standing lake. Literally. All the creeks overflow and the water table rises higher higher until the clear water from above mingles with the intense clay underground water and hidden springs and the whole thing is a vast lake. With all the creeklets and dams and grades it does totally drain (except the pond and rivulets running in the creeklets) within 24 hours BUT while it continues raining it remains a lake.

Therefore, finding something that can withstand that much water is difficult. We have tried so many groundcovers! And almost all have disappeared. Creeping buttercup (considered a weed but lovely) is doing really well, and creeping jenny has held in the margins. Vinca thrives in the raised beds but not where it's extremely shady. Ajuga is good at the tips of our rhody beds. We've been gradually adding more ferns that are thriving. 1st 3 years it was so sunny that many things died of too much sun and heat and dryness in summertime.

Lately we planted many camellias. They will be very happy here. Raised them up and they like shade. Course they're not groundcovers but will give the yard bursts of color in the winter.

Miniature ivies are going gangbusters even in creeklets and areas that never ever dry out. We have lots of variegated variety and it's truly beautiful. I think it may be the ONLY thing that survives here long-term.

Will have to walk Audubon trails, that sounds awesome. We're still trying to unpack, just so much to do, but this summer we're planning on getting back to hiking and kayaking and taking ziplocs to harvest bits of moss that look happy in shady wet conditions.

With over 300 swamp trees must say they are SO happy when it rains a LOT like it is today. But our crawlspace is about to flood again (reason we planted so many trees, trying to suck up water to save the house), gotta get out the utility pumps.

We have 29 bird stations so whatever groundcover makes it is going to have to like a prodigious amount of bird droppings. Course when it rains that's good fertilizer ...

Anybody know of a nice groundcover that can handle intense shade and LOTS of water? Something that stays green in winter would be wonderful.

Found this Groundcover Chart, very helpful!

http://www.groundcover.com/usage/reco-chart.html

Have tried many plants on it, but there's some never even heard of, will try.

The miniature ivy we've bought from Gloria isn't Algerian it's Persian, live and learn ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Awesome Groundcover Chart

I have a groundcover that is extremely tough, one of the few that can overcome grass, but once you plant it you probably will never get rid of it. I haven't tried in in very wet situations but it does great in dry shade, probably anywhere. It is blooming presently, but only in spring.

{{gwi:117209}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Symphytum grandiflorum