Go to the library and get books by Marjorie Fish. They are wonderful books and her "ditch garden" is still famous many years after her death. I have always wished I had a ditch! Be joyful!

I really have no firsthand knowledge of how to manage ditches, but I'll take a stab at some suggestions. The first thing that came to mind was irises. There is a native one, yellow, I believe it's native, called yellow flag or Louisiana iris??? It would naturally grow in those places. I wouldn't think a drought tolerant plant would like it there, as I assume it gets flooded sometimes. One thing I would worry about is if that ditch gets choked by weeds and brush, your property and maybe your house could flood. Depends on the location of ditch, amount of runoff that goes thru there, etc. Having experienced several floods in my lifetime, you really don't want to take a chance with that. So you might have to get the ditch really cleared out first (hire someone, possibly use a product like glyphosate - weed and/or brush killer -- debate continues on whether that product is benign or harmful to environment) then plant your water-loving plant and maybe the clover on the banks. The other plant I thought of was canna lilly but at least mine are really prolific and thick and might clog up the ditch. I would probably go with the yellow flag, if it was me.
Laurie

Dear bluebirdmama:
By all means, consider planting kudzu (_Pueraria lobata_) on your ditch. Many consider it the plant that saved the South--saved it from the horrors of erosion that plagued our region after generations of poor farming practices. Even its Latin name sounds exotic. As we all know, kudzu is lush and vigorous, to put it mildly. It lends not only a trendy tropical effect but also a beguiling Oriental effect. Its octopus-like tendrils will hide a multitude of sins. Add to the above-named virtues dark-purple, late-summer, fragrant racemes of wisteria-like flowers and you have a plant nonpareil. Kudzu may be hard to find in the nursery trade; but no doubt, you may have friends or relatives, or total strangers, for that matter, who may gladly share a little of the vine with you. Of course, one of its virtues that I failed to note is its wonderful use as a food product for human or animal consumption. Goats, in particular, love to chow down on kudzu, as do woodchucks, aka groundhogs, and possibly those infernal nutria of the bayous. As Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing!"

I joked about planting kudzu, funny you mentioned it. Problem there is that my neighbors would build a scaffold and lench me. Rightly so. It kills trees and covers everything! I live in MS, and we are desperately trying to kill it, have been trying to kill it for the last 40 years. No luck.

It's illegal to plant it! Pines are great to plant to stop erosion!

We live on a hill, the ditch at the bottom, so I'm not the least worried about flooding. Canna and iris would both work in the moist bottom, good suggestions! Also, they attract beneficial insects.

I think I'll probably go with crimson clover because it grows here year round and is quite green and pretty in winter. I expect a few squeaks and squawks from the neighbors when it blooms in spring, and they figure out that lovely green stuff is the same thing the county plants along roadsides! I'll get earplugs.

Thanks much for your suggestions!!! This will be a major project - very big ditch!

Crimson clover is an annual but reseeds itself easily. You may want to mix in the perennial white dutch clover with it. That would be very thick and lush. The bees will love you for it. You could also mix in some wildflower seeds such as California poppies.

I have some mixed with crimson clover and the yellow-orange flower of the poppy looks really cool with the crimson buds and dark green foliage of the clover.

When you buy your clover, ask if it's been innoculated. That means they add the bacteria to the seed that allows clover to add nitrogen to the ground.