When there’s an area in your landscape that is frequently waterlogged, it can be a problem finding plants that will grow there. It’s also difficult to keep a wet patch mowed or at least fairly neat-looking.

Sometimes the answer is to divert the water course and create a berm with the soil excavated as part of the process of digging the creek bed. It’s usually easier to find plants that will grow along the new berm rather than in a swamp.

Here are two readers who struggling with very similar problems.

QUESTION: “We have an area between our lawn and our neighbors’ lawn that is very wet! It is swampy and difficult to mow. We would like to put up a hedge or some trees to grow there to separate the lawns and to reduce the amount of upkeep required of the area. We live in USDA zone 6. Any suggestions?” – Kelly Kane

ANSWER: If the area remains continually wet you may have a little difficulty getting even plants that DO like damp soil to establish. It will be trial and error in most cases even for plants such as red twig dogwoods or chokeberry that enjoy wet areas.

If there is a period when the area dries up some that would be the time to plant so they could take hold. Here is a link to an article authored for the North Carolina State University Extension: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-646.html It is titled “Qualifiers for Quagmires” and features a listing of plants that will grow in wet areas, including species that have been known to tolerate flooded conditions for extended periods of time. It should give you some ideas.

But here’s another thought. Would you be able to put in a dry creek bed to divert the water to another area of the property? If that’s a viable option, the sides of the dry creek could be “bermed” or raised up. Along the berm, you could plant things like ornamental grasses or clumping bamboos for more of a natural property line. Good luck on your project!

QUESTION: “Part of our back yard is on a hill bordering a nature center. Needless to say we enjoy a beautiful view onto a forested area. One of our problems is that the underground water level is high and there is water flowing gently down the hill until the month of July. As a result we can't mow the lawn in the upper part of the yard and everything we have planted there in the past has rotted away.

“We would prefer not to have to plant large trees since we already have them in the nature center. Someone suggested bamboo. What would you do? Your kind advice would be appreciated.” – Eti Mayer

ANSWER: Bamboo will grow in damper soil, but doesn’t generally grow in really wet soil. If there is so much water that it rots most of what you plant, I don’t know if bamboo would grow either. If you wanted to try, I would recommend the clumping varieties which grow just like an ornamental grass and will get larger as they age, but are not invasive. Take a look at Bamboo Umbrella Fargesia murielae which does not have running rhizomes and needs no containment to prevent spread. It grows well in zones 5 - 9.

You should speak with someone at the nature center letting them know of the situation that you are experiencing and see if they have any recommendations. Red twig dogwood will grow in soggy soil, but does reproduce from the roots and can become semi-invasive and they may not want such a plant bordering them.

It can be difficult to plant or care for the area when the water table is up so much that the ground stays saturated. As I suggested to the writer of the question above, you might want to see if it’s possible to create a dry creek bed to direct rain water running down the hill and berm around it to create a river bank look where you could plant shrubs and other perennials that otherwise wouldn’t grow there.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, including archived columns, visit www.landsteward.org