planting on wet soil

by jill
(connecticut)

When your garden backs up to a pond how worried should you be about planting? Can you plant your tradtional perenials like a hydrangea,echancia butterfly bush ect... is it always a wet land if your near a pond? All flowers need water some perfer to dry out do they not when its near water? how far in from the pond is the soil moist underground? thanks Jill (Connecticut)

Doug says let's take these one at a time.

Worried about planting? I'm not - you simply plant perennials that can take wet feet. You do not plant perennials that want drylands.

Traditional perennials? See above. Depends what you call traditional perennials I suppose. The deal is simple - if it takes wet feet, it can thrive next to a pond. Check out the lists of plants here.

Is it always a wet land if near a pond? Well no - if the pond has a liner, and you don't let the water escape, then there's no wetland. You have to create or use a natural wetland to get wet soils.

All flowers have different needs for water - yes. And the trick to gardening is studying each plant you want to grow and understanding if it will grow where you want to put it.

How far from a pond does the water travel? Depends on the soil. There's no one size fits all here. It will travel different distances in clay versus sand and at different speeds and directions. So I can't help you out by telling you how far away you can plant - you're going to have to do some digging and experimenting in your own garden to figure that out.