Sounds like an ideal spot to creat a pond and bog garden. Do you want to work with nature to create a pond, or remove the damp by planting water hungry trees??

Is this at the lowest point on your property, assuming so.

Dig some soil out the centre to create a pond area and a natural sump, the spoil can be used to heighten the surrounding area and reduce the area that is otherwise too moist. You can also have an in-between area that you can plant in.

Does the water drain away at all or are you left with evaporation only, is it seasonally wet (wetter) or is it constant. If constant that implies it is draining away. Having a flow of water greatly enhances the range of plants you can have, otherwise you can plant oxagenators in the pond that will help to stop everything becoming anerobic(black slimy muddy bog).

There are lots of good tips on this forum for plants, avoid the quick fix invasive fast growing stuff, get a good mix of natives and your wildlife will reward you and have a few well chosen (non invasive) foriegners about the place and you should have something to entertain you for most of the year.

Cheers Greenmanplants

Thank you! (I have read some of your other replies, and I appreciate the thought that you put into this!)

This is the lowest spot in our yard. Unfortunately due to the proximity to our septic field, we cannot plant water loving trees (that is what got us into this mess! my in-laws, from whom we purchased this house, planted trees too close, which clogged the drainage totally!)

I just walked around the yard, barefoot, to get a good idea of just how wet it is now (we have had a beautiful, sunny, 85 degree day)...it is moist, and I sink in, in a few spots, but not as bad as it is after a little rain. We would be able to rout the drainage for the sump pump to keep it moist, and some flow in the water...this would be just natural ground water, so I assume that it would not harm the environment?

How deep should we dig? Would we need to use any type of liner to maintain the moisture here? I am reluctant to create a pond environment -- we already have a plethora of mosquitoes, making evenings almost unbearable sometimes. I have read about some of the carniverous plants, and assume there would be some hardy to my zone that may help.

Again, thank you!!
Amanda

I'll post a fuller response later, but just remember that mosquitoe larvae are near the bottom of the food chain in a wildlife pond whereas in a swampy bog, they will hatch uncontested! I've had a pond here for years now and we don't get mosquitoes, unless I leave a bucket of water somewhere.

Cheers Greenmanplants

Hi Greenmanplants, I was out in my mucky area, where I have set up a peat/sand set up for pitcher plants. In that area there is some standing water, and when I turn the soil up (I was planting other wet loving plants) I noticed that it smelled very stinky--sulfuric, almost--and I read your post about anarobic conditions which sound like what I have. Is there anything I can do? I have mixed up some topsoil/sand into the muck when I put in the new plants, but should I do more? Will this kill my plants? Even if they are supposed to like wet mucky areas? Thank you!!

Amanda,

Sorry t take so long to get back to this, I've been thinking on it and I think your issues are a lot different to the ones Bernergrrl refers to. By the sounds of it you actually have a degree of flow in progress already, if you used to have a natural stream and it's the disruption of this that has caused the damp patch then I think it should be quite easy to create a mini environment that has a lot more to offer than wet feet!

If as you say you already have clayey soil you may find that as you dig you meet more of this. One way to make a pond before the days of fibreglass pre-formed pools and butyl liners, was to "Puddle" clay, this literally is to line your excavation with compacted clay, so I would guess you would not need a liner. Also if you have a lot of ground water in the area, a liner can have problems with the ground water rising beneath it.

I would guess you should go at least 24" deep at the deepest but that you should do the inverted hat style, ie a wide brim and a deeper centre. This gives you lots of scope for plants and wildlife. Once you get established, the larger insects within the pond take care of the mosquito larvae. I wouldn't bother with fish, that's a whole different ball game, fish eat everything damsel fly, dragon fly larvae, spawn, newts, frogs etc. then get busy on the plats so you end up with a big fish bowl.

You mention that the damp patch extends into your neighbours woods. Is this where the natural stream ran to, if so that should be ideal as you can create an overlflow channel that drains off there.

It may be that you are seasonally dryer at some stages, it's quite easy to top up with tap water, but check what chemicals get added, or whether you have hard water, even so normally it just takes a couple of days to settle down again.

Get to the library and read some books on pond planting, remember you are planting firstly submerged plants like Canadian pondweed (Elodea canadensis), Myriophyllum aquaticum(parrot's fether), Myriophyllum spicatum(spiked milfoil) and a host of others to oxagenate the water, check with what you have locally that is not considered invasive.
Next you have deep water plants like your water lilies, nuphar, Hottonia, Orontium, Aponogeton, that all grow from the bottom of your pool and float their leaves on the surface. You also have floating aquatics, like stratiotes(water soldiers), Trapa(water chestnut), Hydrocharis(frogbit) etc.
Then you have your marginals, ranging from those that like to be in water with their crowns covered to those that just need to be near water and have a constant supply of moisture, there are literally hundreds of these, try and avoid any that are going to be a self seeding nuisance, and you sould please your wildlife. You can add non natives as you want but again watch out for those that may escape and become a nuisance. Again, the overflow area and run off channel can be planted up as a bog, making the most of the feature.

I read a good few books before building my pond. I work at home, and my office window looks out onto the pond, believe me it's alive all year round and is great fun.

I do about 2 days maintenance on it a year, usually thinning out the faster growing plants, or collecting seed before dispersal, other than that it's entirely self maintaining, a lot less work than the equivalent patch of grass!

Hope this helps!

As for Bernergrrl's mud, I think that's a harder situation. Again, is this a sump?? has it been there for a long time, is there any flow, sounds like a whole heap of rotten vegetation has built up. Best to excavate it out and get some oxagenating plants in there, mixing soil and grit in will help a little but won't cure it.

Give us a bit more description of what the surrounding area is like and waht has caused this??

Cheers Greenmanplants

Myriophyllum spicatum, better known as Eurasian water milfoil, is not something you would want to plant. It would make the top 3 list of invasive aquatic plants in many areas. Also near the top of the list, especially there in NY, is Trapa natans. It was and may still be a major problem in the Hudson River. It disrupts navigation in much the same way water hyacinth does in more southern waterways. Stratiotes aloides (water soldiers) is on the noxious weed lists of several states too, as is Myriophyllum aquaticum (parrot's feather).

For wetlands some good things to use might be royal fern, arrowhead, pickerelweed, cardinal flower (red and blue), Queen of the prairie, buttonbush, marsh marigold, joe pye weed, blue flag iris, blue vervain, water plantain, tussock sedge (Carex stricta), obedient plant, sweet flag, boneset, meadowsweet, red twig dogwood, swamp milkweed, spatterdock, lotus, new england aster, new york ironweed, new york aster, sneezeweed, rose mallow, lizard's tail, cinnamon fern, wild rice, vanilla grass, golden alexanders, great purple angelica, leatherleaf, water avens, swamp azalea, oswego tea, american brooklime, bullhead lily, fragrant water lily, bottle gentian, golden club, monkey flower, marsh phlox, water smartweed, summersweet (clethra), swamp thistle, water shield,

There are lots of sources of information on the web. http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/ is pretty good for pictures. Keep in mind that if you check your library they might have many older books that might not be up to date on things like invasive plants, or worse yet recommend ones that are now known to be.

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 20 invasive plants in NY!

Thanks lycopus, I wasn't aware these were problem plants over there. That was why I suggested to check to see whether they were considered invasive first. We have them here and as far as I'm aware without problems.

For my part I would have thought that the carex and the arrowhead are more vigerous, they're certainly prolific round my bog.

Thanks also on the pointer to the invasive list, I'll have a good look at that.

Cheers Greenmanplants

If you are overpopulated with Elodea canadensis,I be happy to take some off your hands.

How deep was this wet area?