This is my first post here on this forum and I'm hoping someone here can help me.

A friend of mine has a very wet area in her yard. It currently has somewhat of a lawn, and lots of jewelweed. Most months of the year there is standing water over a large part of it (about two inches deep), even in the drought-like conditions we had here this year.

My friend wants to put a naturalized swamp/bog-type garden here, since her lawn service leaves ruts in the area (personally I'm surprised the mower doesn't get stuck!) We've done and are still doing some research and have a plant list started.

My question is, how do we go about the actual planting? Should we amend the soil? Is it even possible to amend the soil in these conditions? We don't want to "fill" the area, but rather work with it as is. Also, every step I take there I just sink, and I worry about compaction and possibly damaging the soil, but I'm not sure how else to go about this. I'm a bit hesitant to start because I'm not sure how to!

Any suggestions or advice? Thanks so much!

Dee

When I build a bog garden from scratch I do my best to compact the "soil" so that when I plant, the plants will not settle and I know what to expect. I'm NOT suggesting you try to compact the area but by the same token I would probably not ammend the soil, but rather plant plants (preferrably native)that will be appropriate to the current conditions. This will also reduce the future maintenance that will need to be done.

So I guess I will go ahead and dig in. My biggest concern now that I know I won't compact the soil is to make sure I don't get stuck in the mud, lol!

Thanks!
Dee