Landscaping soil for garden.

Davesnave

Network Rail are surprisingly fussy about all sorts of things, but if a crew was on a tidy up mission, they'd not knock on your door, they'd just nuke whatever you had on their fence with weedkiller and move on!

A better solution is to grow bomb-proof, shade tolerant shrubs like Portuguese laurel, laurel itself, berberis and a few other evergreens in front of the fence. Only need cutting back once a year.

homeless9

Davesnave said:

Network Rail are surprisingly fussy about all sorts of things, but if a crew was on a tidy up mission, they'd not knock on your door, they'd just nuke whatever you had on their fence with weedkiller and move on!

A better solution is to grow bomb-proof, shade tolerant shrubs like Portuguese laurel, laurel itself, berberis and a few other evergreens in front of the fence. Only need cutting back once a year.

Yeah, the builder put in some hedging at the front of the house which is Portuguese Laurel. I am planning on planting more of this to border the garden, but wasn't sure about using it to screen off the metal railings....

The problem is the area at the bottom of the ditch floods in heavy rain so I don't know how Laurel will cope with that, not sure if there are many/any tall growing, screening plants that can handle being flooded?

If anyone has any options please do let me know.

I may just erect a raised fence which will be about 1 to 1.5 feet off the ground to avoid it from getting a bath, but I am still contemplating how to shield off that ugly railing. No rush. I guess it will be expensive to screen off no matter what I do, hedges / plants / fencing.

If I do go for this raised fencing then I'd grow a strip of wild meadow in front of it so you won't see any gap.

MovingForwards

https://www.plantrealflorida.org/plant-communities/detail/wetland-swamp-forests-zone-8

Have a look and see what is ok for wet land.

Davesnave

MovingForwards said:

https://www.plantrealflorida.org/plant-communities/detail/wetland-swamp-forests-zone-8

Have a look and see what is ok for wet land.

In Florida????

Wet land in Florida doesn't freeze and Americans have funny names for plants, so good luck with ID-ing some of those 

It's hard to know whether the OP really has a long term swamp, but note that ash, hawthorn and other trees are quite happy to root in my stream if I let them, which I don't. Of course willows will grow anywhere, but come with issues, as do poplars, which should be avoided at all costs.

Basically, if you want a tough, malleable tree for a hedge in a wet frost pocket, go for hornbeam.

Farway

Going a bit wild, but how would a gunnera or two do down the bottom, love water, hate frost and would need protecting every winter [ fold the old leaves over] so not sure if OK with OP

MovingForwards

It was just a suggestion so OP knew their were things available. Who knows, maybe he lives in an area that does have hot weather and mild winters, but rain 😁

greenbee

Farway said:

Going a bit wild, but how would a gunnera or two do down the bottom, love water, hate frost and would need protecting every winter [ fold the old leaves over] so not sure if OK with OP

Or rhubarb Apparently lots of people here grow theirs on the river bank, so I'm planning on trying it!

Davesnave

greenbee said:

Farway said:

Going a bit wild, but how would a gunnera or two do down the bottom, love water, hate frost and would need protecting every winter [ fold the old leaves over] so not sure if OK with OP

Or rhubarb

For those with a penchant for the leaves of gunnera, but not the space or climate, there's always the decorative cousins of rhubarb, the Rheums. https://dorsetperennials.co.uk/product/rheum-palmatum-atrosanguineum/