new to gardening

Hello everyone,
I am new to all this, hope someone can help me out. My garden borders get waterlogged every time it rains heavy. I would like to plant some shrubs, but don't know which would grow in these conditions, also, could anyone tell me, which are the best type of ground covering plants to go in a small rockery, the soil where I live is full of clay and does not drain very well. If you can help, I would be most grateful. Thanks.
Doofy

 

If possible try to improve your drainage by digging in a heap of sharp sand, Improve soil structure by digging in well rotted manure as well. If you can improve the soil conditions you will have a much bigger range of plants to choose from. There are few shrubs that will tolerate waterlogged clay.

Most plants that are traditionally grown in a rockery are alpines. The rockery should mimic the conditions that they would find up in the mountains. Poor soil, well drained, sunny. Sorry to be the voice of doom but unless you can improve drainage it doesnt look good. On the positive side if you can improve the soil and drainage a bit then clay can be a good thing as it helps to hold water in times of drought.

Id advise a walk around your area to see what others are managing to grow. Ive found that there is usually an expert in the area that is happy to pass on their expertise and you will usually find them in their garden so its easy to engage in conversation.

 

A couple of sprawly low growing plants for your rockery which work in my clay soil - veronica georgia blue, campanula (the mound or trailing varieties) - thyme Lorna doone, and take a look at the winter flowering ericas.

 

Thereââ?¬â?¢s really NOTHING you can do to improve drainage on heavy soils (except install land drains, or plant everything in raised beds). Instead, plant things that tolerate wet ground. See my reply to Helly http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000184 :- all the shrubs recommended there will do well on wet soils (inc the roses & clematis), and all the small low-growing plants will do well on rockeries (eg viola, campanula, saxifrage, Convolvulus sabatius, small geraniums such as G.orientalibeticum & G.subcaulescens etc.). Note that rockery plants (ââ?¬Å?alpinesââ?¬Â) almost always require good drainage & light sandy soils, easy enough if you raise the rockery a bit and fill with 50/50 mix John Innes No.3 plus sand.

Ian.