Marshland to mitigate drought?

I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on, or experience with, building a garden over marshy land to help mitigate the effects of drought.  I was thinking hugelkultur beds possibly? Mainly I was wondering if beds of any sort built over marshy land would wick moisture upwards and reduce the need for watering, or if I’ll just end up with a mess.  We live off grid and don’t have running water, and our summer temperatures are typically mid to high 30s (Celsius) for most of June, July, and August.  I feel like this could work, but before I start building garden beds I thought I’d see if anyone has any ideas.  Thanks so much!

I like the idea! I don't know how much the marsh water will wick upward. Maybe a shallow hugel might work better?

I know that in some parts of the world, entire gardens are planted on floating rafts. I have a garden spot with a dugout -- could be a worthy experiment in a drought year.

I also wonder if the soil chemistry may be a lot different in, say, a peat bog. I suppose you have some control over that if you build hugels over top.

I like Douglas` suggestion for a hugel.

Hugels started as a way to deal with boggy land. They end up working like giant wicking beds in those situations.

https://permies.com/t/27457/wetlands/convert-bog-food-forest#217969

What are your plans for the paths?

Thanks Douglas and Anne!

I am definitely thinking hugelkultur is my best bet.  We have insane rodent issues in our existing garden (I have tried for 3 years to garden without raised beds but I lose at least 75% of my veggies no matter how much I plant!), so I'm building raised beds there this year.  I’m wondering if burrowing rodents (voles and gophers) will be much of a problem in the marshy section though.  It would be far easier if I don’t have to build raised beds there as well, obviously.  I’m really hoping this works bc it would solve my watering issues as well as utilizing the unused marshy area next to my current (smaller than I’d like) garden plot.  

As for the pathways, that is a very good question lol.  It’s going to be very wet no matter what.  I guess more woody material?   We have a good sized wooded area on our property and I was planning on chipping the scrub and fallen branches etc for the pathways in our current garden.  Any suggestions?  I am open to any and all ideas!

Jennifer Lapinsky wrote:I was wondering if beds of any sort built over marshy land would wick moisture upwards and reduce the need for watering, or if I’ll just end up with a mess.  

Have you come across the concept of chinampa? They are historic market gardens built near Mexico city on a lake and I'm pretty sure this is how they work. There is a lot of interesting diagrams and information on this thread. I think they used boats on the canals between for transport.

Chinampas capillary diagram from MidwestPermaculture.com

I've been building my own chinampa (discussed on my project thread ). My climate is pretty cool and wet, so watering is not normally an issue - I just wanted to experiment with aquatic plants as well as bog-side plants like blueberries. I made my chinampa as sort of hugels but it is a bit early to say how it is all going - deer ate all my plants last year, but I can see the rhubarb starting to swell already, hopefully most of the other plants will grow back too. In my experience mice quite like the insides of the hugel for accomodation mind you!
Regarding paths, I would just make the hugel twice as wide and have a path down the middle. Since my area is for perennial plants, I haven't really bothered with paths; I mainly just walk between the plants.

Thanks for the ideas Nancy!

How large an area are you talking about?

If you dig part of it down, will it be more like a pond than a marsh?

Have you considered marsh/pond edibles like water chestnuts, Lotus (edible seeds and tuber), and cattails?

At the risk of repeating  what Nancy suggested, there are numerous examples of floating gardens out there. I suspect if a garden can be placed over a pond, then it can be placed over a marshy area.  If you go in this direction, be sure to take pictures and let us know how your garden progresses.

I came here to mention chinampas, but Nancy beat me to it.

They are sometimes described as "floating" but that isn't really the case. They use a wooden, or living willow, retaining wall to keep the shape of the planting area. Then water and silt from the water bottom is used to both irrigate and nourish the planting area.

They are often illustrated as small individual beds, but in reality were sometimes quite large islands. I presume that the varied positions through the island would give different range of conditions. Wetter in some places, drier in others. More nutrient rich at the edges where water and silt is dumped.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/in-mexico-city-the-pandemic-revived-aztec-era-island-farms

One option could be to plant right at the edge of the average water level.  Water will soak into the ground and surrounding area from the marsh area.  Doing that could cause a problem on wetter than average years when the water level is higher than normal.

I have a swamp area on my land that appears to be fed by ground water.  Anywhere on the property if I dig a hole that gets below the height of the swamp I hit water.  Right by the edge of the swamp those holes are only a foot deep before they have standing water, but a hundred feet away the holes have to be 4-5 feet deep.

Last year we had a pretty big drought.  It appeared to me as though the ground water(at the level of the swamp) was wicking is way upward toward the surface.  I could start digging a hole and at the surface and top couple feet the soil was bone dry, but as I got deeper it started getting wetter until I finally hit the ground water.  Having seen that first hand has changed where I plan to plant this summer.  I can plant high enough that flooding isn't an issue, but low enough that the roots will always be able to reach the waterline.

J Hillman wrote:  Having seen that first hand has changed where I plan to plant this summer.  I can plant high enough that flooding isn't an issue, but low enough that the roots will always be able to reach the waterline.

Wow, that's a sweet spot -- I'm envious. I hope you will share your results here.

I like the idea previously suggested of adding edibles that grow in marshlands: arrowheads and waterlilies are just a couple more.

I repeat the question: how big is the marsh area?   I'm curious how many years you've been around to see what the marshland does throughout the year. I have a large patch that is very marsh-like but only for several months and then it dries up and does not seem to grow things differently than the areas that are not soggy in the winter.  I did build a low hugel berm through one part and it seems to need less watering than my veggie garden (Only in our drought period, and then once every couple weeks as opposed to once a week) but I have different plants in the berm, too (mostly perennials as opposed to mostly annuals).