Uk boggy land, what to grow, do with it?

Hi,

A couple of acres of boggy marshy land.

I had previous recommendations to plant willows which I have begun to do.

Now I am wondering what I could plant as in edible stuff on that marshland.

I did think rice at one point since they love the wet no? I was advised elsewhere that rice might not even like it. I know it is not common to grow rice in the uk but seen a couple of videos of people here doing it successfully.

I feel at a bit of a loose end these last couple of days as to what good I can make of it apart from willow.

I would love to have full self-sufficiency with food year round but understand it may not be realistic. Thoughts?

Hello and welcome to permies!

Full self sufficiency is a tad difficult on a couple of acres even on good land - it all depends though. Marshland can be very productive for biomass and other stuff too, but access can be difficult, and seasonal flooding can make things even more awkward.
Willow has loads of uses - biomass fuel and weaving material are two that spring to mind. Other trees that don't mind it a bit damp in my experience are alder and aspen, although the latter has a habit of dying back and then coming back where it feels like! Food plants are possible, even in the UK, but it all depends...

Questions:
What are your summers like? Is the land wet all year, or just boggy in winter or after rainfall? Do you have acidic soil? windy or sea exposure?

You may find my chinampa thread of interest as providing some starting points. I've not updated it recently - the area is still establishing, although I could try harvesting a few wapato this winter perhaps.

From personal experience I can recommend skirret and marsh woundwort as good for eating that like it damp and relatively cool. I'd dearly love to try bulrush (reedmace/cattails) Typha latifolia, but you need space for that to spread (which it sounds like you have...) Another thing that would be really cool is a crannog style house, but you'd have to think hard about sewage cycling.

Nancy Reading wrote:Hello and welcome to ink hard about sewage cycling.

Thanks for your message. I don't login much so only just saw it.

As to your questions about what the land is like through the seasons I can't say much about that as only been on it a few months since winter.

I have been reading the excellent John Seymour self-sufficiency book which is giving me a lot of idea. I am thinking now take out the willow, or most of it and grow vegetables in the best patch and try grains on others and if they don't grow well they will make good green compost if anything grows!

I have tried digging to make ditches for drainage as advised in the book but I was unable to find the water veins so not sure how effective that would be? It is just try and compacted clay but the water just settles on top and doesn't drain away. It seems to mainly be the effect of evapouration that the water goes as I see puddles for maybe weeks after water has got on it.

It is drier than it was as there hasn't been rainfall and since the snow has melted and dried up but still puddles here and there.

I am thinking maybe rather than trying to dig down, in vain/vein(!?). to find water to redirect perhaps better to build on top with piling compost and whatever else organic matter. Seems a lot easier to control the latter.

Hmm, it sounds like it is marshy because of compaction, or low lying flat clay, rather than rising water table or inundation from rivers. I think I would still be inclined to build a pond - especially if you have clay soil. Water is such a soul building thing, and the top soil you remove can be used for raising the rest of the land level slightly. If clay subsoil that is less useful for growing things, but has lots of potential for cob building - structures and stoves...I have seen a video of someone using the clay for mulching newly planted trees - since it is relatively seed free, it keeps and area plant free around the new trees. In a couple of years the vegetation grows back and the thin layer of clay is assimilated into the top soil. Here it is - Andy Williams up in Caithness:

John Seymour was a dangerous man! :) His self sufficiency book is one of my early reads too! For the UK I can also recommend Patrick Whitefield's earthcare handbook if you can get hold of it.
If the water is just puddling then you can direct where you want the water to go with ditches and a pond/sump. Those areas will stay wetter for longer, but if there isn't water year round, then you may be able to grow really well with slightly raised beds. It sounds like you need to do a year's observation and do nothing too permanent until you understand the land better. The willows will be hard to move after a couple of years, so you might be as well to take out some of those as you say. They take very easily from cuttings and regrow quickly, so putting in more for windbreaks or structures will be pretty easy when you know where they will give best benefit. If I were you I'd maybe try a couple of 'lazy beds' just to try growing a few vegetables, but just walk around and dream in the rest of the area. I call it "four dimensional gardening" - trying to envision how things might look in time.
Good luck.
Oh, do you want any skirret offsets? I've got loads!

John Lester wrote:Hi,

A couple of acres of boggy marshy land.

I had previous recommendations to plant willows which I have begun to do.

Now I am wondering what I could plant as in edible stuff on that marshland.

I did think rice at one point since they love the wet no? I was advised elsewhere that rice might not even like it. I know it is not common to grow rice in the uk but seen a couple of videos of people here doing it successfully.

I feel at a bit of a loose end these last couple of days as to what good I can make of it apart from willow.

I would love to have full self-sufficiency with food year round but understand it may not be realistic. Thoughts?

Hi John

Check out this great video as an introduction to Chinampas, a truly excellent method of growing food that is even more productive than growing on non-marshy land! And if you delve further into chinampas, you’ll see that it can also be used for animals on and off.
Good luck