Storms and chickens

[The Dogmother]

This may be one that Mullethunter can help with..... I am looking for guidance regarding the right sort of wild plants for a 'mud bank' alongside a river which floods in the winter - so those plants need to be flood-proof.

 

OH lives alongside the river, and there's a bank in the river, below the wall - this used to be populated by reeds and irises, but this year it has become a thicket of nettles and rose bay willowherb. He already has an ongoing battle with the latter elsewhere on his patch, so is keen to discourage any more!

 

I dropped down onto this bank today and cleared all the nettles and willowherb. The mud is fairly damp so this wasn't too arduous, but the irises seem to have died back, so we're now left wondering if there's any native wetland plants which would be good there and perhaps have the benefit of drowning out the unwanted ones. I am pretty good with most plants, but river banks and wetlands are no speciality of mine!

[mullethunter]

Hi DM. I've been having a think about this, but I'm no expert either as the type of rivers we have down here tend not to have too much of the type of habitat you're after - except tidal buts which are obviously totally different due to the salinity. And almost anywhere we do have this it's now sadly overrun with Himalayan balsam and / or knotweed.

 

All I would say really is if it was me I'd probably be thinking about reeds and irises (the fact that they were there before suggests they would work) and just try to keep the 'weeds' down while they get reestablished. Why do you think the plant life has changed? Has the river level changed?

 

Failing irises and reeds I'd just have a google and see if anyone's successfully done this (looks like Atkins did it around Olympic Park but I'm guessing that's not quite the scale you're working on!)

 

Sorry that's not very helpful - I'd be interested to hear how you get in.

[The Dogmother]

Thanks for your thoughts m'dear.

 

The mill stream has changed levels recently, on a couple of counts; last summer, there were a couple of days when there was a mass abstraction somewhere upstream, and the river practically emptied. B was very concerned, and called British Waterways, who more or less told him that they didn't have the time and resources to deal with it His theory was that it probably involved one of the businesses/factories upstream in Banbury.

 

Secondly, BW, despite several requests has failed to mend the broken sluice gate which controls the flow of the river through the mill stream and mill pond, This is on B's land, but is their property ('asset') so he is unable to use it to control the level of the water in that part of the millstream. I think that he is going to have to mend or replace it himself.

 

Thirdly, the river really needs some minor dredging in this area to clear the reed beds and increase the flow..... Another one for BW, I understand!

 

The level has dropped generally, and there was nowhere near the same amount of flooding/high water this past winter either. I guess that this has allowed the nettles and willowherb to take hold and thrive. I have pulled out what I can by the roots and pretty much cleared it except for some reeds, a few irises and some river mint. On your advice, i will continue to maintain it and pull out any invaders in the hope that it will give more appropriate plants to grow through. Many thanks again

[Cat tails]

What about Purple loosestrife? I have it planted in my garden (a must when your street name is actually Purple loosestrife, right?). But it really is a waters edge plant. I personally really like the flowers and the bees do too.

[The Dogmother]

That's a good idea thanks - I think he has some elsewhere in the garden, so ill see if there's enough to transplant some.

[Cat tails]

That's a good idea thanks - I think he has some elsewhere in the garden, so ill see if there's enough to transplant some.

 

It also self seeds pretty well, which is a bonus.

[The Dogmother]

Great.... looking down there now, it seems to be happy growing in the flood meadows, so should be able to cope with the rise in water levels in the winter, when the bank disappears under water