Shrubbery To Soak Up Water

[Wej Murf]

I live in the Northeast, in an area with a high water table. The bushes around my house are getting old and don't look so great anymore.

I have two quesions.

1) Can I plan new bushes now, or should I wait until the Spring?

2) What kind should I plant? I want them to be no taller than 2 or 3 feet tall, and want something that really pulls the water from the ground. I figure that will help cut down on ground saturation around the house. When it rains, the grass gets soaked and takes a few rain-free days to dry out. Any suggestions?

[mike]

You cannot rely on plants to deal with excessive water around your house. Plants cannot absorb much water, especially when they are dormant in the cold, rainy seasons. You'd be better off looking to pipe the thousands of gallons of downspout water farther (+15 ft) away from your house if you haven't already. You can search this group for downspout options.

If that doesn't work, you might also look at the grading around your house.

I highly recommend checking out this drainage guide:

[mkirsch1]

Watch HGTV for more than 15 minutes and you'll have your answer to this one. You can plant anything that the nursery will sell you.

You'd be better off with NO bushes if this is the case. The bushes are actually shading the area and preventing it from drying out.

Nothing you can plant will have a noticeable effect on how quickly the ground dries out. You need to divert the water away.

[Wej Murf]

I already am piping all the downspout water into the sewer, plus I have drains around the yard to take excess water away. I just thought that planting thirsty plants would help even more.

So you're saying it really won't make a difference. I am afraid that if I take out the bushes I have now and don't replace them with new ones, I'll have more water there because there won't be anything to suck the water out of the ground.

[Wej Murf]

I also dealt with the grading around the house. The water mostly runs towards the street. As I said earlier, I don't want to introduce a new problem by removing the plants I have now.

[Michael B]

An inch of rain over an acre gives you many thousands of gallons of water to deal with, far better to enhance the positive slope away from the building.