OK, so I have this nice, big beautiful full sun bed that is 60% empty and just WAITING to be filled. My problem is that it is snug against the house, which is apparently the way the rainwater flows, so the area is, well, wet. Not swampy wet, but it just doesn't drain well there. I added approx. 4 inches of soil to the area to make the bed and it is a mixture of regular soil and sand, so the first 4 inches drains fairly well but when you get past that you start digging into clay and mud clay at that. I guess the area is about 450 square feet, FYI. Even with the first 4 inches being well drained, I'm thinking it probably is too wet for echinaceas. What do you guys think? I know it's hard to know completely without getting your own hands into it, but your gut instinct would help. I have all different colors of lantana in the front of the bed and they are doing well, but the water drains a little better in the front than it does in the back, so not really a good guage. Before I realized that water wasn't draining from the area, I put in several dahlia bulbs and let's just say when I noticed they weren't coming up, I dug a couple up and only found mush (Yikes). I hate this b/c it is a beautiful bed and none of my favs probably can go in it! Grrrr.
So, in your experience, how well drained do echs need to be?
How much is too much water?
Oh boy, did I go through something like you're explaining two years ago. I didn't realize that water is going to drain very differently off the roof when its falling on top of fresh disturbed soil in new flower beds. That clay soil you have has settled very well over the years from all the water pounding down on it over time. When you dig up the soil and heavy rains hit it, that's a whole new ballgame. You will get erosion like you wouldn't believe and so much of that soil washes away and ends up everywhere else. The solution to my problem was to stop what I was doing and spend a small amount of money having gutters installed in 3 small areas near the house. I told them where I wanted the water to drain to and that solved all the problems. It made areas that seemed off limits very manageable. There were areas that seemed too wet before that work quite well now. I don't think Echinacea will like the area you're explaining as it is now....but perhaps you can change that.
Jon
4 years ago I planted an Echinacea "Razzmatazz" beside my parents' garage where the water drains on it. It is still going strong this year and was about 4 feet tall! I don't know if that particular cultivar can tolerate wetter conditions but it sure did here.
If you do plant in this area don't plant any of the yellow, red or orange blooming Echinaceas. Plant only the Pink or White and maybe the Green ones since they aren't hybrids.
I agree with John about the gutters though! That would solve your problem and you wouldn't have to worry.
I had an idea last night about this area. I yanked up a Kim's Knee high (a very tall one, LOL, at least 2.5 feet!) yesterday planning to chunck it. I think I will plant it over there for the rest of the year just to see if it will make it there or not. It should be an interesting experiment.
As for gutters, I am going to have to walk around there and inspect now b/c we do have gutters but that is the side, not the front or back so I'm not sure what is going on around there, but I assumed it was just general yard water. I didn't really think that it could be coming off of the house. I will have to investigate this further, I think! Thanks guys.
Before I put the gutters in rain wasn't a problem most of the time. It was those few occasions when it rained like mad for more than 10 or 15 minutes. The rain poured off the roof and washed away tons of the new soil. It would take me an hour just to get things looking nice again. I went from three workable areas before to seven after installing 4 small areas with new gutters. One area already had a gutter, but it didn't drain in the right direction. It would drain toward this new flower bed and would still erode it even though it was 10-15 feet from the house. I had them just simply add on a section on the drainage portion coming down from the roof and redirect it in a different direction.
Jon
If it is not coming off the house and is ground water being trapped by a bowl of clay under the new soil, short of digging it all down deep and replacing all the clay, raised beds would do the trick. Make a border with stone, cement blocks or timbers. Whatever you like, to hold the soil in place and add more good draining soil and compost. Since you already have a nice base of 4" it would only need to be about 8"-12" high. Make a couple of spaces with PVC tubing or a tin can with both ends removed to insure drainage through your retaining material and slope the bed away from the house. Testing the area with a sacrificial plant is a good idea to gauge just how well a plant might do there, with the prices of plants it is better to be safe than sorry and sometimes a little extra work can save a whole lot of time and money later. Good luck and keep us informed how things work out for you.