Wetland - February 13 2020

Wetland Understory - Arnoglossum lanceolata, Bacopa monnieri, Rudbeckia nitida

Wetland Understory - Viola sorraria and Bacopa monnieri

Packera aurea

My created wetland has been developing quite well since I installed it more than a year ago. How I did this is a subject of one of my earliest posts so I won't describe it here; only to write that it is an area about 6 feet in diameter with a heavy-duty pool liner sunk about 2 1/2 feet below the surface. It receives most of its water from the drain spout coming off my roof that directs it into this area.
Over the past weeks, I've been reading posts in social media that describe efforts to create wetlands such as this in a home landscape and almost without fail there is a discussion about amending the soil. This is not necessary, of course, and may even prove detrimental. In a real wetland, the soils are created naturally - over time, from the original soils that were present. In a created wetland the soils will form in the same way.
The soil in my wetland is the original soil present in this location. I simply dug a hole, placed the pond liner at the bottom and filled the hole back in with the excavated dirt.  From this point forward, the soils are developing naturally. There is a notion that wetland soils are high in peat...  and they are, but it is NOT peat moss.  By botanical definition, peat is simply decayed organic matter. Because wetland soils are largely anaerobic, the dead leaf matter does not fully decay in the same way it would in oxygenated upland soils. This partially decayed leaf matter is peat and peat will build up in any soil that is kept saturated over time. Peat moss is not "peat" and it functions in a soil in a very different way.
My wetland here in Holiday is developing a wetland soil profile after 15 months. The upper surface of the soil is very high in organic matter (peat), but that is not necessary for the plants to function properly. They only need the nutrients found naturally in this soil and the relatively constant soil moisture to which they are adapted. As winter is turning quickly into spring, I've left the natural leaf fall that has occurred in it and these leaves will decay along with the dead foliage of the wetland plants themselves. This is how nature shapes these systems and I intend to let nature rule here - with a guiding hand, of course, when an unwanted plant attempts to take hold.
Most of my wetland is still asleep. The milkweeds are only now making an appearance from beneath last year's stems. The shiny black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia nitida) and water dropwort (Tiedemannia filiformis) have kept their foliage through the winter, but they've remained in a state of suspended animation. The water bacopa (Bacopa monnieri) is leafing out again, waiting for another onslaught of white peacock caterpillars and the seedling lance-leaved Indian plantains (Arnoglossum lanceolata) are continuing to gain size. Life in this area is as it should be for this time of year.
Early spring flowering plants take a risk by opening their flowers at this time of year because most of the pollinators are still in their winter rest stage as well. Golden ragwort (Packera aurea) is one of those and it has opened a few of its many flower heads in the past few days.  I love its bright yellow blossoms, but I have yet to see them being visited by bees or butterflies. So far, it seems like a mostly futile venture on its part. My violets also are blooming, but they will likely set seed without pollination. They are designed to do that when pollinators aren't present. I've let them reseed in the open areas of this wetland, and they are multiplying quite well.
All landscapes should have a wetland - both for its diversity and its aesthetics. I've been able to add at least a dozen additional and important wildflowers to my yard by creating this area that remains wet. Many of my best butterfly host plants are here, for example. It is still a work in progress and I intend to add 2 more species in the months ahead, but largely it is now on its own and its development will depend mostly on nature. That includes the development of its soils.