Good morning, my question is that I have a catch Basin in my backyard. Recently, we have removed grass to make flower beds. Can you please make some suggestions for me what to plant around the catch basin so that the soil doesn’t go down the drain. (Temporarily I have covered it with a piece of mesh screen)
Thanks in advance
Hello, and thank you for contacting the Toronto Master Gardeners.
It’s a bit challenging to recommend specific plantings without knowing more about your growing conditions (e.g. how much sun your space gets), but here are a few options.
Making the assumption that there is a catch basin in this location because of water gathering here and the drainage needed to be improved. If this is the case, it may mean your growing conditions vary between being very wet and very dry (as the catch basin is designed to help water drain away). This is something to consider when choosing plants – you will want to look for something that can handle a range of moisture conditions.
Catch basins need to be cleaned out regularly so low-growing plants around the catch basin would be preferable in order to facilitate easy access. Larger deciduous plants could, during their dieback cycle, end up blocking the flow of water into the catch basin so groundcovers would be ideal.
There are numerous answers you can search in our website related to groundcovers, so I encourage you to review them to find something that matches your specific growing conditions, but here are a couple:
- Groundcovers for shady conditions
- This answer includes few different sun to part shade groundcovers, depending on the type of plant you might be interested in, such as evergreens, sedums or grasses and sedges.
If you are looking to go with native plants, In Our Nature has a great list of native Ontario groundcover suggestions, including what their preferred growing conditions are, that could be a great fit for this.
Hope this information is helpful.