Last year i decided to build a bog garden in front of my house, it was a much larger project than i thought it would be. I started by digging out a flower bed that nothing would grow in, i dug the entire bed out to 18 inches deep, the Bed is 25 feet long and 6 feet wide. I then used material from an old swimming pool to line the hole and filled the bed with a sand/peat mix, it took 2 pallets of peat and 2 truck loads of sand and an entire day to get the soil mixed and in. After i got the soil in i decided i wanted to put in Helis and Darlingtonia so i dug out a 6 foot by 6 foot area at one end of the bog and filled it with live sphagnum from a spring at the bottom of the property. I put an old claw foot bathe tub in the bog, it is a turtle pond and we have 2 red eared sliders, some gold fish, and U. macrorhiza in it. I have planted Many many plants in the bog, some of the more notable ones are Ceph typical and giant, D. peltata D. regia, H. heteradoxa x minor, H. minor A few Pings and lots of other common Drosera. The only plants that did not seem to like the bog are P. primuliflora, D. filiformis FL Red, D. alicia, and D. graminifolia, all of these plants died very fast.
I finally decided on a circulation method a couple of months ago. At one end of the bog i have a water meter box surrounded by sphagnum burried, in this box is a float valve connected to a line from a R O filter. I installed a small fountain pump in the box and connected it to a timer that turns it on every 4 hours for 1 minute. The pump pumps water through a large mister over the darlingtonia and heliamphora, this accomplishes two things, the darlingtonia and Heliamphora get over head watered, and the bog keeps circulating. So far the bog is doing good, i am going to try a few other plants in the bog this year, i am going to build a raised area and put Drosophyllum and B. gigantea in on the south end of the bog. In the sphagnum portion of the bog i am going to put P. grandiflora and P. macroceras nortensis.
Here are a couple of pics of the bog, it was planted two weeks prior to these pics so they dont look very good.
Below is a bad pic of the D. regia, it has since been ate by birdzilla but it is finally recovering
Below is pics of the Heliamphora after being attacked by birdzilla, i do not think they are going to recover but i will put more in if they dont
In case you did not notice i used a really cheap camera and the pics were horrible. My 1 year old dropped my good camera and it is toast.
I finally decided on a circulation method a couple of months ago. At one end of the bog i have a water meter box surrounded by sphagnum burried, in this box is a float valve connected to a line from a R O filter. I installed a small fountain pump in the box and connected it to a timer that turns it on every 4 hours for 1 minute. The pump pumps water through a large mister over the darlingtonia and heliamphora, this accomplishes two things, the darlingtonia and Heliamphora get over head watered, and the bog keeps circulating. So far the bog is doing good, i am going to try a few other plants in the bog this year, i am going to build a raised area and put Drosophyllum and B. gigantea in on the south end of the bog. In the sphagnum portion of the bog i am going to put P. grandiflora and P. macroceras nortensis.
Here are a couple of pics of the bog, it was planted two weeks prior to these pics so they dont look very good.
Below is a bad pic of the D. regia, it has since been ate by birdzilla but it is finally recovering
Below is pics of the Heliamphora after being attacked by birdzilla, i do not think they are going to recover but i will put more in if they dont
In case you did not notice i used a really cheap camera and the pics were horrible. My 1 year old dropped my good camera and it is toast.