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This is a 60-gallon pond liner. I dug a hole just for the central well, and the rest is above-ground. The 5-gallon bucket in the center is drilled with holes all over the sides and bottom. I use it to gauge the water level, and to flush out old water (empty water from the bucket before it rains). Planted in the bucket is a matt of U. gibba, which kills any mosquito larvae, and provides some pretty yellow flowers later in the year.



Planted in the bog garden are:

S. alata (Covington, LA)
D. capillaris (Covington, LA)
D. filiformis ssp. tracyi

Plenty of live sphagnum

And some violets (Viola longifolia, I believe, but a definitive ID would be appreciated)

I plan to add some P. primuliflora later this year, and see how it does, and maybe some VFTs, shaded by the taller plants (they die in Houston's hot August and September).

Space permiting, I may also add some S. psitticina.

Note the black cat standing guard against varmints.

Click on thumbnails for full-size pics:







 
And here is the planter of D. capensis in the windowsill, visible next to the black cat in the first two photos:




(snacking on a cranefly)


Glittering death
 
Looking good, Scott! I'll bet it will look even more impressive later on in the season.
 
nice bog u got there, scott

looks better than mine
 
HEY!!! Your plants are out of dormancy? Here in Dallas all my plants are still asleep! Are you getting the same 40 degree weather that we are in Dallas?

-Rail
 
I'm very, very, very jealous!
smile.gif
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (CopcarFC @ Feb. 21 2006,11:04)]HEY!!!  Your plants are out of dormancy?  Here in Dallas all my plants are still asleep!  Are you getting the same 40 degree weather that we are in Dallas?

-Rail
Yes, we had a week of temps as low as the 30s.

We had some warm weather before that, and they broke dormancy. They just kind of sat and did nothing the week of cold weather.

Now, they're on the move again.
 
Be careful with that cat...
 
Very nice garden... will be fun to watch it mature.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Dimka @ Feb. 22 2006,1:40)]Be careful with that cat...
The black ragdoll ain't the problem.

The orange tabby eats my plants, especially flowers, every opportunity he gets.

I need a good capsicum-based spray or something.
 
  • #11
I LOOOOVE these photos! What a very organized, tidy setup. The cat vapidly looking on is funny too, "why is he not paying any attention to me" (j/k) neat thumbnails too, haha.
 
  • #12
Any sudgestions on making one?

Cheers
 
  • #13
Scott how did you do the bucket in the center of your Bog? I want to install a garden this summer and was thinking about the bucket idea too to see the water level. Do you add any holes to the black pond itself so it doesn;t over fill? Where should those holes be placed? I don;t have any live Sphag, but hoping the peat will give rise to some when it stays wet. Thanks for any advice!
 
  • #14
Here is how I made my bog:

* 60-gallon plastic pond
* white 5-gallon plastic bucket
* decorative bricks
* coarse quartz blasting sand
* sphagnum peat
* long-fiber sphagnum

The pond liner I bought at Home Depot, and it has a central depression about twice as deep as the rest of the pond.  I traced the footprint of this central depression onto a large sheet of cardboard, and cut it out.  After a good week of rain, when the ground was boggy, I dug a hole for the central depression only, making sure it fit well, and there were no sharp rocks in it to slice the plastic.

I placed the pond in the depression, and filled it with water to check the level, and noted which side was higher.  Emptied the pond, removed it, and dug out a few inches on the high side as needed to get the water level in the pond level.  Replaced pond liner, refilled with water, and checked level.

I left the pond filled only with water for the next month to make sure there would be no settling.  While I was waiting, I put the bricks up around the pond, and pprepared my sand, peat, and LFS.  Do not mix together; prepare each medium separately.  I wet them with rain water and put them out in large (15 to 20-gallon)drained plastic pots to drain, and allow rain to wash more minerals out.  I also prepared the 5-gallon pail by drilling it with perhaps 100 0.5" holes uniformly around the sides and bottom, and removing the handle.

There is a lot of dead space between the outside of the pond liner and the decorative bricks.  I filled this space with leaf litter and cut grass, to help insulate the pond from Houston summer heat.  If you live in a northern clime, this will help protect against freezing in winter, too.

After the month elapsed, I drained the pond again, and put the sand in the central depression, filling it enough that the 5-gallon pail seated on it and was flush level with the top of the pond.  I then filled the central depression with the peat (make sure you put some LFS around the bucket, so peat does not keep washing into it).  I continued adding peat, filling the pond to about 8" below the top of the pond.  I filled the rest with LFS.

I then poured gallon after gallon of rainwater into the LFS, using a plastic watering can with sprinkler head, pouring the water primarily around the edges of the pond so it had to trickle through all the medium before pooling in the submerged 5-gallon bucket.  I filled the pond with rainwater thus, and let it rest for a week.

Then I tested the TDS of the water in the bucket.  It was fairly high, ~85 ppm.  I like it to be <40 ppm.  So I drained the bucket.  You'll need to go drain it several times to get ALL the water out, as more slowly trickles back in after you've drained it.  I timed this so i fully drained the bucket just before a torrential downpour was forecast.  I allowed nature to refill the pond.

Repeat this procedure until the water in the central bucket registers < 40 ppm after a week of contact with the medium.  I began work on the bog pond in early summer; it was late summer or early fall by the time I got this far.

In late fall, I seeded the surface of the bog with live sphagnum, probably enough to cover about 5% of the total surface uniformly, and placed a starter colony of U. gibba in the 5-gallon bucket.

Over the fall and mild Houston winter, the U. gibba spread to cover the surface of the water in the bucket, and the live sphagnum started to spread.

I early spring, just before my S. alata broke dormancy, i transplanted them into the bog, spacing them out as uniformly as possible.  There are probably 40 individual rhizomes in that bog.  I think it may get a bit too crowded.

In the space in between pitchers, I planted D. capillaris, D. filiformis ssp. tracyi, and a few bog violets (viola longifolia).

My bog is up against the house, and it gets morning sun through early afternoon.  It is protected from the hottest afternoon sun.  I plan to try planting som P. primuliflora and VFTs toward the back of the pond, close to the house, where they will be shaded by the taller plants.

Space permitting, I will also plant a few other bog flowers, such as pink bog orchids (I forget what they're called).

I may also make a depression in the back of the bog, so that that section stays pretty wet, and plant some S. psittacina.

If I can convince my wife to allow me, I may make a second bog garden to plant S. leucophylla.
 
  • #15
Sounds interesting and thanks for sharing your bog story. How do you keep the bog from over flowing with water like on a rain? Or do you just let it over flow and stay that full of water?
 
  • #16
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JB_OrchidGuy @ Mar. 04 2006,11:19)]Sounds interesting and thanks for sharing your bog story.  How do you keep the bog from over flowing with water like on a rain?  Or do you just let it over flow and stay that full of water?
The sphagnum is pretty much at the rim of the pond. Once all the water soaks in that can, the rest just runs over the edge. There's never any standing water over the sphagnum.
 
  • #17
Ok good deal!! Sounds like it holds some water after a good rain, but these plants like that. Now what about dormancy? During winter do you let water stand in the bog or is it not that old yet? my potted plants I let rain get on them, but there wasn't a way for water to stand around them. Since this is a closed bog how do you keep it from being a block of ice during the winter if it rains then freezes? I'm just curious because I really do want to install a bog and want to know what to expect during the winter. Thanks for your advice!
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JB_OrchidGuy @ Mar. 08 2006,3:13)]Ok good deal!!  Sounds like it holds some water after a good rain, but these plants like that.  Now what about dormancy?  During winter do you let water stand in the bog or is it not that old yet?  my potted plants I let rain get on them, but there wasn't a way for water to stand around them.  Since this is a closed bog how do you keep it from being a block of ice during the winter if it rains then freezes?  I'm just curious because I really do want to install a bog and want to know what to expect during the winter.  Thanks for your advice!
in winter i let the water level in the bog sink a bit; the 5-gallon bucket is only half full.

I live in Houston, Texas. Freezing is not a problem.
 
  • #19
Josh,

You can forego the bucket, I don't have one. Just water whenever you think it needs it. I have a soaker hose sunk into mine and 5 minutes a day is more than enough.

As for what to do in winter, down here I did not have to do anything at all. I think I watered once, winter rains took care of the rest. No need to cover or anything like that and none of the freezes were hard enough to do anything serious. I think one time it was cold enough to freeze about the first 1cm of the bog but it thawed by mid morning.

Here is a great link for you: Build a bog garden

I used this as a general plan with a few small modifications (my bog is in a raised bed and I did not do any drainage holes. My media is a little different too.)
 
  • #20
Thanks for your help Pyro and Scott! I figured that since my pots stayed outside all year this winter even during freezing, and I think I lost just one plant, but it wasn't established. It was an Alta from LA, but I am hoping it will start a new growth from the half tht is not mushy. The other Alta is fine and looks like it could start growing anytime now. I am just waiting for tax money to come in and its to lowes I go for supplies. I think I may still do the 5 gallon bucket. I will spray paint it black so its blends in a little better, but I will put some Azolla (water ferns) in it. It has a bacteria in its leaves that fixxes atmospheric nitrogen for the Azzola, but it does so much that the extra leaks out into the water. Since its not an artificial nitrogen it should be ok right? In the LARGE pond of it at school I haven't seen any evidence of salt buildup around the pond it is groing in. Just might give things a little boost. What do you experts think?
 
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