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.