18" Bog Garden

[cprus]

Basically I created a bog garden inside of a 18" watering tray.

It features:
-A sloping landscape
-2 small "ponds" or water holes
-NZ LFS mixed with sand exclusively (which means no peat moss)
-2 inches of water
-A Bubble Wand beneath the surface to keep the plants, water, and soil aerated.

Flora consists of:
Drosera
2 aliciae
3 rotundifolia  
1 filiformis filiformis
5 scorpiodes
2 burmanii
5 madagascariensis
6 adelae
binata seeds scattered randomly
capensis wide, red, and narrow seeds scattered randomly.

Dionaea  
2 Typical Venus Flytrap
2 Red Dragon
1 Dente  
2 Big Mouth  
1 Pink Venus  
2 Dutch
1 Long Red Fingers
1 fine tooth x red

Sarracenia
1 leucophylla 'Tarnok'
1 purpurea venosa
1 leucophylla typical  
1 oreophila

Soon:
3 of Tony's Big Mouth VFT's in the center pond area.

Others
Pending. Maybe a ceph if I can keep the humidity up and water level down close to it.

*Of course it's over doing it a bit but I like a filled garden to look at.

This is how it works:
The 18" tray is fitted with a round "egg crate" diffuser gird cut to size with an area for the main pond. This platform is raised 1 inch from the bottom. The bubble wand is placed beneath this platform to provide aeration. I then selected my plants and placed an order which should arrive soon. The pots range in size, anywhere from 3in-6in pots to 6in trays. They are places in terms of height so that the back is higher to form a slope in the landscape.

Once the pots are in place I wetted approx. 1/2 gallon of NZ LFS to build the surroundings. The ponds are filled with shallow sand and the pots are filled with a 50/50 LFS and sand mixture. More sand was added to shallower pots to benefit the VFT waterlogging problems where as the sarracenia and drosera gets the standard mixture. The pots are completely covered with the remaining moss to give it a natural look. Water is added and the bubble wand is plugged in. The entire garden is sprayed with water to moisten the moss and small sections of live sphagnum is added.

Dormancy will be respected for the ones that do need it and they will be sprayed with fungicide and refrigerated.

Now

Eveyone is settling in nicely. Most of the Vft's have already gotten over the shock and are busy growing. I added lights to it just to make things a bit more vigorous and colorful.

 

[cprus]

Pictures are in! Enjoy. Hopefully the plants will come in this week. Will update when they do.

 

[jimscott]

I'm no expert on bog gardens, especially anything as intricate as what you are doing, but might I suggest cultivating the D. aliciae inside, on a window sill? They don't require a dormancy, as do the other sundews, VFT's, and Sarracenias.

Personally, I just use buckets and poke drainage hole toward the top and bottom.

 

[cprus]

I guess I forgot to mention, this is a windowsill setup.

 

[kseer13]

looks pretty cool. aalthough wouldnt a bog garden which is essentialy a Mini swamp start to smell? maybe  not but all the lakes and swamps ive been to on vacation caamping the moss,plants etc.. well stinks but maybe im wrong no wiat on second thought make that maybe a probably lol

 

[nepenthes_ak]

u sure about all the sarr's and VFT's, what about enough light for beautiful coloring?? along with the Tropical CP's second hand?? Im guessing you are putting them in seperate pots so they can be easlyer removed for dormancy? And youre SPhagnum moss will easly take over youre little ponds... or pools.

cheers

 

[cprus]

The picture shows the "rings" of moss in the garden. Well each ring represents an individual pot. Tropicals wil be planted with tropicals and temperates with temperates. You should see this thing in the morning, for about 4 hours each morning, it's getting intense light and after that filtered light until the after noon when it kinda becomes bright shade. If and when I feel the plants aren't doing so well is when I'll install some lights above. As for it smelling, that's exactly why the water siphon and aerator is there for. As long as the water moves and is flushed regularly, no way will this thing rot or smell.

 

[nepenthes_ak]

Sounds good to me

cheers

 

[Bugweed]

Hmmm. My bog garden waters itself.

 

[Carito]

That looks truly beautiful, no exaggeration.

I love the look of wet LF sphagnum in bogs/pots, it just looks so comfortable, like cozy bedding for the plants.

Where are pictures of your plants though?

I am very mirthful to see you are cultivating many VFTs, in particular. Those are my favourite things in this WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

 

[cprus]

Thanks every one for the comments. The plants hopefully will arrive from Dean of you know where this week, hopefully Wednesday. I'm mostly a lowland nepenthes guy but I'm getting back to where I started, I think where everyone started, VFT's. They never get old.

 

[cprus]

I'm going to give this a bump. I've edited the original post with updated pictures of the bog and also an updated lists of plants. Enjoy, although my camera isn't too great at close ups.

 

[nepenthes_ak]

doesnt look half bad, its a good looking first time bog

Cheers

 

[cool85k5]

How deep is this bog?It can't be to deep since it is a water tray.In my experience with vft I have found they like deep pots and a low water table.I found out the hard way and had a bunch of mine rot.

Jerry

 

[nepenthes_ak]

my VFT are abile to survive in higher water tables, i just let it fluxuate alot, some times they will be flooded like crazy, more than half way up the pot (never for long though)

Others they will be under an inch to no water...(again not for very long)
Cheers

 

[cprus]

I usually let the water evaporate quite a bit before I water again. The vft's are planted higher up too so even when filled all the way, they're roots haven't even touched actual water yet.

 

[cool85k5]

I have vft with roots aleast 4"-6" long,I doubt your water tray is that deep.They would grow better outside.


Jerry