Building an artificial bog garden

If anyone out there is looking to add a bog garden to their landscape, I've lectured on the subject and have put together a "how to". I posted this information on another thread but thought I'd put it on a thread of its own. I also have a list of sources for some less common plants which I'll be happy to send to anyone who asks. Also a pic of my Sarracenia flava as it looked in June 2004

Creating an artificial bog garden
By Fred Bess

Strange as it may sound the first step to building a bog garden, dig a hole! The area can be whatever shape you like about 18 – 24 inches deep and slightly raised from the surrounding bed area to keep runoff from entering the bog (this is explained shortly). Locate the bog garden where it will get full sun at least half the day, preferably afternoon sun.
The worst part is done! Now line the hole with rubber pond liner. Don’t worry if there are sharp roots etc. that could puncture the liner. A few leaks do not matter.
Begin filling the bog with the following combination: add 1 bale (4cuft) of sphagnum peat, mix in 100lbs of silica sand and a big mess of conifer needles (white pine is my favorite). Add rain, distilled, or dehumidifier water till saturated. This is the second hardest job because peat is extremely hydrophobic. I dumped everything in then climbed in like Moses in the mud pits making bricks (the silica rubbed all the hair off my legs, small price to pay!)
Repeat above until the bog is full and fully saturated. Sculpt the “dirt” such that it is low in the center and higher around the edges. Because it is saturated and all the air is worked out, it will not settle.
If you wish to plant a Fen type garden (ph neutral and slightly more nutrient rich) add 50 – 100 lbs of calcium rich lime in place of the conifer needles. Most species of Cypripedium will prefer this to the bog garden. I made the mistake of using crushed oyster shell, it added too much salt…so don’t use this for calcium!
Time to plant! Place plants that like more water near the center of the bog where it is low and plants that like less water around the edges. This works well because the edges dry out far faster than the center. Be patient! A bog garden takes at least 2 years to become well established as a mini ecosystem. Don’t pull any weeds that you are not sure are weeds! Some really good stuff can come to your garden from peat bales. But keep seed heads of sedges and other more aggressive plants trimmed so more tender plants will have a better chance of survival.
The cardinal rule! NEVER EVER EVER WATER WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN RAIN, DISTILLED, OR DEHUMIDIFIER WATER! TAP WATER WILL KILL A BOG GARDEN IN A SEASON AS WILL ANY SORT OF FERTILIZER!
Plants suitable for bog gardens and sources

There are a number of plants that are suitable for bog gardens, many are readily available others far too scarce. Listed here are some of the plants I have had success with and enjoy in my garden. Remember when looking for plants, be sure to buy from sources that propagate their stock or (in the case of orchids) are from documented salvage operations. These are plants that were removed from habitats just before the bulldozers come in to build the next strip mall. This list is NOT exhaustive and you may have luck with plants I have failed with or think I’m crazy for planting “that”.

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS
Sundews, Drosera filiformis, D. rotudifolia, and D. intermedia
Sarracenia Species especially purpurea and those that produce best pitchers in spring.
Venus Fly Trap Dionea muscipula. I’ve found it reasonably hardy here (my plants have survived -5F)
UNCOMON PLANTS
Bog rosemary Andromeda and Heather/Heath Caluna species.
Sedges and rushes especially corkscrew rush and cotton grass (sedge).Be careful some of these can get out of hand!
Gentians, great fall flowers. Patience is required to get them established.
Blue and yellow eyed grasses and smaller members of the Iris (Iridaceae) family.
Call me crazy but no bog garden would be complete without Poison sumac (yes it is in my garden). Most wonderful fall color, but don’t touch!
Orchids
Cypripedium or lady’s Slippers, C. acaule (pink) for the bog garden, C. reginae (showy), and C. candidum (white) for the “Fen” and C. pubescens (Yellow) and it’s relatives for a partly sunny spot in the Perennial bed.
Fall blooming Spiranthes or Lady’s Tresses, Small, fragrant, and a great companion to fringed gentian. These self seed in the bog!
Platanthera species, the fringed orchids, especially P. ciliaris (yellow) and blephariglottis (white). There is also P. psycodes (purple) but it is NOT an easy plant to grow!
Calopogon tuberosa, the grass pink. Showy and easy, Epipactis gigantea, giant hellborine, great if you can find a source, Dactylorhiza spp. (European) a good garden candidate, and Bletilla spp. A great garden subject needing no special care.

Want seed to those plants, Need seed to those plants, Lust for seed to those plants!

Well, then I'd need complete instructions on how to germinate them too!

If you need germination info this site has so many entries I don't think I've ever failed to find the correct instructions. http://www.backyardgardener.com/tm.html
Jessamine

Hi again E!

funny you should post as you did, I was out in the bog collecting seed just for you! Alas, S. flava didn't set viable seed and the acursed deer ate all the Spiranthes stems before seed ripened.

I'm sending off some things to my dad in FL, so when I drop his package at the post office I'll do the same with yours! Here are the Spiranthes the deer devoured along with a plant of the endangered Sarracenia rubra var. alabamensis (It's a division of a plant collected by a botany professor friend sometime in the late 60's)

bogman, when is the best time to dig a bog garden, spring or fall? belinda

Daylilly,

Dig whenever the mood strikes you! It takes (in my opinion) at least 3 years for a bog to really become well established. The bog pics I keep showing are of a bog I started at a previous home in 1998. When I moved in April 2000 I cut the bog's sod and moved the ENTIRE garden (what a pain in the butt!), and actually there were 2 gardens I moved, with the promise that the holes would be filled with quality garden soil.

Sorry for all the photos, can't help myself! Orange fringed and Monkey face orchids (both Platantheras) bloomed the second week of August this year!

bogman, love your pictures. keep posting them. i am going to try a bog garden next spring. belinda

Why BogMan! Seeds for little old me! Yeeha!

Uh hm... I have never attempted to germinate any CPs from seed. I think I really do need complete instructions on how to germinate what ever you send my way!

bumping up for crestedchik!

Thank you
I have tons of peat moss bales
what is sillica sand?
and can you use well water to water the bog?
Lake water?

Hey Bogman: I wanted you to know you and Equilibrium are going to get me in trouble again.LOL. On the other hand I don't remember when I wasn't in trouble with someone over something. I never understood that since I try not to push my enthusiasums on anyone but I love to share with anyone so incllined.
I have tried several times to grow the Bletilla with no success. Somewhere I read that it needs a particular microbe in the soil and it won't grow without it so I have been wasting my time and money. Can you shed some light on this for me? I wish I could remember the source but it has been too long. Your pictures are georgeous and I hope I can acheive a small part of what you have accompllished. Jessamine

Crestedchik

Play sand will work just fine and easily accessible. don't use well or lake water unless youhave it tested and it has a very low mineral content. That is if you are planning a bog such as the one I have with carnivorous plants and native orchids etc. If you're planning more of a "wet garden" then these waters will work. For a true bog garden ANY nutrients must be avoided.

Jessamine

Bletilla only needs the "microbe" (actually a fungus) to germinate from seed. once it is growing it no longer requires this to survive. I suspect that either critters (voles, mice, or the like) are eating them or they are not well enough protected to survive your winters. Most people here dig them in the fall like cannas or gladioulus and store them in damp sand or peat. I've also noted that most of the Bletilla roots that are sold are NOT blooming size and require 2-3 years of additional growth before flowering.

I too am always in trouble with someone! My neighbors hate my gardens. They like everything spit and polished (from the old country) and my gardens are anything but! She loves perfectly manicured green grass, and has a cow when I add a new garden...so I've decided to put in a garden of tall grasses for 2 reasons. 1) for privacy because their house sits behind ours and they know everything that goes on here and 2) just to tick her off!

Bogman, I had to laugh about your neighbor since we have had a few that left me saying Uh, Uh???. Duh?? When you said she had a cow, I had a vision of the restaurant out of Sound of Music that had cows in a meadow below them on the other side of the moraine where we lived and remembered the times I had to collect them and get them back on their own side of the highway. I don't know if the cows or the geese were the bigger problem. Jessamine

Hello,
Bogman, I'm just curious. Do you prefer the liner to a preformed for any particular reason?

Sheila

I just built a wooden framed "Bog Box" this year as an experiment and I'm now looking forward to the results of my planting.
Thanks for the plant information, if I decide to incorporate a bog garden with my pond next year, the plant list will be very helpful.
Oconus.

What is a good size to start with?
3x3 ?6x6?is bigger better to start?

You might send him an email. I can't recall seeing him post since there was some harsh words over invasive plants back in December that he got caught up in but was not the cause of, as best I recall.

Judy

crestedchik, who did you direct your question to?
Oconus.

ANYONE who can answer it...LOL

Bogman is incredibly busy this time of year. Nothing more, nothing less. The man is incredibly good at what he does and he's in demand. He's probably wishing he could clone himself right about now so he could play in his own gardens.

I prefer the kiddie pool in my area because it is rigid and less likely for critters to gnaw through and burrow into. Unfortunately, one is very limited to the round shape and addressing the edge can be challenging. I out grew my kiddie pool bog and sort of expanded into other areas. I had no choice but to go for epdm with an underlayment of hardware cloth amongst other things.

As far as a starter size, absolutely nothing wrong with a $9.99 kiddie pool. You'll have easy access to everything you plant in there with little or no reach and you'll get an opportunity to experiment with plants to see what overwinters best. I don't think there is any ideal size to start with as it's pretty much personal preference. 6x6 without supported stepping stones is going to be difficult to maintain though. Weeds have a tendency of sprouting right smack dab in the middle. I have seen people lay down large planks to be able to gain access to areas of their bogs so there are ways to gain access to interior areas of a large bog.

The depth is what you want to be at least 18" in my opinion. Preferably 2'.

Why Oconos, you sly creature you! Am I reading what you typed right? Have you gone soggy on us? Ya know... you're doomed now because once you go soggy, you never go back.

Thank you
I have the info I need now....

Will you share photos with us when you are done?

I just thought of a couple more things. You can use RubberMaid or AgroMaster stock tanks and sink those in the ground also. I volunteer in the community with children. Here's a photo I took of a bog in the making from just last week in which an AgroMaster 175 gallon stock tank from a farm supply was used.

The one thing I should have added if you go the route of a kiddie pool or a stock tank would be that you would want the lip of the container to be about 2"-3" above the ground so that the risk of anything washing in there is minimized.

OH
thats a short stock tank
I have really only seen the tall ones
gunna look around
I was all set on the kiddie pool....now I'm rethinking

and thank you for pointing me in the right direction

Oh no, that stock tank isn't all that short. Must be an optical illusion. The depth on that was ideal at 25". That particular brand is AgroMaster and they do have that exact shape in a lower depth of 15". I have both outside here at my home. One is being used to heel in some saplings and the other is being used to grow some aquatic Lizard's Tail so I just ran out and measured for you. All of these (including the stock tank pictured in the ground at the school) were purchased at Blaine's Farm and Fleet but maybe you could check out FreeServe or your local newspapers for containers. Come to think of it, I know of people who have sealed off old satellite dishes and used those as bogs. Waste not want not. I've seen people sink 20 gallon paint tubs in the ground and they work well. Actually, I have one of these stuck in the ground here. I've also seen large 15 and 20 gallon planters stuck in the ground and those work equally as well. Then there are those whisky barrel liners that some are using for mini bog gardens. Have a free for all. The material you want to steer clear of would be metal though as well as any container that contained chemicals. You might want to stick with the $9.99 kiddie pool. Those stock tanks aren't all that cheap. The big ones are well over a hundred dollars and the smaller one was around $90. I promise you your plants won't care whether they are growing in a kiddie pool or a stock tank and you'll have to address planting around the edge to "cover it up" regardless of which you choose. Black can be just as distracting as that aqua color if it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Yes, I have been away, but only for lack of time. I do tend to hang out a bit more at GW, only because I started the bog garden forum there.

I used pond liner because It is more versatile than preformed liners and was at the time more accesible.

As far as size goes, make it as big as you can! The bigger it is the more stable the ecosystem will be and the less rainwatering you'll have to do.

Here is a picture of my latest back breaking project, a double pond with waterfall between, hope to have that done by the end of june, at which time I am dismantling moving and rebuilding a greenhouse that's been given to me. Fortunately someone else is doing the bulk of that work for me!

By the way Equilibrium, I got 100% germination on the Sarracenia seeds you sent!

Oh baby! You done good. I only got 75% germination. Pray tell what did you do differently than me? Inquiring minds want to know! Love your new back yard set up!

I sprinkled the seed on moistened peat in a pot, placed it in a ziplock bag and refrigerated it. Then a few weeks ago I took it out of the fridgeand set it in a partly sunny window still in ziplock bag.

I forgot to mention that I've got some orchids popping up in the garden! I think they are Dactylorhiza something going to be pink. I have no idea where they came from but I've scattered various seed left over from flasking in that area. Funny, none of the seed in flask germinated worth a hoot, but I've got 10 or more plants that just came up under my Cephalotaxus harrigtonia. Asian orchids under an Asian shrub?

Oh my my my! Doesn't sound good to me. You'll just have to whisk those Asian babies over to me.

"I sprinkled the seed on moistened peat in a pot, placed it in a ziplock bag and refrigerated it. Then a few weeks ago I took it out of the fridgeand set it in a partly sunny window still in ziplock bag." Figures, I did mine by the book. And to top matters off, one of my cats just got into the terrarium and ate off all the tops of those seedlings.

OH
one more question
Should it be in full sun all day?

Try to locate it where it will get about 8 hours or more of direct sunlight, I don't know if that constitutes full sun or not but that should do. Other than that I'm told a rule of thumb is a minimum of 6-7 hours of sun. Does that help?

yup
thank you

Hey E,

Sorry I know this is off topic...but

Did you ever get your fringe tree seeds to germinate?? I got a call from an irate customer complaining about weeds in her flower beds (under a female fringe tree). When I arrived to my surprise she had quite literally thousands of 2 inch high seedling fringe trees. I rescued 30-40 before having to treat them with roundup (boy was that difficult for me to do!). I potted them up and if they do well I'll share some with you if yours haven't done so well.

No, I had no luck but if I'm not mistaken those are a real tough seed like American Yellowwood. I tried my best. I ended up purchasing a few from Forest Farm. If they do well for you, I'd love to have some. I can't believe you remembered that was one of my most favorite specimen type trees for a front yard. I did get a bunch of Kentucky Coffeetrees as well as Ginkgo biloba, Persimmon, Pawpaw, white flowering Crape Myrtle, Dawn Redwood, and Bald Cypress to germinate though and they'll be moving into their second year. I have had good luck with Hickories as well as oaks and most of all the understory type shrubs such as American Hazelnut, Ninebark, and New Jersey Tea. Come to think of it; my Hodge, Colby, Major, Peruque, and Posey pecans are going into their third year which is good. My White Mountain Laurel and my Eastern Whitebuds bit they dust. They germinated and never came back this spring. Overall, I've had remarkable success. So much so that I gave about 90% away. Hey BogMan, thanks for thinking of me.