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A Bit of Bog

© Vicki Paull

Bog gardens are a natural extension of the pond. If you do much hiking or wilderness travel you know that in the wild, a pond almost always has a marshy bog about its edges. The plants will be Cattails, Sagittarius, Pickerel, assorted rushes, Iris, and others that are specific to the neighborhood. Combined with stones and boulders, sand or gravel, found in a shady nook or a sunny glade the wild pond is nature at its best. How do you recreate this wonder? It will take some work and planning, but is well worth it in the long run.

Spend some time with your pond, try visualizing the bog. Remember that some of the plants can be quite large, you will want some that bloom, so where will they look their best? Do you want this area visible from a particular viewpoint? Do you want it to block another area from view? Will it lead the eye to the pond or will it represent the end of the water feature? The answer to these questions will help you to decide where to put it, how large to make it and what plants to purchase.

Once you make those decisions draw your existing pond on some graph paper and then lay out your addition. You don't need to be anal about moving the design from paper to pond, but you do need a good idea what you are going to do before you start digging.

In my case, I wanted a visual wall. The water garden is in the front yard and I needed some privacy, so the bog went in the area that would block my view of the road. I selected plants that grow tall, Taro and Cannas. To fill out the front I added Astilbe, Goat's Beard, Hosta and hardy Begonias. The Cannas bloom is very showy, with the Hosta, Astilbe, and Begonias adding a softer note. I love the textures of these plants in combination as well, smooth, jagged, shiney, velvety. You get the picture, the foliage will be part of your life longer than the bloom, so select plants that please you when they are not in flower.

Now for the fun part. . . .digging! After you have outlined your bog, dig it out, most of these plants will need at least a foot in depth. Actually I had to build it up to the proper "depth" with a stone wall, so do what you need to do, going up or down you need at least a foot of depth, and deeper is better. Now you will need to line the excavation. I used some old pond liner from a previous smaller pond, I have heard of using an old water bed mattress, use some extra from the pond, or hey, just break down and buy some:-) Ok, now the controversy, some experts put a few drainage holes in the liner, others don't, reasoning that these are, after all,

White-flowered Bog Orchid

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