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I bought one of those 60-gallon mini-ponds at Home Depot. It's kidney-shaped, and bigger than two 18" round pots put together.

I plan to move all the S. alata I rescued from Covington LA into it, and perhaps add some D. capillaris and D. brevifolia as well, perhaps some D. filiformis ssp. tracyi (yes, I know it is from a different habitat, but they will look nice together), and I may seed the surface with U. subulata.

The center of the pond has en extension that will necessitate digging a foot-deep hole, and I am torn between burying it a little further, or only burying the part that must be underground for the pond to be stable, and then lining the outside with decorative bricks.

I also need to situate it in a part of the yard that isn't watered, but the best spot tends to get torrential overflow from the gutters.

I am also considering drilling a 5-gallon plastic pail full of holes, and burying that in the central well. It will be a gauge of where the water table is, and provide a place to grow some aquatic utricularia.

I think I will fill the central well with peat, and fill the rest of the tub with LFS. I find that Sarracenia do best in pure LFS, as opposed to peat-based soil mixes. If I do that, I may find that the small sundews and U. subulata will not grow in it.

Any recommendations?
 
Hmm, kind of out of my league at this point. But it sure sounds cool! I like your bucket idea - that seems a lot smarter than just digging a hole in the media and hoping it doesn't get washed out by the rain. I think that if you get overflow from the gutters and such, having the liner above ground somewhat would be a good idea. That way, you can put the overflow holes above the ground and gutter water won't wash back into your bog. As for the LFS vs. peat and sand, why not do LFS for the Sarrs and then cover some spots with an inch or two of peat and sand where you want the Utrics and Drosera? Honestly, I've never grown U. subulata before, but given it's reputation I don't think it will be very picky about conditions.
Best luck, and please post some photos as things come along!
~Joe
 
Your bucket idea is very similar to what I do with pvc pipe. The only thing I'd mention is that standing water like that will collect mosquitos and not all of them will become food for the cp's.
smile.gif
 
You might want to consider elevating the lip of the rigid form pond liner 2" above the ground.  This is "insurance" against possible runoff from any chemicals used on your lawn or your neighbor's lawn getting into that area.

If you have access to a TDS meter, why don't you test your rain water. I have one manufactured by Hanna Instruments and it is pretty darn accurate in displaying the ppm. I have found that the water from my gutters as well as from my sump pump pit is perfectly acceptable to use for my plants. Granted, a TDS meter is not as accurate as sending your water to a lab however, it is so darn close I see no need to collect samples and send my water out for testing any longer.

I guess what I am saying is that the area that receives torrential overflow from the gutters may very well be a blessing in disguise. I have one area that we excavated and we actually trenched pvc down to it so that we would be able to divert water from the gutters there.  Just a thought.

I like your idea of drilling a 5-gallon plastic pail full of holes and placing that in the middle of your new bog to create a central well. I am somewhat hesitant to comment on an entire outdoor bog filled with LFS because I have never tried that before.  I use Canadian sphagnum peat and sand. I also add white pine needles to the mix and dare I say this... I "spike" my rain water with a little bit of vinegar to increase the acidity of the environment.

Regarding standing water-
http://www.petflytrap.com/cgi-bin....17;st=0
I think the comments that may be of interest to you are toward the end but they are hard to follow unless you start at the beginning.
 
I'd suggest some sort of of drainage. If that is sunk into the ground and you get a lot of rain, you risk the water stagnating because it will not be able to drain out (like in a natural setting). I use those pond liners too but I put my pots in there. If water has sat too long, I can remove the pots and dump the liners of any fouling water.

My first microbog was similar to what you are planning (only not set into the ground). It was not successful. That's not to say your set up wouldn't be...that was just my experience and why I changed to pots set into liners. Now I can dump water that's stagnating.
 
Hey Laura... I am not concerned about the quality of water draining into the bog from the gutter; only in its momentum... it would have an excavating effect!

I will only bury the central pit. The rest of it will be above the ground. This is so that children (and adults) don't walk into it. It will be filled to the top with LFS, so I am not concerned about stagnating water. It will be no different than any of the large pots i have outside, just bigger.
 
Yup, your new bog would get excavated allright with water spilling over from your gutters straight into it. You'd have splatter CPs! I have a better understanding of what you were trying to describe now. I'd like to know how you do with 100% LFS over the long haul.

We diverted water from a downspout and it should be about 20"-24" underneath the soil mix I chose far that area. We trenched about 150' under the side lawn over to the area where I had the backhoes last fall. Think of a lawn sprinkler/soaker. Our pvc runs the length of that area and basically feeds from the bottom up. I'd like to finish that big bog off sometime this fall. Cross your fingers for me that we don't get a wet fall or the heavy equipment will sink in the lawn and my husband does have a line in the sand. Pits across our front yard would not make him a happy man so I might have to wait to finish the excavation over there... again... to spring of '06 if the weather doesn't cooperate.

There is no drainage in any of the bogs I have that are recessed into the ground. I've not had any problems with stagnant water. I could see where others might. On the smaller 15 and 20 gallon bogs, we have them set in the ground on an ever so slight "tilt".  One side is about a quarter of an inch lower that the other so we don't have any standing water issues. This past spring, we did have to play around with one of the little bogs thanks to the freeze thaw cycles but excess rain water is spilling over the edges again.  When I get home, I can post a photo of one of the smaller bogs. One is in its second year but I just added another earlier this year. So far so good other than chippies getting in and ferreting away birdseed they collect in their cheeks from the feeders. I don't much worry about that as they tend to deposit their seed all in one little hole.  When it sprouts, I pull out the entire clump and patch the hole. Squirrels, they're nothing but trouble in the fall if you have any fruiting trees in the general area.

Now you've got me thinking... I'll pick up one of those 30 gallon round preforms and I think I'll experiment with an above ground bog. 100% LFS, eh? I'm game. What the heck. I'll go for it with you only on a smaller scale. Hope whatever I decide to plant in there can make it in the Chicago area. I have my reservations about that but no time like the present to do a test.
 
I bought a 20 gallon above ground preform and set it up with S. purpurea in it. Several "rescues" from Home Depot. Let's see if they survive the winter.
 
My bog garden is essentially finished. I sank the lowest protrusion into the ground, and filled it up with tap water to check the level, then drained it, used sand underneath the liner to level, and checked the level again. Then I surrounded it with those trapezoidal decorative bricks, stacked 2 high.

I drilled a 5 gallon plastic bucket full of holes, and placed that in the central well, so that the top of the bucket was even with the level of the pond, using a base of quartz sand in the well to support the bucket. I then filled the pond halfway with wet peat, packing LFS around the bucket to act as a filter. I then filled the rest of the pond with LFS.

I have filled and drained the rainwater in the new bog garden several times now to remove as many impurities as possible.

I can drain the water easily from the buried bucket. That serves the purpose of drainage, but the bucket is a mosquito larva breeder pit. So, there is now a very satisfied U. gibba floating in it.

Yesterday, I planted all the small S. alata from Covington that i still had in small pots. I have the rest still in the 18" planters i originally put them in. I will wait til they go dormant this winter to transplant them. I may also try adding in some D. capillaris and D. brevifolia.

I am still trying to decide if I want to limit the planting only to species that exist in the same microenvironment (excepting the U. gibba). If I decide to add other plants, I will be adding P. primuliflora in the shadow of the larger plants, D. filiformis ssp. tracyi, D. intermedia, and perhaps some VFTs.

Perhaps I'll take some pictures soon...
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (SarraceniaScott @ Aug. 22 2005,2:13)]Perhaps I'll take some pictures soon...
I for one, would love to see pictures of the bog. It sounds very nice!
 
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