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Need Construction Ideas

NeciFiX

Kung Fu Fighting!
Hey,

I doubt any of you remember me. I was Flytrapshop's very first repeat customer :p been awhile since I signed in. I was in a traumatic car accident years ago and lost my entire plant collection I was bringing to a show. Covered in radiator fluid, I was just sobbing at the thousands of dollars invested and haven't grown since.

Right now, I live on a lake in Wisconsin called Little Butternut, located in Luck, Wisconsin, if this is of any aid. In my backyard there is a marshy/swampy area with shallow water and the usual marsh debris. However it is frequently flooded by the lake. If a picture helps I can go out and take a few, I'm just bedridden right now from an illness.

I am looking to grow carnivorous plants indigenous to the midwest United States and was thinking of using the marsh as a site. However, I imagine the water from the lake and in the swamp is not very clean. I still however would like to make some sort of enclosure that could stand being submerged in water and could potentially be mulched over and covered up come winter time.

My initial thought was digging a hole in the loose soil roughly the size of a thick plastic or perhaps metal bin and filling it with peat & perlite.

Would this method work, or would it be a better idea to stay clear of the swampy area completely and just bury them in the front yard so they would avoid being flooded.

I realize I could have used the search feature extensively here but I live far off in the middle of nowhere and even loading this post up takes a significant chunk of browser load time.

I am not on a tight budget so any appropriately sized enclosure that I could partially (or for aesthetic purposes completely bury) bury and would stand up to -40C and up to 35C without falling apart too quickly. I also am having issues trying to figure out how to avoid cross contamination between the peat and perlite vs. the natural soil.

Is this as easy as digging a hole in the ground, punching a few holes for drainage in the plastic bin, filling it and planting them? They would be exposed to a lot of sunlight. Is there anything I would need to do come winter other than mulch and covering them up? This is a summer home so during the winter I would need more than adequate protection especially from the insane wind chill they will have no cover from naturally.

I appreciate any help, whether it's "use search bar noob, get better interwebz" or anything that I need to know if I am going this route, or if you would suggest something else. I understand there are pinned topics and a search bar but it has been so long that I don't even know what to search for to begin with!

A perfect example of the kind of plant I would like to grow from this area is S. purpurea var. purpurea.

Thank you and I'm sorry for wasting your time as I know these are stupid questions. :(

Necifix

P.S. I'm assuming well water would not work and I would need a distiller?
 
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I have zero experience with extreme cold and with appropriating a lakeside for CPs. However, I would think that it'd be much easier to just dig a bog garden and eliminate your worry about the soil and water quality. The only difference between a bog garden and what you're proposing seems to be the constant access to lake water. For a bit more cash you could easily install an irrigation system, have the bog/plants way closer to your house, and have half the worries and labor. Additionally, you'll have control over the watering. You won't find Drosera or Sarr rhizomes washed out into the lake (at the very least all your seeds will flood out), and you'll escape severe flooding events that, if lengthy enough, can kill CPs.

That being said, before I picked up the shovel and did a crapton of work, I'd have the lake water and soil tested. That way, you can assess whether or not it's a decent area to try growing CPs.

For curiosity's sake I found the OP about the car accident (http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php/110780-I-Got-In-A-Car-Accident) and I just wanted to say that I am extraordinarily sorry that happened to you. I am glad that you and your mom are fine and made it through. It must've been more traumatic than any of us could ever realize. You're truly a strong person for wanting to get back into the hobby after something like that.
 
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