I would recommend finding a good book on bog gardening. For some reason,
straight topsoil doesn't seem too bog-like. You may wish to incorporate
some peat. Peat comes from bogs.

I would stay away from horsetail (equisetum) since it is very invasive and
may take over the entire area. A 10' diameter "bog" is not that much
space.
It's not that bad.

In my & everyone else I knows experience horsetails are EXTREMELY INVANSIVE
and almost impossible to erradicate once present. Weedkiller resistent &
tiny fragments will grow.
Use of peat is very dubious on environmental grounds; should you be
destroyinging a natural bog to create an artificial one?
You can very successfully use composted bark for example.

The are good books on bog gardening. Try Amazon, bibliofind or abebooks.

Harvey

A 10' bog is not that bad. Horsetail it taboo.


Harvey wrote:
=

I would recommend finding a good book on bog gardening. For some rea=
son,
straight topsoil doesn't seem too bog-like. You may wish to incorpor=
ate
some peat. Peat comes from bogs.

I would stay away from horsetail (equisetum) since it is very invasiv=
e and
may take over the entire area. A 10' diameter "bog" is not that much=

space.
It's not that bad.
=

In my & everyone else I knows experience horsetails are EXTREMELY INVAN=
SIVE
and almost impossible to erradicate once present. Weedkiller resistent =
&
tiny fragments will grow.
Use of peat is very dubious on environmental grounds; should you be
destroyinging a natural bog to create an artificial one?
You can very successfully use composted bark for example.
=

The are good books on bog gardening. Try Amazon, bibliofind or abebooks=
=2E
=

Harvey

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal

The message
from "FrankS" contains these words:

I'm thinking of creating a bog garden this year but haven't been able to
find much info on how to do it. Basically, I'm thinking of digging a
shallow depression about 10 ft in diameter and 10 to 12 inches deep and
refilling with about 6 inches of topsoil. I have a natural slope to my yard
so keeping it wet shouldn't be a major problem for me. I would like to
create as much a natural environment as possible with cattail, bulrushes,
horsetails and any other bog type plant I can find. I have about 4 to 6
inches of topsoil over a thick bed of clay. I live in the extreme north of
zone 4 so winters are long and brutal while the summers can be hot as hell.
I want this to be a low maintenance area and I'm not interested in
attracting any wildlife although, if it works, I imagine frogs and garter
snakes may show up.

Does anyone have any experience or info to share with me?

Well, none very relevant to "brutal winters", but my attempt is an
example of making a virtue of necessity, planting for local conditions,
and as low maintenance as possible.

I started a bog garden last year in the wettest part of the garden, a
curve-edged space about 15 yards by 10, lying between the boundary and
the driveway. It's on a slight slope below a hillside,and seems to be
above a natural spring; so surface water soaks through it all year
round. We have high rainfall (70" per year) and a mild maritime climate,
no hot dry summers, windy and salty in winter but no prolonged hard
freezes. The soil is fertile and acid. The wettest end is in sun all day
(when we have any) and the drier top end is shaded after noon by
next-door's rhododendron bank. It can catch the wind so I've chosen a
lot of plants with narrow leaves.

The bog-garden was previously a drowning swampy lawn (feet could sink
into it even in summer) in which the previous owner had built two
miserable raised island beds like graves. Unaccountably she filled her
"dry" islands with neat peat, so the miniature conifers she stuck in
were still wet, starving and miserable. I moved the conifers and broke
down the stone walls. At the bottom end of the bog I dug out all the
soil, put in a membrane flood-barrier to stop water draining out, and
put the soil back mixed with the peat, so it's even wetter than before.
The lawn was covered in cardboard sheets, grasscuttings, seaweed and
rotted horse manure, excluding all light. Under the damp wetness, many
worms moved in to feed and the turf first died, then disappeared within
a couple of months. The surface will be mulched annually with similar
materials,to feed the soil and keep weeds to a minimum.

At the soggiest, wettest end I've planted variegated bulrush (supposed
to be less invasive than the green one),lysichiton, rodgersia, lobelia
(cardinalis?) and patches of wild yellow iris and primula florindae.
Further back towards the boundary, are gunnera manicata. In the next
bit, slightly less saturated, is a big swathe of pampas grasses. Pampas
may seem a funny choice for a bog but I've noticed they really enjoy
waterlogged soil down at sealevel here; I want them to make a BIG screen
between us and our nice neighbours (without hurting feelings) and be a
foliage contrast against the gunneras while sheltering them from wind.
Then comes a patch of purple drumstick primulas in front of a spiky-leaf
patch of daylilies, iris and montbretia, all of which like wet ditches;
and a purple phormium, which grows to giant proportions with its feet in
a pond near here. Beside that is a baby Royal fern. At the top end the
soil is merely damp(rain never stands on the surface) and has mahonia
Charity, red tree peony, and a couple of pieris which were already there
and a stewartia pseudocamellia.


Janet (Isle of Arran, West Scotland)