How To Build A Bog As Part Of Your Pond Environment

[OttawaPonder]

I prefer my bog to be a part of the pond environment!
I feel it looks more natural and Hey, it uses the water from the pond, making my life, any care there of, much easier on me. :D Got to love that. LOL

Now with that said I know a lot or most Koi/fish Ponders - do not or would not want a bog as part of their pond for many reasons.

Well I am here to say, if built right you can have a bog as part of your pond, be it a water garden or koi pond.

One way of comparing:
A BOG - has soil, plants/marginals, remains wet for the most part, simular to wetlands or a marsh. No real moving water unlike;
A Veggie filter - has floating plants and no soil, maybe even some filtering material and moving water
A Bog filter - has marginals and maybe even floating plants with a rock base and no soil and again it has moving water like a veggie filter.
With all that said I feel a BOG "FILTER" and a VEGGIE "FILTER" are like the saying: You say TO MATE TOE and I say TO MOT TOE (let's call the whole thing off) LOL No I will not sing as I like to keep what chat friends I do have.
So I believe, be it right or wrong, a bog "filter" and a veggie "filter are one and the same. They use different plantings and/or filtering material, such as: rocks, lava rocks, mats and/or just plants.
Its also my belief what I like to call a true "BOG" is like I stated above; with soil, mostly wet, plants and no real moving water passing through it.

Everyone chime in how you build a bog and why.
Help give us many ways/opinions.

Thanks

[OttawaPonder]

As we all know there are many ways to make a bog. People also have different tastes and have a variety of locations and plants to chose from.

How I see yard space
I think of a yard similar to a house with many rooms. Each room has it own style, look, feel and use. To me the front yard is the MAIN room, the entrance if you will. The back yard is like a family room and/or a rec room. The family room is where one hangs out most of the time. Where they mainly live, entertain and it's used almost, if not every day! It can also be a private place for every day enjoyment and comfort. The rec room of the back yard is like the work area in the basement, or where all the kids toys can be found. It is also more then likely not the prettiest room in a house.

So this is what works for me and where I like my bog area. (just my taste or even lack there of. :-P Depending on how one sees it. LOL)

My preference
A bog must be part of something! It should be part of a pond or a stream or even part of the combination of a pond and stream together. I think a bog in one area or corner of a yard, that is normally high and dry, and which is placed away from a pond or stream, looks odd - way out of place to me and very unnatural. So I prefer my bogs to be part of something and not all by themselves. Now there are exceptions to this rule and they are as follows:

1)If you have a wet yard, most if not all of the time, or what some call wetlands, then a pond by itself in one area and the bog elsewhere all on its own may work just fine and still come across as a natural setting.
2)If you were to place a pond and/or stream in one room of your yard and then place a bog by itself and or a stream with a bog in another room of your yard where neither can be seen from the other room/area then that is ok in my book. (It's similar to mix and match in different rooms in one's house. Each room does not have to blend or match with the next. They can stand on their own.)
3)If you want only a bog in a wet area of your yard.

Now, all of these are just my opinions and preferences. One can do as one sees fit, as it is their own space, time and money involved. Hey some rules are meant to be broken – right?!

How I like to build my bog as part of the pond
I build my bogs in many ways but one way remains the same. The bog “looks” as it is part of the pond, or stream, or even a pond/stream combo. It is one and the same space or environment. However with that said I hide the fact that they are two individual items, spaces, or areas to themselves. I trick the eye to think other wise – I guess is the best way of saying it.

If the pond is going to be small, or of a size that the liner is easy to get and does not cost an arm and a leg; I make the liner one piece for both the pond and the bog. I then divide them by making the liner high in the middle between the pond and bog areas. One could use two pieces of liner to do the same, however, extra care will be needed when doing so.

Now, for keeping the water from flowing back and forth between the two; one can use moss, like I have, on the top row of rocks, where the water level is of the pond and the water can slowly seep through as needed. Or one can use PVC and run as many pipe runs as needed for the size of the bog area. You can even T off from the main pipe work and go out in either directions. Then be sure to have small holes drilled throughout the pipe work to allow the water to flow evenly as possible. Then cover the pipe with a good quality landscape cloth, add soil and plants. Which ever way you use, the bog area gets its water from the pond as it needs it. Plus the water does not flow back and forth between the two spaces and bring the soil into the pond. I also like to make the wet part of the bog area much lower and then raise it by using a lot of soil so the top part of the soil remains dry to the touch and only if you dig down, in the bog, do you find water. I also should of said that I angle the earth downward from the top row of rocks into the bog from the wall dividing pond and the bog. For this pond, I made a trench at the opposite side of the bog, away from the pond, so if we get too much rain it can run down into the trench. This trench is lower then where the water is coming from the pond and this way it will flow away from the pond and not back in it to mess things up. If you chose this way of doing a bog, think of how a pond overflow works and design that into the pond to the bog area, then one from the bog area out to wherever you want the excessive water to go. This way, the water will only flow through into the bog as needed.

PLEASE NOTE: However if you have never had a bog before as part of your pond and you do want to add one; you will notice more water loss due to evaporation as the plants use up more and more water in the heat of the hot sun.

1) The rock wall in this picture and season two I think it was I used the moss way of building this bog area.
http://usera.imagecave.com/OttawaPonder/Pond_Stuff/SecondseasonofPondnowfullandtestingBDs5-10.jpg
2) Cattails in right corner of bog area behind the Beautiful Mona Lisa Oriental Lilies
http://usera.imagecave.com/OttawaPonder/Pond_Stuff/BeautifulMonaLisaDayLilliesandcanyouseePoohsbelly7-3.jpg
3) Winnie the Pooh taking a break and hiding from the sun under the Canna Lily leaf (another good plant for bogs)
http://usera.imagecave.com/OttawaPonder/Pond_Stuff/WinniethePoohundertheCannaLillieleaf7-2.jpg
4) Drawing showing bog attached to pond. Note: I use a good quality landscape cloth in the bottom of a bog area when no pipe work is used and on top of pipes when pipe work is used. In both cases I have the landscape cloth up against the back side of the rocks with moss in between the rocks, up to the landscape cloth and moss on top of the cloth only near the rocks before the soil is put in the bog. Also note the small river stones on top of the drainage tile, on my pond the cedar deck side walk covers the drainage tile.
http://usera.imagecave.com/OttawaPonder/Pond_Stuff/BogAttachedToAPond.bmp.jpg

[Busy B]

Nice thread Tony!!

I like the idea of moss...do you buy it or dig it from somewhere?

What kind of a soil mix do you use? Do you incorporate any sand into it?

[OttawaPonder]

Nice thread Tony!!

I like the idea of moss...do you buy it or dig it from somewhere?

What kind of a soil mix do you use? Do you incorporate any sand into it?

I buy my moss, in large bags, from one of my suppliers. One can usually find a good supply of it at a well know garden center/nursery. If they do not carry it - ask them too. That is what I did. They now carry it.

As for soil I prefer to mix my own with any garden project I do.
For the Bog I add:
a) 2 to 3 parts Peat
b) 1 to 2 parts rich 3 and 1 soil (some times if I do not have 3 and 1 on hand; So I use good rich soil and add in a few bags of good compost soil as well)
c) (opional) 1 to 2 parts pond planting soil. I like to spread it on top of the other mixed soil,once it and the plants are in place. This help hold the soil in place till the plants fully grow in. Once the plants established they hold the soil in place naturally. My lil helpful hint (shh don't tell a soul ok) I feel using the pond planting soil, as a top dressing, helps when you have those real hard rains which come down on the new soil mix until the plants have time to fill in. Once the plants have filled in, the roots help hold the soil together and the plant cover help cover the soil from hard rains. Or so its how I think (if you don't ask the MRS - she might tell you I never think LOL)

So far I have not used sand.

[Busy B]

Pond planting soil...is that clay?

[OttawaPonder]

Pond planting soil...is that clay?

NO its not clay. Its special soil "blend" for pond plants. Costly and YES one can use other stuff - but I prefer it only when I can use it. I also do use other stuff at times.

I'll BRB - let me go get a bag (as I try to keep some on hand) and I am bad with names to even try to recall what it is known as. LOL

Fafard
Water Garden Soil
16 or 18lb bags I think as I did not write that down LOL

[Busy B]

Never heard of the water garden soil...

Heard of people using manure composted...gotta be high in nitro tho

[OttawaPonder]

Busy B, the water garden soil does not cause a water balance problem for fish.

My supplier told me about it a few years back.

That soil is great to use for plants in a pond and more so a pond which will have fish. In a "true" bog it does not matter. The richer and nastier the soil the better. LOL

[Jackie Ramo]

As with all plants bog plants have different needs. some prefer more acid conditions. When building a bog keeping in mind what plants you plan to have will help you decide what soil to put in it.

A neutral soil will grow most things once they are established but some plants demand the acid from peat bogs to do well. an acid fertilizer helps and can be spot done but is a pita to remember.

[Busy B]

There's a peat bog close by that has the most beautiful fluffy brown peat I've ever seen...just wonderful to grow in...imagine it would work well for a bog since it came from one :smile:

More miles down the road is another bog where peat is sold and it's black..ick...really acidic..takes so much lime to bring the PH down, I never recommend it and won't use it.

[OttawaPonder]

Looks as if you two posted at the same time. LOL

[Jackie Ramo]

I put peat moss and compost into my bog. Mine is designed to take the runoff from the roof so it doesn't go into the pond, that's where it gets most of its water although it does get some when I vaccuum the pond as well. I didn't line it at all as the bottom is clay and the soils used to fill it hold water quite well.

I had a small bog beside my previous pond and I did line it as the soil there was sand, nice yellow beach sand that drained in half an hour... like gardening in a desert. !dude

When I win the lottery, I'd like to build a raised pond above the current one and it would be a veggie filter.

The current bog is in the background. The stone edging in front prevents overflows during heavy storms

[Busy B]

Very lush looking Jackie...do you need a house guest :lol:

[Jackie Ramo]

Sure, I got legs to build !rofl

[OttawaPonder]

Hey Vinny and Guido, give jackie her legs back! LOL !rofl

[Jackie Ramo]

Tony I don't have a leg to stand on :lol:

[OttawaPonder]

Ok then, how come your name is not Eileen instead of Jackie !rofl

[Jackie Ramo]

:lol: :lol:

[Busy B]

Does a bog have to be a certain size? Is it like the pond where bigger is better...more room to add plants over time or thin them out?

[OttawaPonder]

Does a bog have to be a certain size? Is it like the pond where bigger is better...more room to add plants over time or thin them out?

I thinks its a matter of taste as well as location.
Some want more bog and others don't.

Also lets say you have an area where you pond is raised only because the ground around the pond is mainly low, or the lowest, in that part of you yard. In most cases then the rain run off would collect in the area around your pond. So one might want a large bog to have a place for this run off to go and be useful. Plants are a great way to help dry up areas like that. As the sun beats down on them they wick up the water below. :D

PLUS look at bonnie's pictures of her new property. See how the pond is lower then the two sides you can see in the picture. Well if one were to do as I said above and take the lowest side of the ground around the pond and plant a good size bog. The rain run off would go into the bog and could be deverted from going derrectly into the pond it self. And we all know its best not to have run off going right into a pond.

Hope that helps. (Just my opinion and MTCW)

[Busy B]

Well my whole yard is flat so it may be easy to squeeze one in...where I have runoff, I put in a dry creek and don't want to rip it out..

Back to the drawing board but thanks for all the suggestions!

[Terri]

Great thread OttawaPonder :-)

I would like to move my water garden into the front yard, where it is now would make a good spot for a bog garden. Now I know how I can do it, thanks.

Question tho... if you wanted to create a bog filter, how do you go about returning the water back to the pond without it carrying "bog dirt"? Probably a silly question...

[Jackie Ramo]

Veggie filters don't have dirt :D Just water flowing through the plant roots, some put the pants in gravel most grow them through egg crate or something like that. Even the biofalls of the AS system is built so you can put plants in the top to help with filtration.

As for bog, it can be any size. I wish now I had made mine bigger but fortunately its easy to expand since I am not using a liner.

[OttawaPonder]

Great thread OttawaPonder :-)

I would like to move my water garden into the front yard, where it is now would make a good spot for a bog garden. Now I know how I can do it, thanks.

Question tho... if you wanted to create a bog filter, how do you go about returning the water back to the pond without it carrying "bog dirt"? Probably a silly question...

Oh please for give me but I can not pass this one up. !rofl

Class Terri ask: " if you wanted to create a bog filter, how do you go about returning the water back to the pond without it carrying "bog dirt"? "

Teachers response: Terri, go back to the begining of the lesson and read over again. LOL Terri, I hope by now you know my sense of humor.

NO QUESTION is a STUPID one!
Its the ones who never ask and seem to know it all that are - well lets but it a nicer way - not so bright :grin:

VEGGIE and or BOG "FILTER" - do not have soil.
So they work like a waterfall. Pump the water in from the bottom.
They have rocks or not. If a VEGGIE "filter" usually has just floating plants.
A BOG "filter" can have both; marginals set in rocks and floating plants.

:-D

[Terri]

Well then my water garden is a "bog" filter :lol:

See when I think "bog" I think "dirt"... was still a silly question as I knew the answer I guess :rolleyes:

[Jackie Ramo]

Terri your water garden doesn't go into the pond... :???:

[Terri]

No, it's it's own filter ... from Tony's definition that is what my water garden is ...
(I'll stop trying to be "funny", I'm not good at it am I? )

[Jackie Ramo]

You aint no Groucho Marks :D

[OttawaPonder]

Terri, I am good at being funny - if we are only talking looks...



Funny looks that is (that's me) !rofl