How to Build a Bog Garden

A bog garden is replication of a natural bog ecosystem. The best bog gardens will be centered around a low water feature, such as a manmade marsh or pond. The key to creating a natural looking bog garden is to ensure that the soil has the right moisture content for the plants that are selected and that you layout your bog garden plants in a manner that fits the needs of each plant.

Building Your Bog/March

The first step in creating a bog garden is to establish your bog, marsh or pond. The easiest way to do this is to utilize premade pond forms. These can be found at local home improvement, department or garden stores. To install a pond form you dig out a hole that is slightly larger than the pond. Lay down a layer of sand, insert your pond form and back fill with sand and dirt. The soil need to be level with the rim of your pond form. If you don't want to install a pond form you can create a marshy area by excavating an area for your marsh and then layering the interior with concrete, sand and soil. This will produce a shallow body of water that you can easily overfill to create a marshy area around the marsh.

Selecting Bog Garden Plants

There are lot of great plants that you can add to your bog garden. The best option is to try and recreate a specific natural bog, such as a South Carolina marsh, an Everglades marsh or a Northern marsh. By having a geographical focus you will find it much easier to select plants for your garden.

Some of the most popular bog garden plants include: Sweet Flag, Bog Pimpernel, Lady's Slipper Orchid, Bee Balm, Cardinal Flower and Blue Flagiris. If you are interested in creating a more exotic bog garden then you can add tropical bog plants like Venus Fly Traps, Yellow or Purple Pitcher Plants, Butterwort or Sundew. All of these bog plants are carnivorous and require warm temperatures, so you will need to either live in a warm climate to keep them outside in your bog garden year round, of you will nee to keep them in a climate controlled terrarium during the colder months.

Planting Your Bog Garden

You have a couple of options when it comes to planting your bog garden. The first option is to plant your garden plants directly in your bog garden. Most bog plants can be propagated by seeds, rhizomes or root ball divisions.

The second option that you have for planting your bog garden is to plant your bog garden plants in containers. You will then set these containers in a shallow tin or dish of water. This will help keep the soil moist, but not overly soggy. This option allows you to bring temperature sensitive bog plants, like the Venus Fly Trap, inside when the temperatures consistently dip below 65 degrees.

When you plant your bog garden it is important to think about how much moisture the plant needs and how much sun it needs. You will want to select bog garden plants that can be planted at the shore of your pond or bog, that can be planted in your water feature and that can be planted further away from your water source where there is less moisture.