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article: Creating a Bog Area
Creating a Bog Area
Natural bog gardens have a progressive feature from the deep portions of the
water garden, to the over flow of water to the surrounding soils. The water that
overflows, filling puddles and making smaller areas of moisture that never dry
are bog gardens. The deep moist soil is where you can walk and sink as the
moisture is constant, making this area its own, not to be tamed by the drought
or too much water.
Creating a natural looking bog garden may not be easy if you don’t have a water
garden to start with. A water garden is going to give you a source of water for
the bog garden all the time. Some type of natural stream would ‘do this’ for you
as well, making the area you want to create a bog garden at. Actually watering
the soil where you want to create a water garden is too cumbersome and
bothersome to create the type of bog garden that you really want.
A small pipe that could bring excess water from the water garden or a stream
that diverts water to your bog area would be a great start to keeping moisture
flowing to this area. To start creating your bog garden, you should dig out the
area, digging up the soil in the area that you want to be a bog garden. Dig it
about twelve inches down. Remove the rocks, the soil and then replace this with
a layer or plastic, or a liner that will hold the moisture. It does not have to
be as fancy as the pond liner, the sides of the liner will not show above the
soil.
Create a heavy mix of manure, sand and put this on the bottom of your hole. This
should be about eight inches thick. The top layer of ‘soil’ that you create for
the bog garden is important, because you don’t want it to dry out too fast in
the sun or in the hot air. A mixture half and half manure and soil. If you have
heavy clay soil, be sure to add loam and lime to break down that clay that can
dry out fast. Cover the entire area that you want to create a bog garden.
The bed of your bog garden will include the pipe that will bring water to your
bog garden from the spring, creek, or from your water garden. Creating a bog
garden is more than just the right mixture of water and soil, but you should
also include the use of worms, as many worms as you can find! When first filling
the bog garden with water, let your garden hose wet the soil for at least half
an hour to an hour, depending on how big the bog area will be. Put a good number
of worms in your bog garden and then you can start planting in the bog area!

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