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Converting A Pond Into A Bog


Daniel G

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So yeah, how would one go about turning a 6 foot long, 4 foot wide, 3 and a half foot deep (At it's deepest) pond?

The liner has a small hole so it's leaking water, but i have permission to convert it. So yeah, what do i do? :D

I have a basic idea, but no detailed plans, I just need to know if i could do it, and then maintain it.

Cheers,

Dan

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You can check my post, its just made of pond liner. Soil I used the local sandy (Old heath land) combined with peat. You need full sun and some shelter from wind and then you go. But fix the hole:)

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46566&hl=

Martin

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Hi Daniel G

Nice project to have.

As Megs says, first off fix the hole if it is in the bottom, if you can by cutting off a bit of pool liner and silicone sealing it over the hole. Next you want to try and shallow out the 3 foot deep part by about 18” (or not if you can afford the large amount of media it will require to fill the hole completely) by placing upturned builders buckets with holes drilled in the top and sides to allow water through, robust plant pots, or other impervious preferably hollow, fill items, to create a reservoir and save watering. You can cover this with weed suppressant fleece, if you want, to stop your media dropping straight through into the reservoir and eventually clogging the open areas up, so long as some of the media is in contact with the water so the ‘wicking’ effect can draw the water up.

Then fill the remaining void with your preferred medium mix, landscape as you wish, if you are keeping VFTs try to build a bit of a hummock for them, to keep them drier especially over winter. Build in, in a corner, a say 10-12” square hole made from roof tiles, bricks or similar, to the bottom, so you can see the water level, and use it to remove water should you ever need/want to.

As far as drainage goes, non of my bogs have drains, nor do Megs by the look, and I have never had a problem with flooding, but I do tend to lower the water levels in winter so the soil is not saturated.

Cheers

Steve

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I was hoping you'd chip in Steve :D

I'll try and start jotting down info and sketching bits and bobs, as well as finding good plants for a bog. What's the best plant for shade? Pinguicula Grandiflora/ Vulgaris? There's a layer of sludge at the bottom of the pond (Most likely fish poo and dead leaves) So I'm going to have to remove that. I'll see how much I can get done if i get some decent weather.

Attempting this in Winter cannot be a good idea...

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Hi Dan

Starting at the end of the season does have some advantages, if you can manage to get it done before winter sets in, the soil will have chance to settle before you start planting thereby avoiding the frustration of having to uproot plants to top up the soil level should it 'slump' and you can verify that it holds water etc, without having all the plants in place so you can dig up and remedy any faults without having to remove plants.

How much shade have you got? P. Grandiflora and vulgaris both do well iwith me and multiply rapidly, they are in partial shae i.e. they are low growing and are shaded peiodically as the sun (or rather us) moves round the bog, by the taller sarracenias. Also I find that Darlingtonia dont seem to mind a similar sort of shade, at least my clones dont, if you see how crowded they get in their natural habitat it seems to mimic that sort of shade. In fact they seem to do better in partial shade than full sun. Otherwise as far as carnivorous plants growing in the shade goes you are very limited in choice, they will all grow of course, but not give thier best colour or size.

Well, looks like tomorrow is set to be a sunny day, get your sleeves rolled up and bail out that fish excreta onto some plants that will enjoy it.

Best of luck

Steve

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Hmmm, gonna start now :D

Around half the space is shade/ partly sunny, so not as much space for sarracenia as i would like. It's around the same light as the Grandiflora i have get now, so i don't think they'd mind. I have lots of Darlingtonia stolons so i reckon i could try it out.

Anyway, time to go and get mucky!

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Took the huge pond plant out and emptied around half the water out of the pond, still not to the sludge yet...

However it gleefully rained today, so the pond is filling back up again, which is not fair at all. I've decided to leave Dionea out of this bog. I plan to keep it to Darlingtonia, Drosera, Pinguicula and Sarracenia. Most likely Purpurea, Flava, Psitticina and their hybrids.

I may get to work on plans tonight, depending on my mood.

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  • 5 years later...

Your project looks great. For repairing pond liner leak, just try Pondpro2000. An easy and flawless way to patch your liner is to mend it with pondpro2000, DIY version of fixing leak of pond liner, easy to use and perfect for joining without trouble. For more details:

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