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What's the benefit of a bog garden over separately potted plants?


Yossu

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As my regular reader will probably remember (if anyone ever reads my ramblings of course) I've been planning a bog garden for the spring. I've been mulling over a few different ways of doing it, and was struck with the thought that maybe I should just have an outdoor version of the indoor water tray. I could get a big tray, and stand pots of plants in that, instead of one large deep container full of peat/whatever, and have them all growing in the same medium.

 

The advantages of this would be that it would be easier to contain each type of plant, and stop some of the more invasive ones taking over, as well as allowing me to rearrange the garden as plants grew. Although I'm not planning it, if I were to include plants that don't like a cold winter, I cold also bring them indoors in the winter, leaving the rest outside.

 

The only disadvantage I can see is that it might not look so nice, although I'm not altogether convinced about this.

 

Anyone any comments one way or the other?

 

Thanks as usual.

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so does that mean you are pondering your best option and considering a combination of the two?

 

create the bog and dress (moss, stones, companion plants etc...) and use the 'indoor' technique/water tray outside in said bog?

 

if I can English-ify

I have created a bog and instead of planting the plants in the peat have them in pots and dug 'internal' (yoghurt etc..) pots into the bog so I can re arrange/move/bring inside etc..... no disturbance of roots (apart from clattering them and dropping etc....) So instead of rooted in bog and digging to repot and move indoors out of cold/wind etc the pot can simply be lifted and put back in the lagoon system indoors.

 

Does that make sense?

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so does that mean you are pondering your best option and considering a combination of the two?

Sort of! I was contemplating a normal bog garden, ie large container of compost, with plants planted directly in it, but then wondered about having a large water tray with individual plants. I hadn't actually thought of a combination, but now you mention it, it seems to have the best of both approaches.
 

if I can English-ify

I have created a bog and instead of planting the plants in the peat have them in pots and dug 'internal' (yoghurt etc..) pots into the bog so I can re arrange/move/bring inside etc..... no disturbance of roots (apart from clattering them and dropping etc....) So instead of rooted in bog and digging to repot and move indoors out of cold/wind etc the pot can simply be lifted and put back in the lagoon system indoors.

Sounds great! So it looks like a "normal" bog garden, but has the advantage of being easy to rearrange, and stops the more invasive species from taking over. I love it!
 
Do you have any pictures of yours? I'd love to see one that's already going. Help give me some ideas.
 

Does that make sense?

Sure does. Thanks very much!

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I keep plants outside in the ways you've described. The main disadvantages of keeping them outdoors are that they get battered by wind and rain and they grow slower without the heat provided by a greenhouse.

With the planter/bog garden method you can minimise the weather battering to some degree by inserting canes round the edge of the container  then wrapping string or wire round the canes to support the plants and keep them vertical (I'm thinking of Sarracenias). It requires some thought and ingenuity to achieve something similar if the plants are in pots sitting in a tray. The other problem with keeping them in a tray is that the water evaporation rate is higher than if the water is held by a large body of compost. Also, the roots have more room to grow in a deep container.
 

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I keep plants outside in the ways you've described. The main disadvantages of keeping them outdoors are that they get battered by wind and rain and they grow slower without the heat provided by a greenhouse.

Yes, I can see that. We do get quite a lot of that round here!
 
Makes me wonder if I should think about a greenhouse instead of the bog garden. I fancy the idea of growing them outdoors, but I can see that a greenhouse would have some practical advantages.
 

With the planter/bog garden method you can minimise the weather battering to some degree by inserting canes round the edge of the container  then wrapping string or wire round the canes to support the plants and keep them vertical (I'm thinking of Sarracenias). It requires some thought and ingenuity to achieve something similar if the plants are in pots sitting in a tray. The other problem with keeping them in a tray is that the water evaporation rate is higher than if the water is held by a large body of compost. Also, the roots have more room to grow in a deep container.

Just been chatting to gricey about it actually, and he suggested a great compromise. He built a bog, but instead of planting the plants directly into the compost, he left them in their pots. That way they look more natural, but are easier to move it you want to. Also doesn't disturb the plants, as they stay in their pots. It would have the additional advantage of minimising the water loss like you said.

 

He also suggested putting some sort of semi-permeable wind breaker around them, so that the wind could get through, but would be limited. Something like a hedge, bush or open fencing would do. As it happens, our garden is fairly sheltered, so wind wouldn't be a huge problem, but the heavy rains could be. I was thinking about a roof over the garden, sloped so the rain can run down the back and into the compost. Would protect the plants from being battered, but allow them to benefit from the rain water.

 

Thanks for the reply. Plenty to think about there. Good job I have a couple of months eh?

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I have one of these in my greenhouse, just a bog garden with sunken pots and it works great (so soil between pots).

The advantage over just pots is that plants like sarracenia, drosera, stylidium and utricularia......... can spread out of the pot and you can get sections (easy risk free propagation).

It also means, as prior mentioned, that you can move them around and more importantly weed species such as drosera burmannii or utricularia (huge list) won't get out of control as easily and invade.

Your in a cold climate, so I don't have to warn you to avoid black pots, though if your summers get hot enough, avoid black pots.

 

To cut back on cost I filled the bog with sand between pots and then just used a top layer (5cm) of sphagnum moss for spreading. 

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I have one of these in my greenhouse, just a bog garden with sunken pots and it works great (so soil between pots).

The advantage over just pots is that plants like sarracenia, drosera, stylidium and utricularia......... can spread out of the pot and you can get sections (easy risk free propagation).

It also means, as prior mentioned, that you can move them around and more importantly weed species such as drosera burmannii or utricularia (huge list) won't get out of control as easily and invade.

Your in a cold climate, so I don't have to warn you to avoid black pots, though if your summers get hot enough, avoid black pots.

 

To cut back on cost I filled the bog with sand between pots and then just used a top layer (5cm) of sphagnum moss for spreading. 

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any pictures of your bog? Would be great to see it.

 

I'm not too worried about the cost of filling the bog, as I went to buy some sphagnum peat the other day, and could only buy a 200 litre bale, so I have plenty of it. By the time I mix in some sand, grit or whatever, I'll have more than enough for my bog garden!

 

Thanks again.

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Following on from my post (#10) above, here are some photos that I took a couple of days ago. Not a pretty sight. The S. flavas and VFTs in the green containers were first planted in July 2010 and have been outside continuously (through 5 winters) since then. They've been flooded, frozen, and encased in ice and snow but always survive. The tall, slender plants are S. leucophylla and they've spent the summer in the greenhouse. The purple coloured ones are a hybrid and have spent most of the past 5 years outdoors.

 

A greenhouse is always best in our climate.

small3.jpg

small2.jpg

small1.jpg

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Following on from my post (#10) above, here are some photos that I took a couple of days ago. Not a pretty sight. The S. flavas and VFTs in the green containers were first planted in July 2010 and have been outside continuously (through 5 winters) since then. They've been flooded, frozen, and encased in ice and snow but always survive. The tall, slender plants are S. leucophylla and they've spent the summer in the greenhouse. The purple coloured ones are a hybrid and have spent most of the past 5 years outdoors.

Not a pretty sight? For this time of year, I would say they are looking great! Looks like a good advert for an outdoor garden to me!
 

A greenhouse is always best in our climate.

Dunno, I still think yours look pretty good for the time of year!

 

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Edited by Yossu
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Thank you for the compliments but a couple of days before taking the photographs I spent quite some time cutting off dead, dying and broken pitchers, which means that the photos don't convey the degree of scruffiness hitherto.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Maybe you should have a look at this aproach to a bog garden.

http://icps.proboards.com/thread/6918/patchwork-bog

 

It allows diffrent water levels and differnt soil mixtures without the usual artificial look such systems have.

 

More pictures of this bog here

http://forum.carnivoren.org/topic/36569-patchworkmoorbeet-erweiterbares-moorbeet-im-baukastenstil/

if anyone is interested to one himself, lots of interesting plants to go with such a bog. But the text is in German. Any questions could be answered by me.

patchworkbog0_zpsifrzeyxp.jpg

just a  part of it.

just some orchid in a shady part with different medium.

D.regia-ax2015b_zpsp6xnleed.jpg

 

Some seedgrown rubricorpora

S.flava-rubricorpora-ax2015_zpstfgoep28.

Edited by partisangardener
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