Making a bog area in my pond

[mouseams]

Hi all,

My pond is quite large, I have one weir atop a rock formation that spills down the face of the rock, into a plastic pond, into a stream that flows into the main pond. The main pond is roughly 28' x 14' with some shallow areas, a couple of rocks come up into the middle and deepest pockets about 3'.

Covering the surface area is difficult this year as we just moved into the house and it gets full sun for more than half the day. Every week I have been adding plants (as the budget allows) but am now thinking about making a bog garden within the pond, as I am unable to plant on the outside of the sides which are getting the sun to provide some more screening.

The far left corner is pretty shallow and has a rise from a rock under the liner which I have covered with rocks and added some moss, a creeping jenny and 3 arrowhead plants to camaflouge. This is the area I would like to bog so I can plant some perennials there.

Can I use sand filled bags to build a barrier and fill with pea gravel or with potting medium to do this? It would end up being about 6' across from the one wall to the other on an angle.

Thanks!

Any help/light anyone can shed on this would be so appreciated!

 

[Bruce4131]

I just went to a class about this.
Yes, you need some type of barrier to separate the bog area from the main pond. I believe the sand bag is good idea. Then, maybe a piece of liner
over that or maybe not if the bags can be placed very close together. Will the bag material fail/rot one day? Fill with 3/8 inch gravel. The depth of gravel should be 12". At the bottom of the gravel would be a pipe (PVC) say 3/4" with many 2/8 (1/4 inch) holes drilled in it for water flow. Also, you may consider to end the pipe with a T fitting. The T arm ending in a cap.
The T leg going to the surface for use to back flush the pipe. In the gravel, just about any kind of plant will grow. I don't have a ratio of water flow to
bog area or pond size to bog area.

Could you show a picture of the stream in your next post? Thanks.

 

[mouseams]

Here are a few pics of the spillway to the main pond. I did not have the waterfall running.

 

[leeannecastro]

Mouseams,
I re-did a portion of my pond last fall and I added a bog to mine. I drained it and pulled out my liner and then I built a rectangular area with 2x4's. I put the liner over it and threw in some extra layers of protection and filled it with pea gravel. It is only about 9 inches deep at it deepest but my water runs through it to get to my pump well so it acts as a filter and a skimmer. I have planted some plants this springs and they seem to flourish despite no dirt.
Here are some pictures. The white hose coming out of the water is my pump but ignore the location, I had to move it for some maintenence, it normally goes in the small corner area.
Also my water is not normally this murky but I had to turn off the pump and biofilter for a few days to fix a leak and it went murky FAST!!

 

[mouseams]

Thanks for the insight to both of you. So should a bog garden actually have an open area into the main pond? Does the water necessarily need to flow through it?

I am thinking of in this case utilizing the two walls already in the pond at one corner. I can build rocks to the one hump that will be part of the front edge of my bog to the outer wall on that side which should allow the water to enter.

The guy that built the pond unfortunately (or fortunately) built the small stream flow using pieces of the pond liner and gapped them together with the flap facing upstream. I have fixed most of it to the point where I only lose an inch or two of water when I have it on at length. The fortunate part? This makes it easy to do a partial water change every couple of days and I have well water. I am going to try and design something and I guess I really need to have a backwash into it?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Stouty109]

leeannecastro good idea i like it. But what id that white string lookin thing buy all the hyathis(probably spelt that wrong) is that a net or somethin to keep teh fish away?

 

[leeannecastro]

Its actually a long piece of air bubbler tubing. I anchor it on both ends and it floats on top of the water and keep them where I want them. If I don't corral my hyacinths they gets stuck under the waterfall and I had them there so my koi could spawn in them.