Working on the Bog

[JPaul]

I finished my pond last year too late to put in the bog that I had planned. The pond is 12'x6'x3' (photo below). I have now finished digging out the bog which will be at the far end. It is 6'x4' and ~ 12" deep. I have created a spill way where the current small waterfall return is in the picture and I am getting ready to place liner, layout my manifold return, and move a ton of pea gravel tomorrow. I'd like to be able to get plants in this weekend and l am looking for any guidance on number, type, means of placing in the gravel, etc.

I am intending this to be the only source of filtration for the pond and I will likely include a few non-koi fish in the pond itself, but no other plants.

Any advice would be great.

 

[taherrmann4]

JPaul I put my bog in last year about the same size a bit deeper and wider. I washed the majority of the gravel before dumping it in my bog, this was very time consuming but I didn't want a lot of the dirt and stuff getting into my pond. I received my plants from a fellow member here and they took off like mad, so much so that I am going to have to be thinning them out in the next week or so. I also tried some other plants in the bog like black eye susans, elephant ears, and hibiscus. You can experiment with it. To put the plants in the gravel you just pull some gravel to the side stick the plant in there and cover back up, it is real easy and you can't mess it up. I have a small stream area on the top of my gravel and I keep this area free of plants.

 

[Mmathis]

My situation is similar, except that I just recently decided on the bog, so am a newbie as well. From what I've learned, you can either plant heavily at first, to get max filtration from the start, or you can plant sparsely and wait for everything to fill in [will take more time for full benefits]. I'm sort of doing it somewhere in between. Have been collecting plants [online purchases as well as local store-bought]. There are several really good posts here on the GPF [if you can get lucky with "search"] that deal with types of plants that work well in bogs. Addy is the "Bog Queen!"

Have gotten lucky at places like HOME DEPOT, LOWES, and even WALLY-WORLD. There are a lot of "rushes" out there right now. Those are good filtering plants. What I do is when I find something I like, I "google" it there in the store to see if it's appropriate for a bog. This has saved me from making lots of hasty, wasted purchases! And, too, there are a lot of plants that are not called "bog" plants that will work. You just have to try them and see. I know, the waiting is the pits.

Good luck!

 

[JPaul]

tahermann4 - Thanks for the encouragement. Since I am going to be draining and cleaning the pond, I thought once I got the pea gravel in place that I would wash it by running water through the bog into to pond and then just pumping it out until it is relatively clear. When you describe "just pull some gravel to the side and stick the plant in" these plants would be in pots with no holes? holes? something else?

Turtle Mommy - I based my design and construction on Addy's excellent information here. Good idea on "googling". I think I'll try and have some bog plant references on my iPad when I go to make purchases.

 

[addy1]

You are close, if you feel like driving over I can give you a ton of bog plants, mine are taking off. FREE lol

The plants are put in bare root, no pots, right into the gravel.

I did not rinse my gravel, way too much and a dry summer and a well = no washing. If you want you could fill the bog, have one low end (not the pond) pump water into the bog and have it flow out into the yard



Just stuck my head outside to get this for you

 

[JPaul]

By way of follow up, here are photos of the progress. Ran tests to make sure I had the flows correct and amazingly got it right the first time. All that is left (hopefully) are the plants and landscaping.

 

[Waterbug]

I know this does no good to say, but what the heck, you asked...The "manifold" I know is really cool looking and fun but it hurts the way a bog works. Some water can travel down the pipe and then flow out of the bog bypassing most of the bog. The longer you can keep water in the bog the more benefits the bog can provide. Long and narrow is best, just dump the water in the end opposite the out flow. As clogs happen water will just find another path. There is zero benefit in "spreading" out the flow. The gravel does that job.

This manifold concept has popped up in forums over the past 10 years and has caught on because it's easy and seems high tech but has never had any kind of logical use.

Having said that it isn't like the manifold is the end of the world. It's just you're not getting the most use out of the bog. Many builds have less to do about function and everything to do with being fun and cool. So don't let me rain on your parade if this is all just for fun.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Looks really good. Make sure the clean out pipes are above the level of the gravel. This is how I did mine.

 

[addy1]

Very nice job there. Looks like mine just smaller. Keeps my pond in great shape