FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was mowing the grass yesterday afternoon when I was struck with an interesting idea. I live in the countryside and in my field of a front yard I noticed there is roughly a 100x100 foot roundish low area where the grass grows much taller and greener than the rest of the yard throughout the summer. I figured “huh this area must naturally stay wetter than the surrounding area might make a good spot to convert to a bog”. So now I’m here trying to come up with a plan to create a natural bog in my front yard. My rough draft of a plan is to use my excavator to dig out the low area about 1 1/2 to 2 foot deep and either use pond clay to line the bottom or find some sort of industrial sized pond liner to help retain water and basically fill In the hole with a sand peat mixture since I figure I can get both in large quantities. I have a few concerns #1 will the hole being that deep hold enough water through the summer to keep my plants alive in the event of a couple weeks without rain? #2 if I use pond clay instead of a plastic liner will I eventually have a mineral leeching problem from the ground beneath the peat? Could I also have a mineral problem from water run off from the surrounding area with the bog being in a low spot? The natural soil is a clay loam mostly being clay. For carnivorous plant selection im thinking a variety of sarracenia and some temperate sundews with maybe the occasional fly trap. For noncarnivorous plants I’m thinking some bog orchids and a few other bog grasses and flowers. I know this will be an expensive and time consuming project but the pay off of my very own (mostly)natural private bog seems 1000% worth it. I am a big conservationist and this really would be a dream come true if It works. Thats why I’m here looking for unbiased input on the project. Any big things I’m missing? Potential problems I didn’t mention? Creating a large scale bog garden has been done before, moore botanical gardens did one. There is an article on it but they don’t go into how it was made. Thoughts?

I think it could work just fine. I'd go with the liner though. I had a bog that used to get flooded and I'm sure the surrounding soil leached into it but it never affected the plants. I'd say you're definitely going to need a watering plan because it's going to need to be watered. I'd also add drainage 4 or 5 inches from the top of the bog because you don't want a pond haha.

With that said I think you're on the right track. Good luck and please post pics.

I would recommend pond liner- it is thin and can last a long time. You do need a plumbing system. Overflow valves and possibly bell valves could work. Check into what they do for ebb and flow aquaponics. You should have the water run down (just make the ditch slope deeper if you don’t have a lower area to channel water) It’s a lot of peat

I second the liner idea, you don't want to run the chance or anything leaching into the bog soil. Using peat as the bog soil and make sure there is a runoff plan in case of torrential rains.

And post pics!