How to make a Bog Garden In A Big Pot

One of the beauties of a bog garden is how lush, green and healthy they look when done well. If you’re unfortunate enough to live in an area with a heavy clay soil, you may have a horrible wet patch in your garden that would be ideal for a bog garden. If that thought overwhelms you a bit, why not have a trial run in a garden pot?

You may feel a little daunted at tackling a new range of plants that like a different environment to live in, but creating a bog garden in a pot is the ideal way to get started.

There are no end of pots available from all kinds of shops, and you can surely find something you like that goes with your style of garden and what you like to see in it.

One of the benefits of using pots in the garden is their versatility. You can move them, change them, group them together and they’re a fantastic way of bringing a very restricted space such as a balcony or roof terrace to life.

Make a Start by following these straight forward stages.

1. Find yourself a nice big pot to build your bog garden in. Don’t worry about drainage holes for this project- it’s better without them. If your chosen pot does have holes in the bottom, you can either do your best to plug them, or find a nice big tray to sit underneath to prevent the water running out.
2. Time to start filling the pot. Put in your compost, up to about the halfway mark, depending on how big the pot is. You won’t need anything fancy, although some water gardeners do make up a special mix; for this purpose regular potting compost is fine.
3. I’m sure that by now, you have your new plants all lined up and ready to go, so lets get cracking with the good bit. Have a read of the height and width details on the labels so you know what to put where. In a similar fashion to planting any other plants, take them gently from their pots and arrange them in a fashion that you think will look nice. By putting the taller plants behind the others, you will create a nice background for the smaller ones. Trailing plants always look good in a pot, and this is no exception, providing the pot is big enough.
4. To recreate the lush, dense growth of a boggy area in the wild, you’ll need to plant your plants fairly close to each other. Once established, this really will make it look packed with life. Lay on some pebbles or slate to fill in any gaps. This will also help reduce the water at the surface from evaporating.
5. Get out the watering can and thoroughly water your new creation. The compost needs to have a really good soaking and if there are holes in the bottom of the pot and you have a tray or saucer beneath it, fill this up with water too.

Bogs gardens, whether in a pot or not, will not thank you for drying out. Make sure that you keep the water levels topped up at all times. You shouldn’t have to water everyday, but by filling the pot to the top, that should be sufficient to last a few days. Of course, this may be a bit different subject to the drainage holes in your pot.

In the springtime, there won’t be a great deal of nutrition left in the compost, so now would be a good idea to replace it. Carefully remove the plants and replant the whole pot. If some of the plants have got a bit too big, you can split them up carefully and relocate the leftovers, or make another bog!

As you can see, creating a totally new kind of garden doesn’t have to be scary to yield great results. Give it a try!

If yhou'd like to have a look at some more gardening information written from a non technical point of view, please feel free to have a look at my website whaich can be found at www.garden-pots.com