Re: CULT:Bog Gardens

MSO LARAMIE wrote:
> 
>           Hi All
>                Yes, Iris-L has progressed to routine messages from
>           foreign countries, but this maybe a first.  I'm sending this
>           e-mail from over two hundred miles out in the Atlantic
>           Ocean.
> 
>                IRT to bog gardens I've use kiddie wading pools over
>           the past few years. Perhaps it is easier to imagine if you
>           substitute "bog garden" for "miniature swamp"!  Some people
>           are confused about the mechanics, so I try and describe what
>           I've done.
> 
>           1.  Buy your kiddie pool and get it home (one pig problem!).
>           Color doesn't matter because it won't be seen.  Do try and
>           stay away from the ones with the slides.  Best time to buy
>           kiddie pools is in the fall when the stores are trying to
>           get rid of them.
> 
>           2.  Dig your hole a little bit larger than the pool and have
>           the lip of the pool ground level or a couple of inches below
>           ground level.  It really doesn't matter. All you're
>           trying to do is to greatly slow the water from seeping
>           deep in the ground. Punch holes it the side and bottom.
>           Fill with a mixed combination of horse/cow manure, dirt,
>           peat moss, alfalfa pellets and other soil amendments.
>           Backfill the sides and add water to your soil mixture in the
>           pool.  If you're going to use the pool for JI's you don't
>           want the pool to be too soppy wet.  JIs like some
>           intermittent periods of having their feet dry.  LA and
>           others - the wetter the better!
> 
>           3.  Plant your beardless plants and cover everything with
>           mulch.  No ugly blue pool colors to deal with.
> 
>                Another less permanent alternative is to remove all of
>           the soil approx one and a half deep in an area.  Take black
>           plastic sheeting 6-8mil thickness (clear plastic breaks down
>           faster), double or triple fold it and place it in the hole
>           you dug.  Punch several holes in the plastic. Amend your
>           soil as in #2 above and fill your hole back in.  This method
>           tends to break down in 4-5 years because the plastic tends
>           to disintergrate and tree roots will be attracted to the
>           moist area and will grow thru your plastic. Another item to
>           use instead of black plastic is the black butyl liner used
>           by roofing companies for flat roofs.  It's more expensive to
>           buy, but lasts longer.  Sometimes roofing companies will
>           give you smaller pieces that they have leftover as scrap.
>           This is also an excellent material for making fish ponds!
>           It's the same thing product that garden centers sell as
>           fish pool liners.
> 
>                Hope this answers all of you questions about making bog
>           gardens.  Yes, Rusty, they are mosquito havens, but you
>           gotta take the good with the bad.
> 
>           Have fun,
>           BillSmoot - who wishes he was at the AIS Convention!



Well,  Walter Moores wrote me and told me that JI's don't grow well here
in DFW.  I have enough to do as it is without creating a garden for
something that has little to no chance of making it.  BUT... If this
garden were in the shade,  would JI's grow better???  What about LA's? 
I can grow those here, can't I?

Rusty
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