Pond or Bog

Discussion in 'Water Gardening' started by ricky101, Jun 22, 2016.

  1. ricky101

    ricky101 Total Gardener

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    Hi All,

    Just looking for an opinion on which is the best for my site, a small pond or just a bog area ?

    The back garden is south facing and sloping away from the house.
    An area about 7ft x 3 ft at the bottom of the garden, just in front of the neighbours 6ft fence, regularly floods to up to 6" deep with the heavy winter rains and can take a day or so to drain away and even in some of these summer storms it can quicky fill.

    Being as it only gets limited sunlight due to the fencing ( no overhanging trees) would seem it might not be the best location for a pond ; the alternative would seem to be making it more boggy for most of the year with a liner and a good selection of plants like Hostas etc

    We do have already have a small but deep 4ft 'secret' pond in the veg patch, well occupied with frogs.

    Any thoughts appreciated..

    Thanks
     
  2. noisette47

    noisette47 Total Gardener

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    Hi ricky, I think the 'experts' recommend not to put a pond in an area that floods...illogical as it may seem. The excess water under the liner can lift it out of the ground! One practical solution might be to put drains in higher up to feed either a pond or bog garden, keeping it moist all year round?
     
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    • ARMANDII

      ARMANDII Low Flying Administrator Staff Member

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      Well, you could have the bog garden if you wanted, ricky, by using a pond liner and puncturing it several times so that water will drain through......that would eliminate the possible problem of water lifting it out of the ground, although I think you'd find that the weight of the soil, if at a reasonable depth, will keep an unpunctured liner in place anyway.
       
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      • burnie

        burnie Super Gardener

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        I think as you have a wildlife pond already, a bog garden might be the way to go, just be mindful that the lack of direct sun limits your choice of plants a bit. I might be tempted to plant some thing tall to obscure the fence like our native Reedmace(the one that most folk think is a "bull rush" but it isn't).
         
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        • ricky101

          ricky101 Total Gardener

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          Thanks all, did not appreciate the problem of a liner being lifted by the ground water.
          Think a boggy area is the more likely outcome, a collection of hostas sounds good as long as the local snails cannot swim ! :smile:
           
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