Update: I moved house and dug a new bog garden
Perth’s winter rains started in earnest this month and so far in May we’ve had 143.6mm, significantly more than the May average of 87.6mm. This is a good change after an extremely dry summer.
With all the rain since I planted out the bog garden, it’s been a bit too effective. Last week pools of water formed on the surface that couldn’t drain away. I needed to rectify this design fault because standing water is an invitation for mosquitoes to breed.
The pond has biological control aka fish to eat mosquito wrigglers and other insect larvae. The fish can’t help in a bog garden, so I needed to add drainage without delay. I hadn’t trimmed the black plastic lining along the edges and this was the main culprit stopping drainage.
I cut it at soil level and the water could drain into the surrounding garden. I also added more soil to the wettest parts, leftover after filling the bog garden. This quickly soaked up the water and left the plants in saturated soil. This week’s rain has continued to soak the bog plants, but there’s no longer surface water.
Most bog gardens are connected to a pond. Winter overflow from the pond runs into a boggy area and as this soaks to capacity, excess water drains through our sandy soils. I chose my garden pond placement haphazardly around plants already growing. The lowest point of the lining overflows into a small section of the garden bed next to a lawn walkway. This would have been the perfect spot for the bog garden, except I need to walk through there. My bog garden section is on the other side of the lawn pathway. Perhaps in the future I’ll remove the lawn, build a footbridge and connect the pond with the bog garden. The perfect dream garden!
Reference
- Aplin, Piano & Sleep (2002) Building Frog Friendly Gardens WA Museum: Perth
Ockham's Razor 