Bog garden and marginals

[BooseysMom]

Hi

I posted a few weeks ago about my new pond being in trouble. Well I'm happy to say it's now looking alot healthier since we replaced the water with more water from our butt, added some oxygenating plants and a mini fountain ..the water looks alot clearer. So spending that £12 on pond rescue liquid was a total waste of money..don't bother! Thank you to everyone who advised me.

Anyway after watching Carol Klein's new programme, we have dug a bog garden around the edges of the pond, laid it with compost bags with holes in and planted some lovely marginals.. Ragged Robin, St John's Wort, etc. They say on the label they are for bog gardens/wet ground and can be submerged in the water a few cm. But the water level is very low as we've run out of butt water! What we want to do is raise the water level so that it spills over the sides and keeps the marginals nice and damp.

This has been a great project and if anyone else has done anything similar, I would love to hear about your endeavours. Also any advice on the planting greatly appreciated too! I can't post a photo atm as it keeps kicking me out every time I try! I'm trying to convince DH to do a short video for GW but he's not keen! 😆

Thanks x

Bumping with photo attached...

Bumping again

Well done on the rescue OP! I too am out of water in the butt, although hopefully you live somewhere that got a bit of rain yesterday.

I'll be honest and say if it gets ridiculously low, I have topped mine up with water from the hose before, but I fill a bucket then leave it standing for 48 hours before tipping it in. Something about letting chemicals dissipate I think.

I found mine did better last year (and it's about half the size of yours!) when I added more plants. I think the ideal is meant to be a third of the surface area covered. I just brought some water forget-me-not which looks very pretty.

My cousin, who is a pond aficionado, gave me a chunk of irises that she had on the very margins and banks of her vast pond and they are about to burst into flower, I'm so excited to see them! 🤣🤣 gardeners, eh?!

Ragged Robin will survive as long as the soil is slightly moist. It’ll tell you if it’s too dry, leaves will go floppy. In which case water it, even with tap water, and it will survive, even without raising the pond level

Which St John’s Wort? There are about a dozen species each with slightly different water requirements.

Natural ponds do not have consistent levels. The requirement of pond edge plants is that they can cope with fluctuating levels, from normal soil through to inundation. Then there are other plants which do require to be in standing water at all times. So try to sort out which is which of the ones you have

NotMaryWhitehouse thank you 😊 Yes we did get quite a bit of rain which helped raise the water level. We got some more from a local spring too which helped a bit but it's deeper than we thought. That's good advice about a third of the surface being covered. It's too small for a big lily but you can get miniature ones. Water forget-me-not sounds lovely and yes, irises are a good idea. I like yellow flag iris.

MereDintofPandiculation thanks for your advice. 😊The St John's Wort is Hypericum Tetrapterum..Square Stalked. The other plants we have are Gratiola Officanlis Summer Snowflake/Hedge Hyssop and Eriophorum Russeolum Bronze Cottongrass. Something has eaten the tops of the Hedge Hyssop! Can't see any sign of slug damage so must be birds. Rabbits can't get in to the garden. The St John's Wort looks a bit dry in the middle although the ground is damp. (See attached..hopefully!)

Photo now attached