FILLING YOUR BOG GARDEN
Island Wetland

Once the area for your bog garden has been excavated and you have chosen your container or lined the bed, you're ready to fill your bog garden area with soil.  A more appropriate term would be growing medium as garden soil won't work for true bog plants in your garden.

For most moisture-loving perennials you can use a mix of a good garden loam and compost.  The goal is to create a growing medium that will retain moisture.  You can always add more compost to compensate if the topsoil you are using is sandy or low in moisture-holding organic matter. 

For true bog plants, however, you will find that compost and garden soil are too rich in nutrients.  A true bog plant will require what is usually described as "sterile"; a combination of half peat moss and half sand.  This "sterile" soil is a mix that is almost completely lacking in nutrients and therefore unable to support ordinary plants and soil organisms.  Five parts peat to one part sand is a good mix.
                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                             

Once you have filled your bog garden to its rim with the growing medium, before planting, you will want to make sure that the bog area is thoroughly damp but not wringing wet.  With this complete, you are now ready to plant.  In order to reduce the amount of soil surface exposed to evaporation, plant densely.  This will also reduce the weeds in your bog garden, although you may find that they are less of a problem is a bog, than elsewhere.  Bog plants need to have their roots moist at all times, but they will rot and die if their crowns do not have adequate aeration.   You will need to set your plants so that their crowns are either at or just below the soil line.  In winter, use a mulch of pine needles, or leaves; in summer , add a top dressing of compost to help protect the plants and keep the soil moist.

Oak Rain Barrel
Remember, before starting this project, growing true bog garden plants takes a special commitment.  You must make sure the soil never dries out, and you also need to water them only with distilled water or rainwater.  Tap water can make the soil too alkaline or introduce chemicals that bog garden plants cannot tolerate.  Your bog plants are not flexible about sunlight either.  Your bog garden must be located in an area that will receive at least six hours of sun each day throughout the growing season.