Bog garden finished–and it will be Drosera binata central!

Yay! I managed to get the last bog garden all planted up, way ahead of schedule! It contains a couple of Sarracenia leucophylla and mixed varieties of S. flava. Here’s how the Sarracenia growing area looks now everything is done:

Bog garden filled ahead of schedule!

I got a lot more done today than I expected – the bog garden is now filled with soil and resting. But I was not counting on getting it to this stage because of the weather forecasts.

For the past week, the Australian media have been hyping a low pressure system, dubbed the “Antarctic vortex” or “snowmageddon”. Despite forecasts predicting heavy rain, damaging winds and even snowfall here in Canberra, it was pretty much a non-event. We had a brief storm out of it that dumped hail for 15 minutes or so (see the white slush inside the trailer) and that was it. Although I have to say it was bitingly cold outside today (at least by Australian standards). When I saw it was actually pretty clear outside this morning, I got to work. The last things needed before filling with soil were a filler and an overflow. The fittings I used for the first bogs were not great, so I wanted to get them right for this last bog. So off to Bunnings (= Lowes)…

Bog # 4 in position, ready to fill – if the weather permits

This weekend, a vigorous series of cold fronts are sweeping across south-eastern Australia, so I did what I could towards the new bog garden before they arrived.

This meant laying some more gravel to level up the garden’s base. When I placed out the other two, I deliberately left enough room to put a fourth garden in the middle of them – or so I thought. The last garden was about  20 mm out of position, so I need to build up the gravel under where the fourth garden will go to fit it in. Fortunately, only the lips of the three ponds were overlapping, so its no big deal. I managed to get the gravel in and the pond levelled just in time for the first showers ahead of the front arrived. Seeing as the weather is likely to stop me doing further work this weekend, I half-filled the pond and will leave it settle until next weekend, when I will make any final corrections and start filling it with peat.

Progress on the new bog garden build

Yay - I managed to find some time this weekend to start building the fourth bog garden. I went for the largest size prefab pond I could get so I would have some spare room for new plants.

When I made the bog gardens last year I found myself rushed due to, well, life. This meant some things were not done the way I would have liked at the time – such as getting the overflow right. While I sort of fixed some of the issues with retrofits, they are probably still less than optimal. I also figured out how I could do some things better.

So this time round I am taking my time to make sure I get things done right first go. Here is progress for this weekend:

There’s always room for one more…

One more bog garden that is! I bit the bullet this afternoon and brought myself another 1.1 m (4 foot) diameter pond. Probably a bit on the big size for how many plants I need to find a home for, but I figured it would be an idea to leave some room for new plants. Now I just need a trailer load of gravel to level up the ground and a set of drainage fittings from the local hydro shop and I’m off and running.

For this last bog, I am planning on not introducing Sphagnum to it, and will instead allow rosette and pygmy Drosera and Utricularia to have free run. This is relative to the other gardens, which are quickly producing luxuriant, billowy cushions of moss that quickly swallow up growing space for plants like Drosera pygmaea. Interestingly though, D. burmanni and the other rosette sundews I have grow well on live Sphagnum, almost like they are crowd surfing! The Sarracenia that will be calling it home are all variants of  S. flava or S. leucophylla, plus one miniature flava look-a-like cross.

As the gear I need is not available till late this week coming, expect some new posts next Saturday on progress of the new garden. In the meantime, I will busy myself preparing the watering system for a windbreak I am planting around the bog garden site.

Happy growing till then.