A "Sky Bog"

[addy1]

I need to purge my bog a bit, had to open different water paths out of the bog due to tremendous plant growth. No obstruction leaks yet, but sure do need to keep a eye out for them.

 

[Timothy]

Here's the last update for this year. The plants are beginning to fade as the days are shortening - we've already lost two hours! I know it's September, but just yesterday it was July. I've been told the older one gets the faster time goes. That is an understatement! The saving grace is fall is my favorite time of year and when winter sets in I can spend some leisure days in the shop next to the wood stove and not feel guilty because there's nothing I can do outside. The pond, plants, and everything out there can rest under a blanket of snow, and I'll content myself with indoor projects.

The "Sky Bogs" worked well. They will need more frequent culling than I had anticipated, but I should be able to get around that by planting slower growing plants with a less aggressive root system. I still haven't decided whether to leave water in them over the winter, but I'm inclined to draining and replant if necessary in the spring because I'm a little concerned with what expanding ice may do to the integrity of the boxes. There will still be about an inch of water in the boxes after draining, but that won't pose a problem.
It's a little difficult to distinguish between the "Climb-At-Us" (Clematis), and the other growth on the structure, but this pergola was naked this spring! I think by next year it will be covered pretty much to the degree my mind's eye had envisioned.

The tall plants on either side of the top (...the male pattern baldness...) are coming from the bogs and started out as 8-10" plants in May. I have already culled them once. It's hard to tell, but there is some Creeping Jenny beginning to creep across the lattice on the "roof". So far, this has been a fun experiment. I'll reserve final judgement until next spring when we see how it wintered over.

 

[addy1]

Your experiment worked great! Bog bean might make a nice plant it grows slow, spreads slow.
Has pretty white flowers in the spring.

 

[texmaster]

Really creative Tim. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Timothy]

Thank you Tex. It was one of those idea's that kept rattling around in my head for a couple of seasons so I thought I'd give it a shot. So far so good. Not sure what to expect over the winter. I guess we'll find out because I'm not going to dismantle them, I'll just drain them before the first hard freeze and see who survives.

 

[Timothy]

....................On second thought, after investigating further I think the "skybogs" will become "up"-scale annual planters. The root systems in the bogs - both the pea gravel and the lava rock - are so thoroughly grown in that it's a wonder the water was able to flow at all! I'm thinking now about putting maybe three pots (to keep the root systems contained,) of creeping Jenny in-between some tall-ish colorful annuals. We'll use the same watering system, and some more substantial soil, but just crack the valves every other day or so for a minute or two until the soil is sufficiently damp, rather than have the water flow constantly. This will render the return piping superfluous, but I'll leave it intact in the event some other "bright idea" comes to me in an epiphany.

On another subject, cleaned out the main bog of all surface growth and an amazing amount of surface feeler roots yesterday. There remains plenty of sub-gravel roots to start next season, but everybody was so over-grown the water level was rising to the point of over-flow. The Iris was a real nuisance to haul out, but after some cautious digging (being extremely careful I wasn't near the liner,) got most of their root systems out. I'll pare them down and re-plant a few, but won't let them go for three years again!
The water flow has increased dramatically although there are four frogs that are decidedly annoyed that their havens have been destroyed.

Just a few more items to tend to - put up the leaf net, haul out a floating island, and in a month remove the items that a hard freeze would damage, - then put the table and chairs away at the last minute when it really turns cold.

Still time for one or two more evenings though............

 

[addy1]

My poor frogs were really upset when I cleaned the bog. It could have gone longer, but time is running fast right now. A lot of small green frogs, jumping everywhere.

I raked a lot of surface roots out, removed around 2 tractor buckets of stuff. Next spring I will yank a lot of the small growth. It grows so darn good and takes very good care of my pond.

 

[Timothy]

............................ It could have gone longer, but time is running fast right now. A lot of small green frogs, jumping everywhere.

I raked a lot of surface roots out, removed around 2 tractor buckets of stuff. Next spring I will yank a lot of the small growth. It grows so darn good and takes very good care of my pond.

Same here! The surface roots came out like thick hair from around the perimeter, and some of the root balls in the gravel were as big as soccer balls. I just rinsed the gravel out as best I could then slung them in the wheel barrow. I was surprised though as I had thought there would be a lot more smell then there was. It had a slight "muddy/swampy" smell, but nothing like I was anticipating. I'm thinking a thorough culling/cleaning once every three years is a small price to pay for the benefits the bog provides.

 

[addy1]

I yank every fall. Last year we left to early to head to Arizona, I cleaned in the spring. Fall is easier. This spring clean out was slimy dead stuff after sitting under snow and ice. Still no stink. Next spring I will be pulling some of the plants out as they start to grow, decrease the load a bit and of course the surface will still be fully covered by end of season.
My bog never stinks even if I dig way down into the pea gravel.

I took a strong rake to the surface pulled a lot of root mass up. With my bog berm wall, I just toss the stuff down the slope then eventually get the tractor to haul all of it to the woods.
Right now I have piles stacked up here and there around the yard waiting for the tractor work.

I need to pull some of the yellow flag iris, it grows too well. Will do that in the spring, or this fall if I get around to it.

 

[sissy]

I have to root trim the plants in my filter every month just to keep them under control .But the banana plants still get out of control .

 

[budgenator]

When I was a kid, I loved white clover because the bees just swarmed it and although it wasnt smart to go barefoot in the summer, we did anyway and bee stings be damned, lol. Here, people want to rip it out of their grass..

Now that is just crazy, clover fixes nitrogen, it's so good for your turf lawn. Dandelions, I let them grow out back because they are early bloomers and the bees could use some fresh pollen and nectar after a long winter.

 

[KC Crook]

Now that is just crazy, clover fixes nitrogen, it's so good for your turf lawn. Dandelions, I let them grow out back because they are early bloomers and the bees could use some fresh pollen and nectar after a long winter.

These are bee keepers too! They trust the environment, not their lawns, to feed their bees I suppose. They are just the anal retentive type that don't like clover "ruining" the consistency of their grass. Nice people though, we get honey every fall, lol. (My flowers help feed their bees, hehe).

 

[KC Crook]

@Timothy amazing! Its been a few months since Ive checked in and its absolutely lovely! I hope you are enjoying it!

 

[Timothy]

....Been a while, but the final disposition on the "Sky Bogs" is they've become annual planters.
The bog plants were just too successful and required a lot of culling to prevent the roots from completely clogging the system.
All but the bottom couple of inches of pea gravel was removed from the left side,(all of the lava rock was removed from the right side and replaced with pea gravel to a couple inches deep.) Filled the remainder of the troughs with potting soil and planted some color.
The water supply system was retained to make watering the annuals easy; turn on the pump, open the "Sky Bog" supply valve, wait until the pond return line just starts to flow and turn everything off. Easier than a hose or watering can!
Here's a couple of recent photo's:




Up close......

 

[addy1]

Well it makes a beautiful planter!

The bog plants do grow and grow well. I yank some off and on all summer.