Bogging in New Jersey

[bobchapman]

Our winters have been warmer in general, so it may not be necessary to drain my lines. However, it's a lot easier to make provisions for draining now, rather than finding that I need it later!

Got the bog liner secured in place today, in the same manner as for the pond: metal lath screwed into the tops of the concrete blocks. Tomorrow I hope to get the first batch of gravel to go into the bog. I'm guessing 5 yards will be necessary, which means five trips to the supplier.

I did test the flow from the pump pit up to the bog. If anything, I will have too much flow for the stream; but I can always throttle the pump back.

 

[bobchapman]

Good progress in the last couple of days: putting stone into the bog! Here's the basic setup:

I get the stone one cubic yard (= one ton, more or less) at a time, as that's about the capacity of my trailer. The advantage of the trailer is that I can back it right close to the bog for unloading and cleaning.

I made a "washing table" out of hardware cloth (Home Depot) and pieces of 2x4 wood. The hardware cloth has 1/4" square holes in it, so sand and very small stones will pass through it and into the catch basin below, which is a mortar tub that a mason would use for mixing mortar. I had it from previous work.

The hardware cloth is about 24" wide, so that's how big I made the washing table. That width also happened to fit nicely with the width of the mortar tub.

So the routine is: put a couple of shovels full of stone on the leading end of the washing table, swirl it by hand through the waterfall, and then push it into the bog. A very manual process.

Here's a closer view of the washing table:

I had too much stone to wash to simply let the used water run out into the yard: too messy, and too much water wasted. The mortar tub serves both to hold the water that is re-circulated for washing, and to catch the sand and smallest stones that fall through the hardware cloth. The water is re-circulated by two scavenger pumps (Home Depot again). About every 1/3 of a yard, I have to empty the stones and sand out of the tub: they go to form the base of some pathways that I'm building as part of this effort --- little goes to waste around here!

The spray bar is a piece of 1" PVC pipe with hose fittings attached at each end. I started initially with a single pump, but it didn't have enough ooomph to do the job, so I added the second one. I had both of them from when we re-did the basement floor and needed to pump out some infiltrating rain water.

Initially, I slit the length of the 1" pipe on the table saw. I plunged the pipe onto the sawblade in four different spots, all in a line. Version 2.0 has 1/4" holes drilled about every 3/4" in those saw slits: this lets the small stones out of the pipe so that they don't build up to block the water flow. Works a lot better.

Here are the two pumps in the mortar tub.

I try to run the system with more water in the tub than what's shown here. It keeps the pumps operating better.

The pumps need to be up on bricks inside the tub so that they don't suck up too many small stones and get jammed. I've nearly worn out the assembly screws on these pumps in opening them to get rid of ingested stones.

So far, I have processed 3.75 yards of stone, and completing the fourth yard may be enough for the bog. Here's hoping. It actually goes along fairly easily (the washing); the ultimate mindless job! of which there seem to be many around our place.

We're getting a little rain tonight, perhaps enough to finish filling the bog.

 

[addy1]

Nice washing set up, we washed a few wheel barrels of gravel then quit, too hot, too dry and on a well. So all 38000 lbs went in unwashed.

 

[bobchapman]

It might be that leaving the "fines" in the gravel helps the bio activity. I was wondering that when I was about half way through the washing operation. The "fines" provide a lot more surface area, compared to the stones of the gravel.

 

[addy1]

My pond was mud brown within a few days it was clear. The fines might help, no real clue

 

[bobchapman]

It's getting to the point that I can select some plants to go into the bog. And this is a shade bog: no sunlight at all. Can anyone suggest some plants that would be good for this situation? My main interest is plants that are good at filtering the fish waste out of the water.
Thanks
Bob

 

[addy1]

Go through this list some are shade.

http://www.fountainmagic.com/pond_marginal_plants.htm

 

[bobchapman]

Great list!
Thanks
Bob

 

[bobchapman]

I think it's time for a where-am-I summary.

Here's the overview of the whole bog/stream/pond:

In the foreground,only partly shown, is the bog which is nearly full of stones. Still need about a half-yard to complete that. Then you can see the stream (with water running in it!!), and in the far background is the pond, which is about 1" short of being full of water, rainwater in this case.


Here's the out-flow from the bog into the stream.

I was considering using the flat, colored rocks shown here to line the edge of the stream, but have since decided against that approach in favor of river-rocks.

I still have a lot of hardscape to do: pathways, and a patio near the pond. Then, of course, there is planting of the bog and the rest of the work area, not to mention putting some fish in the pond. It took me an entire day of cleanup today, as I had finished all the masonry work: put away the tile saw, put away the concrete mixer, find all the tools from the yard and get them to the right place. The change-over from one type of work to another takes a while!

Tomorrow: get more stone for the bog, with the overage to go into the patio build. Got the basic shape laid out today, and a huge bluestone slab put into place. Next is to weld up the steel border which will keep the surface of the patio from wandering away over the years. The patio will be the same stones as are in the bog, with bluestone and other stones as the walking surface.

 

[Lisak1]

Most plants will do great in a bog even if they aren't normally shade plants. (The reverse is also true - hostas grow great in ours in the full sun.) Planting in water vs soil changes the normal parameters we have found. For you like a plant, try it and see what happens!

Also, don't be surprised if you have to add more gravel the first few years in your bog. It settles A LOT!

 

[addy1]

My bog goes from full sun to shady as the sun gets lower or higher in the sky. Right now it is shady and the plants are doing fine.
They may not bloom as well but they grow just fine.

And agree with Lisak, you will need more gravel mine settled quite a bit after it had been running for awhile

 

[bobchapman]

Thanks for the advice on plants from both of you.
I will provide more stones in the bog than I had thought initially!

 

[bobchapman]

Do I need to be thinking about adding an air pump/diffuser to my bog-and-pond? At present, I have only the small waterfall from the bog at the head of the stream, the stream itself, and the tiny waterfall where the stream dumps into the pond.

Is there some way to tell whether there's enough oxygen in the water to support fish?

Thanks
Bob

 

[addy1]

Both of those water falls will add enough, I have read, in the past, that any surface movement adds o2. The stream, as the water bounces over the rocks, will add o2, I think you are safe.

My husband bought a foreclosure, it had been empty for a year. In cleaning the front yard, he found a piece of plywood, under that piece of plywood was a preform shallow pond. In that preform was some goldfish, healthy living goldfish, no air, no movement, no sun.

 

[bobchapman]

Thanks for your reply, Addy.

I'm no end of questions these days, so here's the next one: when you plant in the bog, do you go bare-root, or something else? Most of the plants that I have bought for regular planting in the yard have been grown in some sort of fibrous material, or in some cases in a looser potting mix. In the case of the fibrous stuff, getting down to bare-root would probably kill the plant. If plants have been grown that way, do you plant the whole fibrous-stuff-and-plant in the bog? If it's the looser mix, I could probably extract the plant to go bare-root.

Any advice would be helpful
Thanks
Bob Chapman