Should I drain my bog for the winter?

[bobchapman]

I would prefer not to drain it, just due to the work involved, but I will if it's likely to turn grundy and smelly over the Winter. What advice can you give me, please?
Thanks
Bob

 

[addy1]

I turn off the pump, leave mine full of water, it sits until spring, then back on. No smells, no grundy no mess. The pond is crystal clear within a day of running it again.

And we have had warm falls, no real freezing until January. I turn it off in October, last year in September.

I do rake the surface before turn on, any old leaves, dead plants etc. get raked off.

 

[MitchM]

I would prefer not to drain it, just due to the work involved, but I will if it's likely to turn grundy and smelly over the Winter. What advice can you give me, please?
Thanks
Bob

Make sure you drain and protect any plumbing from freezing damage.

.

 

[bobchapman]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I'm draining the plumbing where necessary.

Here's a video of where I am so far on this construction. Today we had out first snow flurry, so I imagine that there won't be any additional progress until Spring is near.
Hmmmh, well I thought I could upload a .MOV file, but apparently not. Is there a video format that is supported?

 

[MitchM]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I'm draining the plumbing where necessary.

Here's a video of where I am so far on this construction. Today we had out first snow flurry, so I imagine that there won't be any additional progress until Spring is near.
Hmmmh, well I thought I could upload a .MOV file, but apparently not. Is there a video format that is supported?

If you could post it via YouTube, that works.

 

[Timothy]

I pulled 90% of the vegetation out of my bog this fall before shutting it down for the winter. The root systems were like carpets throughout and contained a lot of pea gravel that I shook out and let fall back in the bog. Even though there was a good deal of silt, and mud the smell wasn't at all bad - just an earthy smell. It seems to me the lily pots smell far worse than the bog did. I drained the external piping, but left the bog full of water. My thought was with the occasional rain and the snow pack it would just fill back up again, so unless it's covered there was no reason to drain it.