Bog plants developed over thousands of years in wet areas that have few nutrients readily available. Bogs are based around still water and decaying plant materials that rots slowly due to a lack of oxygen in the water. The plant material instead sinks below the surface of the water and forms a floating island on/in which plants can grow.
Sphagnum moss is the main source of the decaying plant material in bogs. Sphagnum is a genus of moss made up of numerous species. Members of the genus can sometimes be referred to as peat moss, bog moss, sphagnum peat, and plenty more names. Sphagnum species hold an incredible amount of water compared to their mass and form mats when their isn’t much movement of water through the environment. The mats become fairly impenetrable making a floating patch of “soil” for plants to use as an anchor when growing.
Many plants evolved to enjoy the conditions that sphagnum bogs create over the course of their lifetime. Most carnivorous plants in New England, many members of the Ericaceae family (blueberries, azaleas, heaths, etc.), and some tree species, like larches. Outside of bogs, these plants need a bit more of a helping hand since they have grown with a now-rare and harsh environment.
Creating a bog at home is an option if you truly want to enjoy these plants in your own space. Any bog container will spark a conversations, especially when people see carnivorous plants.
One medium-sized, but important note before you start your bog journey: you will need to use sphagnum peat moss for your planter. This can be a shock for some gardeners who, over the past few years, have heard the sustainability issues related to sphagnum overharvesting. Those facts are true and companies are harvesting sphagnum at a rate that cannot be sustained by the growth habits of the plant itself. Sphagnum grows to slowly to sustainably meet the desires of gardeners across the world in search of a highly absorbent substance for seed starting mixes or soil amendments. An number of alternatives have come out of the past decade to reduce the use of peat and protect bogs across the Northern Hemisphere from overharvesting. While many of those options are highly successful in traditional garden applications, a bog planter is not traditional.
Bogs and their component plants are built on a base of sphagnum. At this time, I can’t find any alternatives that would sufficiently provide the organic matter at a low nutrient level with few, if any additional mineral contents. You will have to take the plunge and use sphagnum peat moss. This is the only instance where I would advise the use of a peat-based product when gardening. In all other instances there are alternatives that meet the needs you have. Paper-based products works for your vegetable starts, rice hulls work to lighten up your soil mixtures, and compost will work for almost every application you can think of! So please use peat only when you need to, not when it seems like peat could help a suitable alternative.
When choosing sphagnum peat, I used whatever I had left over from another project years ago. I did not go out to get any more until I knew I needed more. Then I bought the smallest size available and will use all of that up on another project that requires peat.
Building Your Bog!
Materials
- A container (glazed ceramic or plastic)
- Sphagnum peat moss to fill the container
- Washed play sand for a children’s sand box (available at most hardware stores)
- Grown (not harvested) bog plants
- A rain barrel
- A willingness to think twice about what gardening can look like
Carefully Research Plants for the Bog
Don’t rush into this bog container without carefully choosing plants that will work well in this environment. Not everything will work.
Azaleas, for example, occasionally like a moist area. You won’t necessarily find all azaleas happy with a bog environment though.
Size does matter in this case because you don’t want to repot the same bog every year because one of the plants outgrew the space. Plants can also crowd each other too much and take too many resources.
Only use plants that have a verified ethical source. Many carnivorous plants are poached from the wild.
Go in Search of a Container
Bog plants want to be moist at all times, so you need to find a container that suits your aesthetic purposes and holds moisture in. Two of the best options are glazed ceramic pots and plastic containers.
Glazed ceramic pots are my preferred containers because they come in so many colors that you’ll never be able to get in plastics. They also have an air of sophistication about them. When you place them in your yard, they instantly elevate the space. They do cost a fair bit more than plastic containers though, so consider your budget before committing.
Plastic containers work best when you’re making your bog in-ground. You can dig out a section of ground, then set the plastic container into it, so that it sits flush with ground level. Add your materials and it looks like you have a bog rising up from the ground under your feet.
I chose a neutral-colored glazed ceramic pot because I felt it would show off the greens and reds of the bog plants I was adding. It has clean lines that add to the classiness of it.
Get Your Environmental Building Materials
You can get bagged peat moss at most garden centers across the country. It would be interesting and more beneficially if you could source sustainably harvested/grown sphagnum to build your bog.
Play sand from any hardware store will work as long as it’s been washed. Most sand has a fairly high salt content. Bog plants are not used to that nor can they survive with those levels of salt.
Premoisten Your Peat Moss
Peat moss can hold tons of moisture. When it dries out, though, it becomes hydrophobic and takes tons of effort to rehydrate. Soak the peat in water and mix thoroughly to ensure it’s fully hydrated before putting it into your pot.
ONLY USE RAINWATER OR DISTILLED WATER!!!
Mix Your Planting Medium
A preponderance of advice would suggest that you should mix peat and sand 50/50 as a planting medium. I leaned a little heavier on the peat since I was hoping to use all that I had. I also added in some dried whole sphagnum peat moss into the upper layers to hold more moisture and resemble the environment more closely.
Build Your Layers
Slowly add your peat and sand mixture into your pot being sure to water with a bit of rainwater or distilled water for each layer. If you’ve chosen to to have whole sphagnum moss included, add that towards the very top layers.
Consider Your Design
Place your plants so that they evoke something in you or another person seeing it. If you want a formal design like Versailles, then get a pristine glazed pot and keep your plants in a symmetrical pattern. If you want a more relaxed design, then get a plastic tub and sink it into the ground before loading it full with plants.
I chose a more formal design with a glazed pot, but I broke one cardinal rule of planting on purpose.
The rule of odds is an informal idea that the human mind sees even-numbered things in stable forms (squares, straight lines, etc.). As a result, those shapes feel static and without movement. Planting in odd numbers offers more movement in a design and keeps the human eye moving around the space to see it all.
I chose to break the rule of odds by only using two Large Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) in my pot. I did this because I was going to plant the vining plants so closely together that they would appear as one mass. That mass would be viewed by anyone else as either one plant or more than two plants, thus odd numbers by perception if not actuality.
I placed those two Cranberries on one side of a Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) that I put in the center of the pot. The warmer cream color of the Labrador Tea’s flowers will compliment the glaze of the pot I chose.
Finally, I placed three Purple Pitcherplants (Sarracenia purpurea ssp. purpurea) on the remaining side of the pot. I didn’t want them to get overshadowed by any of the other larger plants because they are the star of this pot. Purple Pitcherplants are so unusual to have in a garden space that you have to show them off when you’re designing.
Plant and Nurture
Now that you’ve designed and set out your materials, begin bringing everything together. Take your plants out of their pots gently and break apart any tightly bound up roots. Spread some of the roots out so they won’t circle each other when they get into the designed pot.
Make sure that all the plants get the right amount of water they need. The center of the pot will hold moisture the longest and the edges will hold it the shortest. Put plants that can handle drier conditions on the outside edge.
Water bogs only with rainwater or distilled water. Last time that I’m saying it and it is still the most important rule here. You can skirt other ones, but you can’t go around this rule.
References
Matthews, Wild Bill. “How to Make a Carnivorous Minibog Planter.” Accessed June 23, 2024. https://www.necps.us/caresheets/minibog-how-to
Michigan State University Extension. “Bog .” Accessed June 23, 2024. https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/communities/description/10666/bog.
Nosowitz, Dan. “The Problem with Using Peat Moss (and What to Use Instead).” the Spruce. Last modified January 29, 2024. https://www.bhg.com/gardening/how-to-garden/peat-moss/
Priest, Susan. Ed. Ronald B Davis. Carnivorous Plants of Orono Bog. Orono, ME: University of Maine, 2012. https://umaine.edu/oronobogwalk/wp-content/uploads/sites/393/2015/03/Carnivorous-Plants-of-Orono-Bog.pdf
Stiffler, Michael. Basic cultivation of Sarracenia Pitcher Plants.” Accessed June 23, 2024. https://www.necps.us/caresheets/american-pitcher-plants
All images © Kiely Artistry, 2024.