Northern bog garden

From: Douglas Tryck (trynur@alaska.net)
Date: Fri Mar 03 2000 - 20:45:15 PST


Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 19:45:15 -0900
From: Douglas Tryck <trynur@alaska.net>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg619$foo@default>
Subject: Northern bog garden

With all the talk about bog gardens, I thought I'd share my bog building
experience from up here in Alaska. I've always enjoyed the native
Alaskan cp's and orchids, and realized that to grow and display them I
needed to duplicate their natural environment as much as possible. I was
putting in a new garden with a waterlily pond and since the area slopes
towards the south the natural place for the bog would be down from the
watergarden and used as the overflow drainage catchment. I dug out an
area about 10' by 10', lined it with a 40 mile butyl (SP), then filled
it to a depth of about 3' with a mixture of equal parts milled peatmoss
and sand. I was also sure to have the bog slope with the elevation of
the uphill end being about two feet higher than the lower. I wanted part
of it to not be soggy. I wanted the plants to wick up water if they
needed it. Then I promptly filled it up with Sarracena purpurea ( three
different far north strains), Pinguicula vulgaris, Pinguicula macroceras
(syn. P vulgaris var. macroceras), Drosera angelica, D. rotundifolia,
also Cupripedium guttatum, C. yatabeanum, Dactylorhiza aristata, and
lots of little green orchids. At the low end I put two species of
Pacific skunk cabbages, Lysichiton americanum and L.camschatcense. At
the top to give it a finished look, I put in one of those plant
monsters with emormous leaves. I planted Petisites japonica. I also
threw in a host of Primulas.The garden was finished in 1998. There is
still a good month of winter up here and I'm waiting for spring to see
how everything did over the winter.
Doug Tryck
Anchorage, Alaska



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