When you really need a bog…

Natural bogs have been damaged by peat removal, reclamation, and pollution from nearby farmland. Garden bogs cannot provide a substitute habitat but they do provide valuable water, food plants, mud, shelter and breeding grounds for wildlife.

A bog garden is a really interesting mini habitat where plants can be grown that cannot survive elsewhere in the garden. It isn’t smelly provided leaves are removed. A hole is dug in the ground and lined with old plastic. This holds back water but it is pierced with a small number of tiny holes so it drains slowly. It is filled with nutrient-poor soil (i.e. without compost or fertilisers).

Widely available native bogs plants include the beautiful marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) which attracts hoverflies, and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and the unique ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) which both attract bees, moths and butterflies.

Watch out for BBC Springwatch which starts on Monday!