you want.”
“Thanks, Marty. I’m so glad this thing didn’t get bogged down in Channel Five politics. I know the President will be grateful, too.”
Or, more specifically, she thought, Tom Paschen, that antsy chief of staff of the President’s. She looked forward to telling him that she had succeeded in her small part in aiding the campaign.
And without compromising principle, of course.
Getting Bogged Down and Loving It: The Wonders of the Bog Garden
I T SEEMS AT FIRST GLANCE THAT people with bog gardensare just overgrown children who like to play in the mud, Actually, they are shrewd people. For ornamental bog gardens are the best of everything: They are low-maintenance, and environmentally sound, cheaper than water gardens, and still they produce lush plants and flowers that cannot be found in terrestrial gardens.
Purists call them marsh gardens or damp gardens, for, strictly speaking, bog gardens are something else: very distinctive North American natural wetlands that lack mineral soils and have a deep substrata of sphagnum peat moss. They contain a high acidic content and minimal nutrition. Therefore, a limited number of plants grow there, but the ones that do are unique, and include certain orchids, the lady’s slipper, bladderwort, Indian pipe, the calla lily, and the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia.
The bog gardener can go wild, leaving the orbit of mere dry-land gardeners, and grow things in a soggy swamp that would be a struggle elsewhere: fine shows of iris in every shade and more than a dozen varieties, including the majestic Japanese iris (
Iris kaempferi
); big-leaved Ligularia dentata; the giant-leaved Astilboides tabularis; parrot feather (
Myriophyllum aquaticum
); marsh marigold (
Caltha palustris
); dwarf bamboo (
Dulichium areundinaceum
); double-flowering arrowhead, Sagittaria japonica “Flore Pleno,” with its distinctive leaves and fluffy double white blossoms; cattail (
Typha latifolia
); and rushes. People may balk at one rush, the handsome horsetail (
Equisetum hyemale
), because it is a garden invader. Those who have failed with the brilliant red Lobelia cardinalis in the perennial border will find it flourishes with its toes damp, as does its relative, Lobelia siphilitica. Tall, bold-flowered mallows; rosy joe-pye weeds (
Eupatorium purpureum
); goatsbeard (
Aruncus dioicus
); thalictrum;Cimicifuga; astilbe; yellow flag iris (
Iris pseudacorus
); blue flag iris (
Iris versicolor
); and the brilliant scarlet Lychnis chalcedonica not only grow, they prosper.
And then there are the tender plants, Thalia geniculata; the elegant bog lily, Crinum americanum; and spider lily, Hjmenocallis liriosme; and the lush-leaved, violet-stemmed taro, Colocasia esculenta var. fontanesii; and red-stemmed Sagittaria lancifolia ruminoides with its flaring leaves and bold, carmine stems. There is the incredibly handsome variegated-leaved canna, and the biblical bulrush from which the Dead Sea Scrolls were made, right there in your own backyard: Cyperus papyrus, or its smaller form, Cyperus viviparus. Treat the tender ones as annuals, although many can come inside for the winter provided you have a mansion with a big basement. That six-foot or taller biblical bulrush, in particular, doesn’t fare well in the confines of the home.
Not only the garden itself, but its moist edges can become fertile propagating grounds for our favorite plants, including ferns, thalictrum, hostas, rhododendrons, and azaleas.
Less trouble than a water garden, a bog garden can be prepared easily by excavating the area twelve to eighteen inches deep and installing waterproofmaterial to cover the excavation. People debate as to whether it should be watertight, or perforated here and there to allow some water to escape. Since the bog could dry up in periods of low rainfall, a simple access to water should be provided, such as burying a soaker hose in the garden during construction. Before earth is put back in the hole,
“Thanks, Marty. I’m so glad this thing didn’t get bogged down in Channel Five politics. I know the President will be grateful, too.”
Or, more specifically, she thought, Tom Paschen, that antsy chief of staff of the President’s. She looked forward to telling him that she had succeeded in her small part in aiding the campaign.
And without compromising principle, of course.
Getting Bogged Down and Loving It: The Wonders of the Bog Garden
I T SEEMS AT FIRST GLANCE THAT people with bog gardensare just overgrown children who like to play in the mud, Actually, they are shrewd people. For ornamental bog gardens are the best of everything: They are low-maintenance, and environmentally sound, cheaper than water gardens, and still they produce lush plants and flowers that cannot be found in terrestrial gardens.
Purists call them marsh gardens or damp gardens, for, strictly speaking, bog gardens are something else: very distinctive North American natural wetlands that lack mineral soils and have a deep substrata of sphagnum peat moss. They contain a high acidic content and minimal nutrition. Therefore, a limited number of plants grow there, but the ones that do are unique, and include certain orchids, the lady’s slipper, bladderwort, Indian pipe, the calla lily, and the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia.
The bog gardener can go wild, leaving the orbit of mere dry-land gardeners, and grow things in a soggy swamp that would be a struggle elsewhere: fine shows of iris in every shade and more than a dozen varieties, including the majestic Japanese iris (
Iris kaempferi
); big-leaved Ligularia dentata; the giant-leaved Astilboides tabularis; parrot feather (
Myriophyllum aquaticum
); marsh marigold (
Caltha palustris
); dwarf bamboo (
Dulichium areundinaceum
); double-flowering arrowhead, Sagittaria japonica “Flore Pleno,” with its distinctive leaves and fluffy double white blossoms; cattail (
Typha latifolia
); and rushes. People may balk at one rush, the handsome horsetail (
Equisetum hyemale
), because it is a garden invader. Those who have failed with the brilliant red Lobelia cardinalis in the perennial border will find it flourishes with its toes damp, as does its relative, Lobelia siphilitica. Tall, bold-flowered mallows; rosy joe-pye weeds (
Eupatorium purpureum
); goatsbeard (
Aruncus dioicus
); thalictrum;Cimicifuga; astilbe; yellow flag iris (
Iris pseudacorus
); blue flag iris (
Iris versicolor
); and the brilliant scarlet Lychnis chalcedonica not only grow, they prosper.
And then there are the tender plants, Thalia geniculata; the elegant bog lily, Crinum americanum; and spider lily, Hjmenocallis liriosme; and the lush-leaved, violet-stemmed taro, Colocasia esculenta var. fontanesii; and red-stemmed Sagittaria lancifolia ruminoides with its flaring leaves and bold, carmine stems. There is the incredibly handsome variegated-leaved canna, and the biblical bulrush from which the Dead Sea Scrolls were made, right there in your own backyard: Cyperus papyrus, or its smaller form, Cyperus viviparus. Treat the tender ones as annuals, although many can come inside for the winter provided you have a mansion with a big basement. That six-foot or taller biblical bulrush, in particular, doesn’t fare well in the confines of the home.
Not only the garden itself, but its moist edges can become fertile propagating grounds for our favorite plants, including ferns, thalictrum, hostas, rhododendrons, and azaleas.
Less trouble than a water garden, a bog garden can be prepared easily by excavating the area twelve to eighteen inches deep and installing waterproofmaterial to cover the excavation. People debate as to whether it should be watertight, or perforated here and there to allow some water to escape. Since the bog could dry up in periods of low rainfall, a simple access to water should be provided, such as burying a soaker hose in the garden during construction. Before earth is put back in the hole,
Similar Books
