Hi,

I am creating a marsh bog garden around my garden pond. I dug a 3' wide by 2' deep trench around the entire circumference of the 35' pond and draped the excess pond liner into the trench so that the entire marsh/bog garden is lined.

1. Should I allow rainwater and pond over-flow to fill it when it does and not drain-away; or should i perforate the liner for drainage? Since the soil goes to the top, I don't worry about mosquitos in standing water. The only thing that will happen is the 2' deep soil will remain soggy for longer periods, then if it were drained. Also, if I do this, water-seaking trees like birch, pagoda dogwood, sweetbay mangolia, and willow planted near by will enter into the bog.

2. Should I not plant wetland shrubs (such as buttonbush, viburnums, spicebush, red-twig dogwood, and highbush blueberry) in the actual bog - or will the root systems over run the bog (would that be any different then it would be if planted in the moist soil around the bog)? Otherwise, my plan is to plant them just outside of the bog so that they appear to be in the bog - being part of the wetland plant collection in it, but will not be. I wouldn't plant things like button bush in the pond because I think this will be a cause of a lot of evaporation as the plants drink.

Thanks,

Steve