Sounds good to me. I did something similar, but did not put in the little holes in the bottom. That has not been a deterent in any way. You might have to water yours more frequently than I , but other than that, thumbs up!

Oh, you might be leary about the cattail. A miniature would be okay, but sometimes a regular ditch cattail will drill its root right through the liner. This could create a larger drain than you want. .....just something to think about.

Thanks a lot for your input. I might hold off on the cattails. Right now they are doing OK in a 5 gallon bucket! I'm going outside to get to work. Thanks again!

You are going to regret those holes. They are going to drain the water away very quickly and your roots are going to find the holes and adjust them to the size THEY want them to be.

If you have more liner and enough strength left it would be a good idea to reline it without the holes. And take two pieces of pvc pipe connected with a 90% elbow and several holes drilled along the length of one pipe (the one you will lay in the bottom of the bog).

The other pipe (vertical) should stand at the end of the bog and have a garden hose fitting installed so you can attach your hose to it.

This way you can water your bog from the bottom up, insuring plenty of water and a nice stirring of all the bugs and nutrients throughout the media. This reduces stagnation and loosens the soil around the roots.

Of course if you don't have the stamina or the liner you can kick yourself. (I did)

Another question...tap water or not? I've seen a few posts that say tap water isn't good for the plants. Thanks.

I am new to this too for sure, but did a lot of reading. Most articles said to poke holes in the bottom of a liner--and not just "tiny ones", you need a way for the bog to drain slowly so it does not become stagnant. I disagree with the pvc pipe too--sounds like to much trouble for one and two, this forum says to not use tap water--too much minerals and mayble salt that will build up over time, which is not good. Capture rain water. I cut off part of one of my house gutters and put a barrel under it for that purpose. I did not line my bog with a liner because the ground here is suitable for building adobe bricks, so the bog holds the water fairly well and I will pump the rain water into it when needed.

I dug out my bog at least 18" deep then added a layer of pea gravel...put plastic over that and punched holes in it with a pitchfork. Then I put in my amended soil and about half way layed a soaker hose..covered with more soil and wet down with well water. Set in my plants and mulched.
My bog isn't soppy wet but wet enough to handle my plants and I can walk on it. If you have standing water that will just attract mosquitos which isn't a good thing! If my bog dries out too much due to drought...just hook up the soaker hose.

I just bought my sarracenias this year and the place I bought them from (Botanique) says to make slices in the liner, and they give you the correct mixture to fill the bog with. This is what these guys do for a living, so I listened to them. I have 4 varieties of pitcher plants, marsh marigold and bog iris, I have several others on order. All of the plants I have in there are doing great and are growing to beat the band. The bog is nice and damp without being soupy. I am new to bogs, so I figured I would listen to the professionals,check out their website, they have all the info you might need,
juspeachy

I'm almost finished with the bog, got most of the plants in. I finally decided on elephant ears, calla lillies, corkscrew rush, another rush (I dont have the name), canna, orange ditch lillies, hosta, and chameleon plant (I know I might regret that one but I'm gonna try it and see what happens). I used the plants that were readily available to me, just for starters. I'm happy with the drainage. We had a torential downpour Sunday evening and afterwards, there were several inches of water standing on the bog. It drained fairly quickly but has stayed quite moist even without any other rainfall throughout the week. For MY bog, I think the drainage is ideal because I'm not sure that plants I have chosen would do well in standing water. Were I to do another, I would probably not make drainage holes and work with other plants that could withstand more wetness. This is my 'starter' bog, so any mistakes I make I will try not to repeat.
It has been a great new project and I want to thank all of your for your advice, opinions, suggestions.