I use buckets and poke holes at the top and bottom. I mix sand and peat and add LFS on top. Easy plants are most Sarracenias, VFT's, D. filiformis, D. intermedia, D. rotundifolia, D. binata..

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Sweet thanks for the pictures...they really helped! I see that you have the first pot almost completely submerged in a bucket of water...does that keep the soil moist enough or do you also regularly water it form the top? Also, do you replace your water often? Thanks!!

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/GrowingEnvirons/BogBC.php

http://www.hungryplants.nl/boggarden.htm

Sarracenias basically grow in bogged and waterlogged most of the time. Watering from the top is a good idea to leach out chemical salts. I don't generally replace the water.

I wondered the same thing about the bogs I've made. My answer to drainage holes is a firm no--Sarracenia can grow completely waterlogged for weeks without ill effects. I find the benefit of not having to water as often outweighs good drainage, which bog plants don't even need. Watering from the top is a good thing, because not only do you leach minerals like petiolaris stated, but it also tends to aerate the medium at the same time. However, I have had instances where top watering has uprooted or damaged plants, particularly smaller ones. Provide a mulched (leaves, pine needles, rocks, pebbles, etc.) area in the bog for watering, to break the force of the water and keep your medium from splattering everywhere. Watering from the tray method does keep the soil completely saturated because of what's called capillary rise (the soil tugs on the water and tugs so hard it forces it up to the soil surface, and peat is especially good at this). BUT--If your peat is not thoroughly moist (it will look black, not brown, and it helps to let the peat and water sit in the sun to warm up and absorb better, and knead and squeeze and thoroughly mix the peat) then it will be impermeable to water and the top layer of your soil will dry out and the plants will die.

Only make drainage holes:
1) If you'll grow sundews or VFTs in the bog (they prefer slightly less waterlogged conditions)
2) If your mix contains perlite--in flooded conditions it will float away.
3) You use tap water or hard water to water the bog--minerals will build up in undrained containers.
4) If you get absolutely torrential downpours (I'm not familiar with CA's weather patterns)

Good plants would be the ones petiolaris recommended. I would also suggest when planting it up that smaller plants like VFTs and sundews be placed around the circumference of the bog, with taller plants like Sarracenia in the center--this helps not to shade out the little guys, and Sarracenia are notorious for doing this.

Also, the bigger the pot, the less the upkeep. It will survive temperature fluctuations better, take longer to freeze, heat up, and dry out, and hold more water. You can also mulch with pine needles, and retain even more water that way and lessen your upkeep. CP's are great in that weeds hardly grow in the peat, are easy to pluck when they do and are slow growing when they do grow due to nutrition lack, and no fertilizer of any kind will ever be needed. Only light, the right medium, and water. They do all the work for you!

Good luck, and happy growing!

I tend to place my plants in regular plastic pots and set them in 1-2 inch deep trays of water. If I used a large pot for a Sarracenia bog I would likely place it in a large container of water with half the pot submerged like Petiolaris has done. Remember that even bog plants need to breath through their roots too, so do not totally waterlog them all the time and top water them often.

Hey guys thanks for all your input...I went out today and bought all my supplies (minus most of the plants) and built the bog. I bought a rectangular pot and put a plastic lining inside. My mixture of soil is a layer of dead sphagnum at the bottom(not sure if it will do anything but I've heard some people suggest doing it) followed with a mixture of roughly 70% peat and 30% perlite and then another layer of sphagnum on top. I am planning on ordering a D. capenthis and a Judith Hindle Sarracenia from Cobraplants this week...but I couldn't just let my bog sit there without any plants in it! So, I went out to the only place around my house that has CP's in right now(the 99 cent store lol) and bought two amazingly healthy looking fly traps. So, I transfered those over to the bog and kept part of the plastic death domes over both plants but cut about 1/4 of the bottom of the dome out in an attempt to gradually harden off the two fly traps. I'll try to get some pictures up tomarrow if I have time. If anyone has actually read this long post and sees any flaws in my method please tell me!! Also, one last question, can I expect to get any live sphagnum to start growing from the dried out stuff? Or am I going to have to try to find some live sphagnum from somewhere else?
Thanks for any replies!!!

LATE!

I'm not sure if your sphagnum will come back to life I think it depends on what type it is I can't really help much since I never grew sphagnum moss yet.

From what I've read on sites, I think the NZ LFS comes back to life pretty good, but I'm not sure since I just started using LFS for my Nepenthes and mini bog garden so I'm still new to growing it.

Goodluck with your garden I'm kinda like you so far only plants in my garden is a few typical flytraps, but I'm ordering the other plants soon once the threat of snow and frost goes away..

Was surprised to see this thread here. Thought I would share my own experiences with bog gardening which is ongoing!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bog gardening