Much of the east is wetter than here. Maybe you are thinking where you were the winter precipitation is not as high as here, although I wonder if that is actually the case. Since your soil is sandy the mini-bog idea might pay off.

If your lobelia has purple leaves it is a garden hybrid and not the eastern North American native wildflower with green leaves. Purple-leaved hybrids have often been sold as cardinal flower in the past at local outlets. The hybrids can be less hardy, may sometimes disappear in winter even here in Pugetopolis USDA 8.

43 years ago Alan Bloom came out with a book called Moisture Gardening that talked about perennials etc. being planted over plastic to produce a damp soil on his property in England. You might want to look for that one, inexpensive used copies are listed on the internet.

Build a pond! I grow bog plants in container gardens too. With no drainage holes.

it sounds like a fun experiment to dig a big olde hole and put some liner in there. fill it back in and plant some bog plants.

then again, i live on a sand dune... so digging a hole is a snap here.

i also really like the look of half buried containers. that would be a good use for broken containers, just super glue them back together first.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will just try making the artificial bog. I hadn't realized how easy digging would be in this sandy soil. I planted some perennials the other day, and it was a snap. So much easier than the rocky soil at my previous house back East. I had a pond there as well, which I do miss, but I am thinking in this new garden I'd like to have a disappearing stream/waterfall. Hmm, I like the idea of using a container with no drainage holes too.

Bboy, thanks for the book recommendation, I am going to look for it. The cardinal flower has green leaves, I ordered it online from Bluestone, but I will keep your advice in mind, cause I have seen some with burgundy/purple leaves that I like.

Simple, stick them in your drain field.:-) Am I the only one who still has a drain field? I love well water.

I grow them in pots without drain holes.

I'm on Water District water and I have a drain field. As far as surface water goes, it's one of the driest places on my property. It works.
Well water doesn't have floride in it.

I have a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tub designed for lining half oak barrels. I keep my wetland plants in there - Japanese iris, various mimulus species, mints, manna grass, juncus, duckweed, water lilies ...

I drilled a small hole near the rim to allow excess water to drain out in winter, rather than overflowing and taking plants with it. In summer I have to add water periodically. One year I had tree frog tadpoles in it. I keep hoping for water beetles but none so far.

Good idea, reg. I have a couple of stock tanks I was going to use for a bigger aquaponics system but have enough problems with my smaller system I may turn them into large container grow beds. They could make a small pond or wetland, in or out of the ground.

I have five liner ponds, one about 900 gallons the rest smaller. I also have a half whiskey barrel liner sunk into the ground and two full whiskey barrel liners sitting on the ground plus a bunch of pots with no holes. Cheap foam ones from Big Lots mostly.

I have also planted bog plants that can take dry summers like rushes where our downspouts are. Mini rain gardens. Ours were never connected to the sewer like they are in some parts of Portland.

The edges around my liner ponds stay dry. I have to put bog plants in them rather than around them. I pot in mesh pots with pea gravel for many that are in the ponds or right into the rocks in the big pond. I have my waterlilies and iris in clay garden soil and also use clay garden soil in smaller pots.

Now, if only I could keep the &*(%$#@! raccoons out of everything!