Create bog or moist gardens around the pond

Can you add a bog garden?

As your pond starts to wake up to Spring take a look at the surrounding area. See if you can add a 'bog garden' of muddy or moist soil around part of the edge as a wildlife haven.

It's easy to create this new habitat area for the wildlife:

• Dig down and add a cheap membrane with a few drainage holes to allow some water to escape.
• This planted area will also give a great 'backdrop' look to the pond area and put it in a setting within your garden design.
• Frogs, toads and newts overwinter in log and leaf piles, or beneath stones and plants in nearby planted areas.
• Take care to read our definitions of the difference between a muddy bog and a moist area so you choose the correct plants.

Frogs, toads and newts:

• All enter a state of torpor in winter, rather than hibernation, rising from their sleep in search of food on warm days.
• Wildlife can be tricked into breaking their slumbers early if we have a warm spell.
• Amphibians will leave their places of safety and start searching for local water.
• They have to scuttle back quickly under protection if there is a sharp frost.

Can you add a new planted area near to your pond where the wildlife can shelter?

• A prepared moist or muddy bog area planted around the pond perimeter gives invaluable cover from plants in Spring & Summer.
• Protection from birds and other predators and shade from the midday sun.
• Growing plants around the water area will encourage the wildlife to venture in and out of the water & be safe.
• Include log piles and other bug houses within its design too as these give good protection in Winter and early Spring.
• Help create more wildlife habitats.

Bog or moist gardens:

• Can be natural - beside a stream or lake edge.
• Or formed in a specially prepared lined area designed to maintain a certain level of dampness.
• Create wet and waterlogged or moist and damp conditions by changing how much drainage you give your prepared area.
• See our Tips and Advice page: How to create a bog garden for more detail.

Planting:

• Waterlogged bog soil or moist soil planting areas will require different plants to suit the different conditions.
• These should contain both flowering uprights and low growing plants with leaf spread to give a variety of habitats and protection for the wildlife in this emergence zone.
• Be careful to choose the right plants for the level of 'wetness of soil' in your prepared area.
• Moist plants will not survive in waterlogged soil. See Planting an area for moist or muddy bog plants.

Many moist-loving plants are also 'Perfect for Pollinators' so by growing these in your garden you will increase the flowers available for airborne pollinating insects too. Find our Moist Collection for late season bees & butterflies here.