A BOG GARDEN IS A BOG GARDEN IS A...MAYBE NOT!

BOERNER GARDENS, MILWAUKEE...

...VISITORS CENTER

THE BOG GARDEN

CUP PLANT

TOUH-ME-NOT

Thursday, 9:00 AM.  62 degrees F, wind variable, light with gusts.  The sky is mostly clear, the humidity is 82% and the barometer is down a bit from yesterday.  It was a fine morning to take Buddy down to the beach (which I did).
   While in Milwaukee for the wedding I went to take a look at my prairie restoration project and was quite pleased with its condition.  Not so the "bog garden" project which I also designed and planted while at the Boerner Botanical Garden.  It was overgrown with trees and shrubs, many of which were adventive, and many of the bog and marsh plants which I laboriously introduced are no longer there.  But I won't blame the hardworking gardeners for neglecting this "garden," as it probably was beyond their ability to maintain, and was perhaps doomed to eventual failure from its very inception.
   If you have never experienced a true bog, find one and walk carefully over its spongy surface.  Bring a partner and a long pole, in case you break through.  Walking across a bog is like walking on a soft bed.  And before you go read Aldo Leopold's essay, "Marshland Elegy."
   A "bog" is a highly specialized environment, both geologically and botanically.  In the strictest definition, a bog is a cold lake, usually of glacial origin, which is gradually overgrown and covered  by a mat of sphagnum moss, which creates a highly acidic environment.  Acid loving plants, such as rhododendrons and tamaracks and pitcher plants, gradually establish themselves on the moss mat.  Over a great length of time the lake fills in from the accumulation of dead plants, and more alkaline loving plants, such as dogwoods and maples, become dominant.  This process may take thousands and thousands of years, so in reality one can't create a bog.
   The Boerner Bog Garden was meant to be a snapshot in time, giving the visitor a view of the beauty and diversity of bog plants, and a feel for the timelessness of such a place.  It did that for a few years, and then succumbed to the natural succession which is the geological process of all bogs.  It is still a pleasant experience, even a mini-wilderness walk and welcome contrast to the formal gardens, to cross the bog garden on its board walk.  But the place is not a bog, and never really was or  could be.  For one thing it was not a naturally acidic environment, and I doubt that any attempts were made to maintain one.  For another, I doubt that the water supply has been constant enough for many of the herbaceous plants.  It was a good try, but as they say, "No cigar."
   There should be a lesson here for others who wish to create pseudo-natural environments, even relatively simple ones, such as "rain gardens."  Be careful what you call them.
   "A bog garden is a bog garden is a...maybe not!"