Peat Bogs and Bog Water Gardens in Ireland
Oh! Mea culpa! Where have I been? No chronicles for August. The month of sun and summer and lazy hazy afternoons relaxing: nope not for me. unfortunately. I have been on holiday, but the problem is you work like mad to clear your desk and sort out the really deadly must do deadlines before you go, and when you come back you've got work like mad to catch up again.
We went to wonderful Ireland, the land of mists and mellow manners; also the land of peat bogs and blanket bogs. The latter were a revelation to me, where rolling mountainsides once clothed in trees and plants in prehistoric times now seem at first sight to be bare. In fact they blanketed with a layer of peat, which retains the moisture for the plants and the plants, mostly rushes grass and heather, firmly hold in place the peat. The peat is the remains of the plants that lived there before the ice age, and as the peat gradually sinks away the remains of petrified trees from the forest days emerge from the covering. This was another habitat to add to my list of the different sorts of habitats for moisture loving plants.
When you consider all the different types of wet places there are in the world from the sheltered moist woodlands, river valleys from the mountains to the lowlands, moorlands, bogs, fens and swamps, it is no wonder there is such diversity in the types of plants that love it decidedly wet. I had a BOG GARDEN talk to do when I got back and this blanket bog revelation was all grist to the mill as they say.
For those of you that might have had a spark of interest in the strange beast we found in the wetland grassland rhynes of North Somerset, the news on its identity is not too startling or strange, but it does touch upon the realms of the unknown. For those interested in Yeti or Bigfoot spotting this is kind of small fry and this beastie had been spotted before. It is a chironamid larva, which is a non-biting midge or gnat. But which one it is, is unknown. The Bloodworm is perhaps the most common larva of this type of insect. So even for the blatant amateur, there are things to be found out even in your own stagnant lagoon. It reminds me of the story Ruby Wax used to tell about a somebody she had met at a party who proudly announced they had just swam across San Francisco Bay.
Why did you do that? She asked in her inimitable way. Cos no-one has ever done it before. Was the reply.
Well no-one has ever cleaned behind the sofa in my front room, but that doesn't make me want to do it!
But anyway, there is something satisfying in discovering these things and putting them in their place in the greater scheme of things.
So what should you have been doing in the water garden in August. I know in South Africa everything is just warming up and getting ready for action in the pool. In the UK most books will tell you sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour. It has however been so hot in the UK this year that any mismanagement of the water garden has come back to haunt the owners. Over feeding and over stocking becomes apparent when the fish are gasping for oxygen in the warm water. Water cannot absorb oxygen so readily at warmer temperatures. If there is overfeeding and fish food rotting on the bottom of the pool, a vicious cycle of ammonia production starts up as it begins to rot. Any ammonia in the water is bad news, especially for Koi carp, for whom ammonia is a deadly poison. The problem is that they exude ammonia as a waste product through their anus and their gills. They do this more when they are stressed and the presence of ammonia makes them stressed, overcrowding makes them stressed and lack of oxygen makes them stressed. The lack of oxygen also slows down the activity of the essential bacteria in the bottom of the pool and in the biological filters that are capable of breaking down the ammonia, and so the production of the poison goes on unchecked.
[ EMERGENCY REMEDY: Hard spray of tap water from a height into the water, letting the pool over flow. And or one third water-change with dechlorinator added]
I mentioned this in July, and it is something that I may return to on a regular basis because it shows, particularly the importance of a biological filtration system of you (a) that live in warm countries, (b) that have small pools well stocked with fish, (c) that prefer to see your fish than have masses of plant life in the pool. For the pool to be pretty much self sufficient without a biological filtration system the surface must all be covered with lilies and oxygenating weed. A recommended two-thirds cover is a minimum. If you have more than 2 ins of fish per square foot of surface are you could have trouble at any point in any season anyway. What goes on with those bacteria in the bottom of the pool in breaking down the waste and organic compounds in the water is essential to the well being of the whole pool, with a biological filtration system you have a turbo version of pool bottom at your control at the touch of a switch. I wont go into the mechanics involved just yet but if you need to know check out my friends website at : water gardening and ponds .
Hopefully the friends you had looking after the pool when you were on vacation didn't over feed the fish. If they did they only gave enough for the rascals to consume in 5 minutes and netted off the excess.
N.B. Red leg in frogs thrives in water low in oxygen and high in organic matter.
Now September is a time for clearing off decaying vegetation . Some of the marginals could have been cut back to one third and may have flowered again. Koi keepers want to be feeding fish with good quality food to build them up for the winter.
You can collect offcuts from the plants if you want to propagate them. Just pull them off or cut them neatly as they emerge from a basket. If they have developed root hairs then they will be guaranteed to establish in any good heavy loam set in a well-drained pot sitting in about 2inches, 5cm of water.
It may be time to replace tired and overgrown plants in the marginal baskets next month, so these will be a useful replacement.
Lilies should be the main attraction now along with the Fringe lily, Nymphoides peltata. A few bog plants like the Ligularias, the Lobelias and Astilbes may be putting on a show. This is when the robust foliage plants like the hostas, Rheums, Peltiphyllum and Petasites come into their own.
I hope things are going well with you and you enjoy these chronicles.
All the best
Peter May