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A Low-Tech Bog Garden

Making It Grow Minute

  Hello Gardeners, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. In my backyard garden, I've made a bog garden and bird bath combination using the discarded lid of a plastic garbage can. The lid is tilted by having a brick placed under it so it leaks out onto the surrounding soil, making the bog where I have white-top sedge and calla lilies. There is a clay pot in it so insects that slip into the water can climb to safety. It is placed at the front of a bed with only low growing plants behind it and is directly under a spigot. The spigot drips just a bit - about ten drips a minute - which makes a very attractive sound to thirsty birds - and is enough water movement to prevent mosquito larvae from developing. The day after I "installed" this low-tech water feature, I was treated to the site of two robins having a conversation by the water fountain!

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.