Cleaning out the bog water garden

You ever wish that you hadn't started something, but because you did , know that you got to sort of finish it at least a little. Cryptic huh.?
Well that embraces the water garden/bog project. We have look at it for months not wanting to touch it, then one hairbrain idea last weekend made me decide to try and clean it out.
Two things you must know,
1. this bog garden is just that; very, very boggy, one step and you are up to your knees in muck and sometimes with out the shoes you went in with.
2. It is over grown with Johnson Grass and Pig-weed, better known as itchy, itchy icky scatchy weed, don't get it on your skin, cause it will cause a rash worse then poison ivy, especially if the Johnson grass scatches you.
But needless to say it is the home to my much loved Lousiana Iris's , Lilies, Cannas and Glades, and Hosta, and so over grown that I had to try and clean it out on one the the hottest days of the year.!!!

We worked HK and I at pulling weeds, cutting weeds, pulling weeds, cutting weeds, trimming the Iris back, then we gave up.
Too tired to in the short time we worked at it to do much more. What was I thinking???


as I look at this picture , you can't even see the Hosta , how big it is and glowing Silvery- blue in the shade of the watershed.
I'm kinda surprised in this picture , that it dosen't look boggy, but shortly after I took it, the waster started to seep, making walking across it dangerous. I guess it just took clearing some of the weeds away....

Chloe dog investigating  something!!! in the background.

pulling, cutting, pulling cutting.

Now it sits, at least you can see a little of the water, the birds can come and kinda splash in the pool near the water shed. No more close in encounters with the unknown sort that leap                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ap,run, slither though the bushiest of it all and make you yelp, when they move, .Yes, that may be what prompted me to do something about it in the first place.

my babies, blooming so pretty.

the Hosta, before it took off ...

a new color  this yaer, though it looks orange, it was really a soft salmon color.

The iris were absolutly gorgeous this year, so many pretty colors, the first time to bloom for some of them. ( these pics were taken in late April, when they bloomed and before it became so over grown you want to cry>)

We havn't finished it yet... i would like to lay down weed guard, then maybe river rocks on top of that. They say Johnson grass can go dormant for up to twenty five years, and the pig-weed, well it is just plumb aggresive. I don't know if cleaning it out will help will help in the long run, but one thing I do know is that I won't be doing it  mid day in July/ August. Maybe wait until the evenings are a cool 70... if thats possible. And before the seeds start to come on.
-TNfrmgrl
 Oh yaeah .. look for the  next post about our door we found, it was written up in the Hartsville Vidette paper this week. Interesting story. More about that later.