Creating a Garden Pot Bog for your pond

It's important for a balanced pond to have both biological and mechanical filtration. This garden pot bog filter will add biological filtration as well as beauty to your pond. The gravel in the pot is the perfect medium for beneficial bacteria to grow, the pump creates oxygen that is needed for both bacteria growth and the fish and the plants help filter out ammonia, nitrites & nitrates.


What you need:

• One ordinary garden pot of your choice, terra cotta, glazed ceramic, doesn't matter (the size depends on the size of your pond)
• 1/2" or 3/4" flex hose * (depends on the size hole in the bottom of your pot)
• small bag of pea gravel
• small pond pump (200-300gph) *
• aquatic plants

What to do:

• choose your pot
• run the flex hose through the hole in the pot. The hose should come almost to the surface of the pot and long enough to connect to your pump which will be placed outside the pot.
• Place the pot in the pond be sure to make sure that it is not too close to an edge where the water will flow out and keep it at least 1/2 out of the water. (You may need a couple of bricks or blocks if your pond is deep)
• fill the pot with gravel keeping the hose straight in the center
• Add your favorite bog plants. (I like to use three different plants; one in the center for height like Mini payprus or Horsetail, one for fill like Star grass, Fiber optic plant or Iris & one for spill like Creeping Jenny, Mint or Lavendar lace)
• Hook the pump to the hose, plug in and enjoy.

* Don't have a pond? this makes a great pondless water feature. All you need is a disappearing basin buried in the ground, place the garden pot bog on top, cover the basin with gravel and you have a water feature.