my friends.. in horrible OH clay ... built a RAISED bed above ...

i dont know about the bog ???'s .. but if i were the owner.. i wouldnt want you building a bog on the foundation of the house ...

ken

I agree with Ken, I would NOT make a bog garden next to the house, A true/proper bog garden would need more than a channel that holds water. Fill it back in and then make a raised bed. IMO it's the best way to handle poor soil if you can't/won't amend it.

Hmmm... well, the house is pretty much in a bog to begin with. We already have water issues! The bed is so tiny, and not touching the house, I doubt it would cause structural problems. It was an ill-conceived idea, though. Debhawks, do you think amending the soil would do anything? My original plan was to fill it with bagged topsoil and compost, but when I saw that the water was staying in the hole I decided to hold off on buying that stuff.

Depends on how clay your soil really is. Amending always helps improve the soil. You could try some sphagnum peat moss, sand, gravel, etc. Work it in good and don't skimp on the peat.

These will help make it more workable, and drain better.

If you already have water issues, you def want anything close to the house to drain and not hold water.

Thanks for the answers. It's sounding like I dug a big fat hole for nothing! I guess I should fill it in and do containers instead - I have a feeling a raised bed would just be an invitation for my 2-yr-old to climb in!

Even a slightly raised mound would help plants survive. Plus the mounded bed isn't easy to walk into & will discourage your toddler from walking up. Adding a lot of compost at first will be higher, but it shrinks and is only a slight mound by the next year.

You could also plant densely & put up one of those scalloped green wire edgings sold on a roll. I used them to keep our puppy out a few years ago in a new garden. I sometimes put them back up in early spring before the hosta are up then remove before the leaves touch it. We created wood chip paths & he knows the difference between garden & path, so just runs along that. I am guessing before the path he wasn't sure the difference between garden and where it was okay to step.

Nowadays our dog knows the command, "Out". Your child will also learn how to keep you happy by staying out. Don't you think?

The gravel around the house is very likely there for a purpose......like directing water away from the foundation or otherwise helping with drainage around the foundation. I'd replace it ASAP.

I'd do containers or a bermed (mounded) planting area, bringing in some decent soil you style into a lose, raised planting area. You only need a maximum height of about 12 inches to accommodate most perennials and a fair number of smaller shrubs. And a mounded planting area nearly always offers good drainage, just by virtue of soil physics.

Yes, I'd put what I dug out back into the hole, then use raised beds and containers.

Clay soil can be improved over time with organic amendments, but the worst clays (like the black gumbo Houston-area gardeners are afflicted with) are resistant to solutions other than raised bed/container gardening, especially if you don't have years to dedicate to soil improvement.

You don't need a box type raised bed, just a raised mound with some type of edging. I did it over packed hard clay works great.

I live in heavy clay soil Kansas and was told when I first started gardening not to add gravel or sand to the soil. That would cause the soil to cement. What you want to do is amend the soil with compost, peat, perlite and top soil. You need to work it in to the original soil. Also, twice a year I use Earthright soil conditioner which I highly recommend.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. I filled the hole in with compost and bagged topsoil, since my husband had already spread the gravelly clay that we dug out in various places in the yard. I'll take your advice and pile it up high with bagged garden soil and compost before planting. At least it's a pretty tiny area and not right up against the house, so it's not going to cause our house to collapse ... I hope. Has anybody ever used a product called Claybuster? They sell it at the garden centers around here. I haven't tried it - supposedly it contains gypsum, which breaks up the clay.

I'm new to all of this gardening stuff but... put the gravel back ASAP. Don't mess with it particularly because its so close to the house. If one day the owner came by and saw it and down the road there was a problem with the foundation in ANY way, they could easily say it was never there until you made your garden. The likelihood of whether ANY of that could happen is irrelevant... don't put yourself in the position to have to be on the defense.

Walmart has HUGE plastic planters (24" dia, 2.5' high or so) link is below. I have two in red (they have red, tan and green) with annuals and perennials and I love them. I filled the bottom with rubber mulch so I wouldn't have to fill them all with dirt and keep them light (drilled holes, too). They're perfect for me this year - new house with lots of garden maintenance but 3 dogs...

Here is a link that might be useful: walmart planter