Here is an image of the bog area and water fall with its new plantings. You can see the planting bed to the left of the bog too. Its plants are fairly well established now. You can see the Japanese maple is leafing out nicely and the hemlocks have grown quite a bit and are progressing nicely. the azaleas surrond the bog but are not flowering at this time and have needed quite a bit of watering to keep them looking healthy. I did add some mulch around the bog to help hold in moisture.
In the bog the Irises are doing extremly well as is the grassy plants in front. The horsetails and mini cat tails seem to be lagging in the back. Parrots feather is beginning to spread after only a week in the bog. I repositioned the front stone to better part the water over the falls. It has some nice moss growing on it.
UPDATE: I will be removing the bog gravel and reshaping it to be more of a veggie filter without a rock bottom. I have concerns that the bog will not filter my water as much as I had hoped, and that the rocks will actually harbor harmful bacteria. After a great deal more reading and talking with long time pond and fish keepers, I learned the gravel bog on this size pond is more trouble than beneficial. Bogs do have a place in watergardens and larger bodies of water.
