Question
I live in No.Virginia and had a carnivorous plant garden several years ago that looked great the first year but diminished shortly there after.  Also, the animals particularly squirrels loved to dig in this bed.  So, I have been thinking of creating the same/similar garden in a large plastic tub that I could site in the right place during the growing season but remove and secure starting late November through February.  Does this seem reasonable??  Thanks  Anne

Answer
Hi Anne,

Yes, it's perfectly OK to create container bog gardens.  We actually keep all of our Sarracenia in containers.  (I'm assuming you're growing Sarracenia and other US-native carnivorous plants.)  

I'm curious about what you've said in that your plants "diminished shortly thereafter."  You didn't indicate how you constructed your garden, the type of soil you're using, the type of sunlight the plant gets or how you cared for them during the winter.  If the idea is to protect the plants from squirrels, then trasplanting the plants to containers is a very reasonable solution.  If, however, the idea is that you think the plants would grow better in containers, then we should examine your growing conditions more closely.  Since you didn't mention your growing conditions or the type of plants you're growing, I can't really comment on this issue.

In any case, we're big fans of container gardening.  I simply don't get along with shovels.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin