Water Gardening: can I put soil in the pond over my liner? , 0 by Carolyn22

Carolyn22 wrote:
Frilly

I would be worried about the soil getting into my filters and causing problems if the lilies were planted directly into the pond. The other worry that I would have is the waterlilies would take over the bottom of your pond. I have heard where people use the plastic dish tubs and only divide their lilies every 3 years or so. Personally I like to divide my waterlilies every other year.

Waterlilies are heavy feeders. You could get into your pond to fertilize your waterlilies. I know some people fertilize their waterlilies every month - that is too much for me, so I use the year long waterlily fertilizer spikes.

My waterlilies are planted in pea gravel with egg rock on top. My koi cannot lift the egg rock off the top, so the pea gravel in the bottom of the pond is minimal. Also, my understanding is the koi are after the clay like soils that are often used to plant the waterlilies and not so much after the lilies themselves. I have had plants though that they do like to eat and I stay away from those unless I put it there specifically for the koi.

Wondering if perhaps you have a brother or a nice strong son that could help you lift out the waterlilies if you do not want to get into the water. The set up we have is with bell wire threaded through the top of each pot for a 'handle' and then on the end of a long pole, there is a hook and that is used to lift the pots out of the water. This is done twice a year as we vacuum both in the Spring with start up and in the Fall with shut down.