Water Gardening: does anyone use aquatic plant fertilizer?, 1 by darlindeb

darlindeb wrote:
The above picture is a school pond where I volunteer to help with their plants. It has an upper and lower pond with a walkway between the two. The pond is in the center of an enclosed school courtyard. The size is approximately 25X35 and very shallow. The orginal plan was to put the pond in the ground; however, when the volunteers started to dig down there was an old street directly under a few inches of soil. Still determined to get their pond, rock was brought in and the area was built up. The resulting rim of rock makes a nice place to sit. The kids have used it for science projects, math and the kindergarten teacher had her kids pretend to be newspaper reporters and write an article about the pond. The pond was built with grants and volunteers.
I had most of the plants donated. I'm now trying to replace the unnamed water lilies with named varieties. When I divide the plants
the extras are brought to the local water garden society swap meet, given to those who help me or traded through dave's for plants I'm looking for.

My project for next year is to have an area of the pond where we grow things you can eat. For example: 'Water Chestnuts,' 'Aquatic Mint, 'Water Celery,' and maybe a few others.

I also have a small water garden at home about a 1,000 gallons; however, I'd like to rework it because it is cement and the waterfall isn't as "gorgeous" as I need it to be. I also have a bunch of patio ponds where I play with plants. I think all the frogs have moved to my house and that might be causing the frog shortage. LOL