Water Gardening: pond dirt! (what do i use), 1 by Oberon46

Oberon46 wrote:
I got some dirt and paid a fortune to have it shipped from Dr Smith and Foster. It was their sure fire for pond type dirt. What a gosh awful mess. It floated all over the pond. I suspect now that it needed to be watered down first, but still had a lot of organics in it. Now I just dig in my yard for the heavy dirt, plant the tubers, put pea gravel over the top and just sink in the pond enough to start wetting it down. Oh, I line the baskets with newspaper per Texas Water Lily's advice. When they are good and wet, I sink the pots. I don't let them grow in the pond as I have to vacuum it (two inch rock with a liner) and no bottom drain to get the detritus out. Also I sink mine in the deep end over the winter (4'). Seems to work. I get a few flowers but our growing season is very short and not all that warm. But they do make lots of lily pads for the fish to hide under.