I would like your input for how "you do" your water plants. Do you line your containers with burlap or anything? What kind of soil do you use? Does it ever leak out into your pond and make it cloudy? Do you put rocks or pebbles on top of your container plants to keep fish and frogs from rooting in the soil?
Sometimes I line my pots and sometimes I don't
I use clay (hard to find here) in the bottom of the pot, then kitty litter, and then top off with about 2" stones
I have had the water cloud up from the soil...doesn't stay cloudy though but sometimes the fish kick the rocks out (not sure how since they have no legs) and the rocks do go to the bottom of the pond
I appreciate your input. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing it all wrong...Thanks for your input
water plant ?'s
It sounds like you are doing good!
I dig up yard soil. It's sort of a loamy clay. It sticks together pretty well when wet. I line a pot with brown paper so the soil doesn't escape the holes on the bottom, add the plant and put rocks on top. I soak it in a bucket to get it good and wet before putting it in the pond. This helps keep the clouding at bay. If you lower the pot slowly into the pond, a minimal amount of soil will float out, usually not enough to make a difference.
This message was edited Sunday, Mar 16th 9:19 PM
Sheesh, Branka...we must be sending signals over the satellites or something LOL....I was just reading/studying/memorizing your info on lotus. I "think" I'm ready for it's arrival this coming week. Thanks for your response. Sometimes I think I'm doing overkill on the water plants but sounds like I'm heading in the right direction. I do spray them down first and even sit them in a galvanized tub of water for awhile before I lower them in the pond. It does help with the cloudiness. I did 35 pots today and my plant shelf is full and done. I'm going to do the water lilies tomorrow. Thanks again for your response.
You will love the lotus, Vic. We had our first nice day of the year yesterday, so I cleaned the mulch off of mine and teepeed plastic over them like a mini greenhouse. If I'm lucky it will speed things up a bit.
You sure have a lot of marginals potted up! Is it 35 different varieties? They will look beautiful in your pond, the more the better :).
I just have a few on the shelves of my perform and I've bogged the rest for safe keeping ;). My liner pond doesn't have shelves, but we made a 9 x 12 foot rock lined veggie bog to filter it last fall. It will be filled with marginals, I can't wait.
Vic where in zone 7a are you. I am in Kingston Ok. Got plenty of clay here. Dug a pond yesterday and need all the help in building it. Thanks for your info on this thread. Am posting pictures as I go along.
Vic, Go to your local pond store and get aquasoil. It's a ceramic material,doesn't cloud the water and lasts for years. yOU CAN REUSE IT .fINE ENOUGH TO FILL IN AROUND LILIES ETC, BUT NO MESS IN THE POND. yES IT IS A LITTLE EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH THE COST IN THAT YOU HAVE NO MESS .
tHIS STUFF IS GREAT. aNNABELLE15
I live way out in the country, no pond store closer than 130 miles and I'm not sure they would have heard of aquasoil. I hadn't. I do mostly as Branka says, but I just use newspaper, haven't seen any ill effects in 7 years. I use Turkey grit that I get at the feed store on top of the soil in the pots. I do buy fertilizer pellets and also the granular. I put a couple of pellets near the bottom of my pots and mix the granular in with common garden soil, no manure, and no peatmoss. Donna