I have been carefully selection less precious to me perennials to move away from my pond so I can add in more tropicals. I guess it will be a bit naked in the winter, but that is okay if it rocks in the summer! LOL Anyway, as I make room for more canna, brugs, ears, etc., I have been moving some things to other beds/areas-like grasses, phlox, various daisies, etc. So now I sit here wondering what the rest of you do and don't like by the pond? I tend to keep all my cool colored flowers in the front yard, mixed with yellow and all my hot colored flowers in the back, including yellow. It makes for something different to see.
What is planted BY your water garden?
As you have see in my pics from before (I won't bore you with those again) I have both tall and short plants. Tall grasses behind the waterfall, hosta, and ribbon grass. Then in the "front" area I have creeping jenny, and Stella 'oDoro (sp) daylilies. The only reason I have the tall plantings around the "back" area is because of children in the neighborhood. I have a fear of either a child or a critter getting into or falling into the pond. The shorter plantings in the "front" are for maintenance purposes. If I didn't have the concerns of children or critters I'd have the shorter plantings all around. It would make maintenance much easier on my tired old bod..
'chele, I've struggled to come up with something to go around our pond, as there is only a narrow strip of "soil" (I use that term loosely) between the rocks edging the pond and a rock/gravel path I built. Finally this spring I transplanted gooseneck loosestrife all the way around. Now before anybody screams to kill it now!!!! I don't think it will be a problem in this area, as the soil is lousy, hardpacked clay. Since the pond is lined, there is very little moisture in this soil, other than what we get in the form of rain.
I added NO amendments when I planted it, just scraped out enough dirt to plunk the roots down and covered them back up. (Did I mention the soil is also webbed with feeder roots from a nearby silver maple tree?) So the Lysimachia is really going to fight to survive. So far, so good - it only got about a foot tall this year, and bloomed nicely but not lushly.
I may still regret my choice, but nothing else worked - I first thought ferns and impatiens would be purty, but they got fried and dried in a hurry. I then tried another Lysimachia, creeping Jenny, but it wasn't able to establish itself in this soil, if that tells you anything about the harsh conditions. So, we'll see what next spring brings...
The front of my pond is along the patio, with only a narrow strip of terrible soil separating the two. That area is planted with English ivy, which tolerates being walked on. The inner ring immediately surrounding the pond has mid-height grasses on the left and hosta plantaginea (3 large ones) on the right. The waterfall is in the middle. Behind these plants is another ring of stacked stone "wall" and behind the wall is a larger ring of garden. The left side has a large variegated hosta, sedum "Autumn Joy", white astilbe, a butterfly bush, azaleas, Japanese anemone, and a "The Rocket" ligularia. Stone steps go down the center, and on the right side is a Japanese maple underplanted with bleeding heart "Luxuriant", another azalea, ferns, lady's mantle, and another ligularia. There is a large clump of purple spiderwort that hangs over the waterfall area, and chartreuse creeping jenny around the steps. The outer left fringe has lady's mantle and silver/red heuchera; the outer right fringe has blue corydalis and the same heuchera. It sounds like a lot of plants when I write it down, but it's mostly dominated by foliage, except in the spring when the azaleas, tulips and daffodils are blooming. The rest of the year, the flowers are intermittent, and none of them are show-stoppers. As you can tell, the area is shady a lot of the day. There is morning sun only.
vic
Jul 12, 2003
Mine has a lot of shade too. There are two pin oak trees on either side of the spillway. This whole area is English ivy and I have hostas and impatience planted in there too in no particular order. I would like to have more color and I try something new each year but so far, only the impatience seem to survive as well as the hostas. It's tricky bc for about 3 hours half of it is intense sun and the rest of the day it's all in shade. I'm thinking of trying caladiums next year. I grew caladiums a couple years ago in pots and they did wonderful but I wasn't able to save the tubers, roots, or whatever. So that means I'll have to pot them up and treat them as a houseplant in the winter and then we get into that space issue *sigh*...
I try for height in the back behind the fall on the berm----pampis grass, yucka, wisteria, iris, cannas and then they taper down into hosta,and caladium.
this is our first and front pond last year. this year I have brugs on the front left with cannas underneath and black ee's on the right on the outsides of those nice big sitting rocks. We love this one the most, the junipers don't ever die down so it's nice looking all year.
Oh, tiG, I LOVE your pond! I'm thinking I need another one...if only I could keep up with teh one I have. I made the mistake of putting a mint in there and end up yanking it out of the skimmer, the surrounding garden, from on top of my lilies, etc. It looks so nice over the rocks of the waterfall, but...(sigh) live and learn.
We have rocks behind one pond and around the one corner pond we have Lysimachia ciliata (Fringed Loosestrife), Ostrich Ferns, Plume Poppy and Ligularia in back.
Around the sides and front, Creeping Jenny and Thymes.
The other corner pond is backed w/ a 6' fence and Variagated Porcelian Berry.
Ric
My pond is in full sun all the time. To the left as you look at the pool is the berm with mostly evergreens made with soil excavated from pool. At the back is the small pool deck and grape trellis. There is mostly different kinds of thyme in front. Clematis The President is on the left growing up and mingling with the grape, on the right is another clematis , a small flowered one that i don't remember the name of right now. Actually there are two pools with a bridge over the tiny stream going from highest pool (only about 6 or so inches higher) to the larger lower one. Right now my water is beautifully clear and the fish think every time they see me I should feed them. Donna
I planted everything I could find, next year I will thin it out I imagine. I have 2 kinds of bananas, 6 kinds of ees, some big some small, a bushy croton, coleus, heliconia, copper plants, brugs, lemon grass, pampas grass, cape honeycuckle and a few I don't remember the names. Mine is the jungle type, goes with the yard! lol
We have Cannas, Calas, dif kinds of moss "wild"...Some wild type fern...a Boston Fern,Wild grass...."found it at the creek"...Some sort of Ginger Lily?...Maiden Hair fern,Reeds, some sort of fungus......Hyacinth Bean Vine, Black Eyed Susan Vine, Morning Glory, Four O` Clocks..a Pink Rose of some sort..a Cherokee Rose....and alot of other stuff my grandmother gave me...The "pond" is only about Fifty Gallons!! LOL... Oh yeah and a minnow, hehehe.~tsavo.
I am really enjoying reading about other ponds and plants around them. These replies have given me some ideas about things I can add. I'm not happy with how mine looks, but I do have a nice plant selection. LOL This is how one end of my pond looks today. Most of the pond is actually off to the right. Can you actually see the pond?? LOL
NIce view 'chele!
But what an odd place to put a chair. lol
BTW: All the plants and cuttings are doing great.
Ric
LOL Hey Ric! A chair?? I did have pond side bathtub seating about 2 minutes before you arrived! LOL After you left, I went in to find a basement full of smoke. The kids put like 15 pairs of jeans in the washer, locked up the motor and burned up something in it. Oh well, after 13 years I finally got a new washer and dryer. That is why you didn't see me Tuesday night. We'll try for next week if you'll be around. :) Glad your plants are doing well!
ROTFL!!!
SORRY!!!!
Well I guess that's one way to get out of doing the laundry!
I was speaking of the pool brace.
Ric
You smarty pants! LOL Yeah I got out of doing the laundry for about a day and a half. Wanna know how far in the weeds I was?? Now Morganne is so enthralled with the new set up, she wants to wash everything. That would be okay, but guess who has to fold it??? LOL It is nice to have a washer that does not leak and a dryer that dries in the first cycle! LOL Hey, if these storms keep up, I may have a whole patio set on the side of the pool!!!
So waht did you plant in the old washer and dryer?
I assume they are on the front porch? LOL
Ric
ROTFLOL Honestly Craig wanted to put them on the porch and send a picture to a friend of ours. LOL We had Lowe's haul them away.
Tell him I think that would have been GREAT.
All the urchins sitten' around.
Dogs asleep in front!
Priceless!!!
Ric