There are areas of my yard that don't get to view my small pond, so I've started smaller water planters for those areas. If you don't have room for a pond at all, you can still grow smaller lotus, waterlilies, and have a few fish.
This was a firepit I bought at Olde Tyme Pottery, for $39....the plants are just starting to break dormancy and throw out a few leaves again. The fish made it through the winter, so I'm looking forward to being back in business again!
MerryMary
Once I finish painting these the same color as the deck, it will all blend in. The plants in these are the dark purple colocasia elephant ears, variegated iris, and arrowhead. Trying to add a few small lotus to them as well. Once it all greens up again, you won't see the blue rim of the tub. These are the normal HD plastic tubs they sell for around $6. The 2x12's around them, hide the rest of the tub.
I also have something similar. My neighbor brought home some 50 gal. plastice barrels (held pickles). My husband cut them in half for me. They sit around the edge of my big pond and hold my lotus (I was told that the lotus roots might grow through the pond liner). I also have some other invasive water plants in the others. Works great. Until I got my big pond, I had them sitting on our deck. The color of mine are black, but once all the plants get going you never see the "pot".
I will watch this thread with interest, as I don't have room for a pond, but would love to grow a lotus and encourage dragonflies and other water critters. I have a black plastic tub that is meant to be covered with a screen or something, then pebbles, and used to catch and re-circulate water through a fountain or something. It's sitting on the ground, I've tried to cover it with potted plants, and I bought a Water Mosaic plant last Aug for it. Loved the plant, but over the winter some stringy, seaweed-type algae took over. I don't know if the plant is still alive, but the tub is filled with that stuff! I sank some barley straw to keep the green algae out, and that worked fine. It's this other stuff I don't know how to handle.
And where do you get lotuses? Water gardening places here can't sell them. :-(
I order lotuses off Ebay, to try and get a better price...the seeds are cheap, but a little tricky....
String algae is a pain....use peroxide, yep the normal kind from the grocery store medical aisle...to get rid of it....just pour it in the water....If you can encourage tadpoles during the summer to join your plants, they really keep the algae down to a minumum.
How much peroxide? My tub is an oval, approx 36" x 24" x 12". I had lots of tadpoles last summer, but they just disappeared. Can't imagine what happened to them, as I refused to put bleach or anything into the tub for the algae. I did have a small pump and a small water feature that just kind of dribbled water into the tub.
Mary, LOL!
Those tadpoles surely didn't disappear. I would bet they grew legs and started crawling on the sides of your pond and plants and eventually out of it. They will keep you awake croaking this summer, trust me!!
We'll see. I sure looked for them to start growing legs, never saw them get past that stage. I have a piece of petrified wood in there to serve as an on/off ramp for critters to get in and out. I rescued a toad last year that looked like it was about to drown, just floating and all bloated.
I love my tadpoles! I consider myself a tadpole farmer during the summer (don't even know if there is such a thing but.....?) I have plenty of frogs croaking all night long, but also have very few bugs/mosquitos, so it's a happy trade!
Unfortunately, as some start to climb ip the water plants with 4 legs and a tail, my little anole yard lizards pick them off one by one! I know enough survive though and move on....
:)
MerryMary
Hi MerryMary,
I, too, am a tadpole farmer from February through roughly early August! I am a little late raking the string algae out this year, so now I am worried about disturbing eggs. I heard the first chorus frog yesterday morning. Soon they will be bringing their friends, cousins, extended family and the sound will be deafening! I love it though, and out here in the woods, it's really like music. I love it in the summer when the stars are out and the frogs are singing.
What kind of frogs show up at your pond in Florida? Do you have any photos of them?
-G
galega.....I'll look to see if I have tadpole pics....I listed them somewhere, but I can't remember where....I grow a great many things in just water, and a few tadpoles added, and that's it....
I'm in a subdivision, with a privacy fence around my yard. I have added tons of tropicals and 2 koi ponds, as well as water tub gardens. My tadpoles ( toads, gray treefrogs, and cuban treefrogs) are everywhere from April on. I had a large group this past month, that had survived from the late summer, and then all died when we had a night that turned out to be around 31 degrees. I had scooped them out of the tubbie water garden, and brought them inside for a few nights, but then put them back outside one night too early. I was very sad! So, I'll wait for this spring to start from scratch...The cuban tree frogs are not indigenous to the states, so no one really wants them, and they eat the other frogs, but you also can't seem to get rid of them either. I'm actually bidding on some green treefrog tadpoles on ebay!
I love the smaller water gardens, even though they are a smaller size, they have so much going on!
MerryMary
