Hi Everyone!
I am new here and I look forward to learning from all of you. I live in Fort Worth and I am turning my backyard into a garden, except for a place where my papillons to do their business. My boyfriend and I are going to build a pond with a waterfall. My question is, is there any plant fish WONT eat? We are facing the fish or foliage delima. I know the pond has to be pretty deep here in TX to keep fish from burning up. Any help would be appreciated.
New Here
Welcome to the forum. Wish I could help out more with your question, but no experience with aquariums or water features. Fake plastic plants won't get eaten, but I don't know how healthy that would be for the fish.
There is also a water gardening forum here at Dave's.
Link here
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/water/all/
Thanks so much! Ijust posted in the water gerdens forum also. Didn't think of that!
You need Shelia... she will be here soon I would bet. I have two small ponds and they both have goldfish so no worries really... (and loads of skeeters to eat too).
Good to have you on here.
Mitch
I have two little ponds with gold fish and tadpoles and plants... they eat the algea and the mosquito larvae... one also has turtles.
If you put enough plants in , they can't eat them all hahaha...
seriously anarcharis is great, it grows faster then they can eat it...they really don't mess with the others i have
We have gold fish and mosquito fish and they don't eat plants at all. The plant eaters are the koi. If you have those they will eat plants. And the ones they don't eat they will just torment.:) They will need deeper water too, and places to hide from the heat. Our pond is about 13 inches deep and the fish seem very happy. We have cannas, La iris, yellow buttercup and some water lilies and a few other underwater plants that I can't remember the name of.
Welcome to Dave's Garden.!!
Hello Bluesmaven,
Mitch said I would be along, just takes me a while. I got lost looking at your fav. website btw, interesting!
It is late now so I won't get into too much right now, but I would like to talk in length about ponding in our area. I can recommend a great place for pond equipment and also rock, soil, landscaping stones, etc. It is in East Fort Worth at Wilbarger and loop 820. They exibit at the Fort Worth Home Show and Home and Garden Shows. They have ponds that are on site and running for years now.
My DH and I built our pond using their Aquascape biofalls system, but then I have had two back surgeries this last year, and he is having therapy on his now. It keeps the water very clear. Here is a pic of our pond at it's best in 2004, before our health issues began.
That's beautiful Sheila. Wish I could see it in person.
Bluesmaven, have you thought about joining any pond clubs? There's bound to be one in your area. We haven't had time to do that, but I know people who have joined such groups, and they are very glad they did. In San Antonio and Austin, they have pond tours. The members go to each others houses and learn alot.
Is it possible to plant in pots, then cover the top of the pot with some fish impenetrable barrier or screen, then bury the pot and plant in the pond?
I guess it depends on what kind of fish you mean. Koi are very strong and determined and get to be quite large. But that's why we don't have them. We have river rock on top of some of our plants, but our fish don't bother any of the plants.
Thanks Sheila, what is the name of the pond place? I'd love to go there. My boyfriend wants to build a waterfall that drops into a stream that flows into a pond. It gets more elaborate the more he thinks of it. LOL.
My before picture of the backyard is truly frightening. The yard looks like something out of Lost World or something. I'm a widow, my husband died a little after a year ago and I just let everything go. The flowers in the front yard all died so did all the houseplants, I died to a certain extent but my new boyfriend came into my life and revived me. Here is my before photo.
I'd like to join a pond club. That'd surely help. I'll have to join one.
Oh, my yard is a lot bigger then what is shown in that before photo but it all looked like that when I started. I have 181 plants on order and I have an appt with a treetrimmer so I don't want to plant anymore until he's finished. Here is a photo of the little I have done so far, cannas, purple millet, foxglove, mexican petunia, spider lilly and bottle brush. I haven't figured out where to put the pond yet. I heard that in TX the pond has to be at least 5' deep if you have fish, is that right?
really? Both of my ponds are granted small but they are 2 foot deep...
but all I have is goldfish.
You only need it that deep if you have koi, because they will get too hot otherwise.
You will need to decide where to put the pond so that the fish have some afternoon sun or provide a deep shaded area in the pond for them. If I was to do it over, our 24-26" would be 3 foot deep all over. Herons land on the edge and walk into the water! They don't care how much you pay for the fish either. Also don't put it too close to trees like pecan, oak, etc. that drop everything in them!!! We made that mistake with the oak and then one we did have under a pecan. We cut the pecan down, but later took out that pond (so plan ahead)! Our area as I said is near a storm drain for the neighborhood and when it gets full the water has no where to go. But it also had a river of sorts between houses and it would jump the retaining wall and into the area around the pond stirring up sand and gravel and carring with it dirt and grass/weed seeds. It made a mess. So get your drainage problems, if any solved first.
Fish can be purchased @ super prices at a little place in Haltom City called Keller Farms. It is a old house that has loads of aquatic life in every corner and fish tanks outside too. As for the plants and koi problems. I have noticed that if you use the plastic pots and soil for aquatic planting then weight them with larger rocks on top, they usually won't harm the plant. But they turn them over a lot while spawning. I bought water lillies and they immediately uprooted them. So I took some of the large baskets and used the aquatic soil, but sewed the 3/4" poly netting over the top. The plants still put out their foliage and were protected from the large fish. The smaller fish didn't cause damage because they were too busy trying to say out of the way of the bigger fish. Hope you will dmail me and maybe you can come by and see the set up sometime. It has been in place since 2003, and still running the same pump.
Saturday my boyfriend and I went to Whiz-Q's that place on Wilbarger @ 820. That was awesome! I love their ponds! I'll check out Keller Farms next weekend.
Sunday my boyfriend, David, and I went 'poaching'. For years David has driven past this old abandoned house that had lots of Cannas growing there. We hid the car and dug the cannas up and transplanted them in my garden. There were about 20 of them all bunched up along the back corner of the house. Some had grown up through the concrete cracks and a lot of them had glass because all the windows had been busted in that house. The house was pretty well hidden behind a bunch of apple trees and a lot of baby apple trees were coming up. This house had been abandoned for over three years. It's amazing anything was still alive.
Keep watching that yard, a lot of jewels have been saved from such places.
Blues,
I have cannas if you would like some more. What color are the ones you rescued??
Mitch, like all crooks, we are going to return to the scene of the crime. I want to get some Iris and my mom wants to get some baby apple trees. LOL
Sheila, I would love some more Cannas! There was only one plant with a bloom and it was orange and yellow.
I have done some rustling in my day - once bit by the bug you are going to be looking all over the place...
Just tried to check Keller Farms on the net. Memo that they changed ownership and went up on their prices. Dated May 3, 2007
I, too , am interested in pond plants. Going to Whiz-Q today. Thanks for the information.