Kristy - looks great! The kids must be excited!
Linda - your stream and pond look great too! Keeping my fingers crossed the problems are behind you and this summer is one of enjoying your pond.
Kristy - you can buy different types of fertilizers - there are once monthly tabs and year long fertilizer spikes - which ever you prefer.
I have always split up my water iris in early spring. I think I am going to start waiting until after they flower. I was reading somewhere where somebody removes 60% of their water iris after they flower every year because they are so prolific. Sounded like a good idea to me - but I am no expert either - for some reason my water iris have not flowered in the past 2 years. I am going to fertilize them and hope that takes care of it and that I have beautiful flowers this year. A couple of years ago, we bought water iris of every color imaginable and have yet to see them.
New koi ponds ... advice for setup
I already split mine up about a month ago and added the fert and everything. I don't have a ton of them but just wanted them more spread out in the pond and wanted the container I had them in for my TWL plants. Don't bother with that "planting media". I bought it last year and my plants in the cat litter actually fared a little bit better as they really could root themselves down deep. That gravelly media is a BIT__ to clean up if it spills in your pond and that has happened to me more than once. I tend to be a little on the wild side with most of my plants. I pot them up and then literally "throw" the pot into the pond and let it settle where it falls. When I fertilize them I climb in and take all the plants out and clean them up and fert them and again throw them into the pond. Sometimes I readjust their position but I'm usually okay with the end results. I figure with Mother Nature being the way it is my throwing of planted pots into the pond isn't a big deal. I won't be doing that with the lotus' because I know that they are very fragile.
ok, not being picky here, but is there a way to cover the black liner at the top of the rocks??
I don't know.... it kinda bothers me. Lord knows I should NOT be complaining, & I'm really not, just wondering if I can 'hide' it some?
love moss but don't know if that will grow on plastic or if it's even a good idea.
You should be able to cover the top with rocks, but since it is above ground it will be harder than if it was just flush with the ground.
Can you build an earth berm with a flat top up to the edge? Then you could place flat rocks on the earth berm that overhang the liner edges. You would have to be careful that the earth took most of the weight of the rocks.
It is easier with a lined pond to disguise the edge. In my case it took a lot of flagstone. We layed the liner out flat on the ground all around the egde in a three foot width. Then we placed a row of flat rock on top of the liner right at the egde all the way round. Next we folded the liner back over the rock for a sort of liner, rock, liner sandwich. Then you put another row of rock on top of the folded liner. This row of rock overhangs the rock - liner - rock sandwich. The liner dissappears from sight on the inside edge of the pond. Plus the rock - liner - rock sandwich keeps ground runoff out of the pond. Behind the sandwich you need additional earth topped with rock to disguise the back of the sandwich. (The basic sequence is dirt edge, liner layed over the dirt edge, a row of rock layed on the liner, then the liner foldback over and covering the rock, and then over hanging rock on top of the folded liner.) Once it's done you have no visible liner issues as long as the pond is full. We also kept the rock ever so slightly slanted back away from the pond to keep excessive runoff from draining into the pond. It takes a lot of rock and works best with flat flagstone. I wouldn't try it with river rock.
This message was edited Apr 3, 2009 6:59 PM
Snapple, that is pure genius!!!! I was fretting about how to keep runoff out!
Just remember to save some dirt to berm up behind and slope slightly back away from the pond. Make it the good stuff if you're going to plant there.
thanks, I will have to try that.
Seems like it would be much easier with the 'flexible' liner than with the one I have but we can always try.
I am trying to price more stone. MIL needs a lot and I still need quite a bit to finish this off. I don't think we have enough for 2 ponds at this point.
Racing: I reread your post about shopping for the pond and noticed you purchased pond salt. Save yourself a lot of money in the future by buying the salt used for septic systems. Buy one that is 99.8% or higher in purity. Menard's has it and it is the cheapest. Just another handy tip.
Salt for septic systems? Never heard of using salt in a septic system. Are you thinking of a water softener system?
I always use pickling salt. It has no iodine and it's cheap!
The jumbo bags of salt for your water softener ( I think 50lbs) at WalMart is only $4.
Ah Ha! That's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying "pond salt" from the pond store.
ok, yea, this salt I bought was not cheap. I think like 15 bucks for a container.
So this is all the same stuff?
NaCl is NaCl! You just have to be careful it contains no additives. Idodized table salt contains iodine - that's a No No. Kosher pickling salt contains no additives. It's OK to use ( and in fact I use Kosher salt for cooking because it does not impart a bitter taste to the food). Plain table salt with no iodine isn't safe either. It contains an additive that keeps it flowing. So long as the salt is just salt you're good.