Beyond Hyacynth

[rubyduby]

I am trying to add more plants to my lined 19,000 gallon pond. I just bought the house with the pond ten months ago so this is the first time I have had the pond in early spring. When I moved in last June the pond had one group of water lilies (about six pads) and some tall skinny stemmed plant with heart shaped leaves... That's all. It is in full sun most of the day so I planted six more water lily plants. They all came up this month but I can see I need a lot more plants to shade the 600 square feet and to help clarify the water for my koi....

I have just ordered four more lilies and 12 water hyacynths. I made a ring with mesh bottom for the hyacynths because I heard from group members that the koi will decimate them...

Can anyone suggest other plants that might do well with koi? My pond is about 3 1/2 ft deep in the middle and has sloped sides .
I have two waterfalls with rocks cascading into the pond with two skimmers and two aerators.

 

[Lisak1]

Post some pictures and we can help with plant suggestions and locations!

Lilies are beautiful and good for shade, but they don't do much to help with algae in my experience.

 

[rubyduby]

Post some pictures and we can help with plant suggestions and locations!

Lilies are beautiful and good for shade, but they don't do much to help with algae in my experience.

I will try and t are pics today....

 

[GBBUDD]

In a natural pond what lillies will do is take over and the tubulars grow and grow

 

[sissy]

elephant ears and cannas grown good in a pond and so do cold hardy bananas .The only thing is the roots can be aggressive

 

[sissy]

good info here

 

[rubyduby]

good info here

good info here

Wow Sissy....This video was a huge help...Thank you!

 

[rubyduby]

Here are some shots of my pond. We just had 3 1/2 inches of rain in 6 hours and super high winds so the water is very churned up and muddy (some runoff from the mountain entered the pond also

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Wow! That's got a lot of great potential. You have room for TONS of plants on both the inside & outside edges.

 

[rubyduby]

Wow! That's got a lot of great potential. You have room for TONS of plants on both the inside & outside edges.

Yes I do and I would appreciate any ideas anyone has...I am going to put some water hyacynth and lettuce in the biofall trays and maybe tuck some in rocks leading down to the pond... The deer drink out of the falls every night so they might eat the lettuce...It makes it hard to plan what to plant around the falls for that reason also...I wish the pond was smaller so that it would be easier to maintain but it is what it is and the koi have lots of room to roam.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Do you have planting shelves? or does the slope just start at the edge & go down? (there IS a liner in there, right?) I'm assuming that the first picture was taken from your 'home view'? If so, I'd (personally) carve away a LARGE chunk of that turf on the back side & put in a mixed bed of shrubs & perennials, leaving some pathways in the middle to access the back area of the property, but overall working on a 'backdrop' effect to close in the view & reduce the 'wide-open-expanse' feel.
As far as in the pond, if there are no 'real' planting shelves, I'd create some along the entire back side by adding larger rocks/boulders & filing in the area with gravel. Then - plant away! Anything that strikes your fancy & is hardy to your zone (in a 7a you have a wide variety to choose from) I'm guessing that the one plant out in the middle is Pickerel Rush. That's always a great anchor, but maybe try some lizard tail, aquatic iris, horsetail rush, etc... to give it some variety of height along the edge.
In the foreground (what I'm assuming you see when approaching from the house?) I'd be more selective with plantings to make sure I didn't totally block the view of the pond, but (at the same time) breaking it up a bit. Plant some wide areas with low growing ground covers (I adore my wire vine), broken up with some lower growing perennials (anything hardy to your zone that stays 18" tall or less) to simply disrupt the endless expanse of 'green'. Maybe intersperse a raised container or two for a splash of annual color? A hunk of seasoned driftwood with plantings around it? This is where you get to be creative.
IN the pond on the 'near' side, perhaps some lower growing plants like parrot's feather, water celery, forget-me-not, etc... placed along the edge (with created shelves - if necessary - made from larger rocks placed strategically along the edge)
(Can you tell I'm simply DROOLING at the thought of working on such a wonderful, large, expansive empty pallet?)

 

[sissy]

We have had a lot of rain and high winds also ,I do not live far from you

 

[rubyduby]

Do you have planting shelves? or does the slope just start at the edge & go down? (there IS a liner in there, right?) I'm assuming that the first picture was taken from your 'home view'? If so, I'd (personally) carve away a LARGE chunk of that turf on the back side & put in a mixed bed of shrubs & perennials, leaving some pathways in the middle to access the back area of the property, but overall working on a 'backdrop' effect to close in the view & reduce the 'wide-open-expanse' feel.
As far as in the pond, if there are no 'real' planting shelves, I'd create some along the entire back side by adding larger rocks/boulders & filing in the area with gravel. Then - plant away! Anything that strikes your fancy & is hardy to your zone (in a 7a you have a wide variety to choose from) I'm guessing that the one plant out in the middle is Pickerel Rush. That's always a great anchor, but maybe try some lizard tail, aquatic iris, horsetail rush, etc... to give it some variety of height along the edge.
In the foreground (what I'm assuming you see when approaching from the house?) I'd be more selective with plantings to make sure I didn't totally block the view of the pond, but (at the same time) breaking it up a bit. Plant some wide areas with low growing ground covers (I adore my wire vine), broken up with some lower growing perennials (anything hardy to your zone that stays 18" tall or less) to simply disrupt the endless expanse of 'green'. Maybe intersperse a raised container or two for a splash of annual color? A hunk of seasoned driftwood with plantings around it? This is where you get to be creative.
IN the pond on the 'near' side, perhaps some lower growing plants like parrot's feather, water celery, forget-me-not, etc... placed along the edge (with created shelves - if necessary - made from larger rocks placed strategically along the edge)
(Can you tell I'm simply DROOLING at the thought of working on such a wonderful, large, expansive empty pallet?)

No planting shelves but I could make some with rocks like you suggested (I don't know about boulders anymore at my age) It just slopes down which makes it hard for anything to stay on the edges the way it is now. It is lined also...I can't thank you enough for taking the time to give me advice. You certainly have a great creative imagination! I will see what I can do...

 

[rubyduby]

We have had a lot of rain and high winds also ,I do not live far from you

Yes, that was some crazy weather we had Sissy! I see that we are due for another dousing

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Well, a 'boulder' is just a really big rock that you feel super proud of yourself for having moved. (so obviously size/weight changes as we age, lol!) I'd see what you can do with rocks (boulders!!) you can lift & use to create some sort of 'gravel retention level' (ie - planting shelf) along the edge. Then you can simply plant anything that you fancy along there. I envy you that huge expanse! I was wallowing around in my pond today, ripping out pickerel rush from where it had wandered & replanting it to where I wanted it to be. We'll see if it likes my vision of appropriate location...
A pond is simply a different version of a 'garden' (it's a water GARDEN after all!) and the continuing tweaking, digging, rearranging, etc.. is no different.
Have FUN!!