Floating islands

[fish pond Den]

Hello everyone
A few things crossed my mind tonight at dinner trying to come up with a floating island for plants. People that has read my post and new my pond knows that's its not in shade and I finally saw an idea and did some reading for the floating island to give the pond shade and also protect the fish...

I did a search on this and there's really not that much info and a few places sell something like it but they want to much money..

Has anyone done this and have pictures or give me ideas with arty foam cause now when you do this what type of plants do you use does dirt go in there no dirt cause when it comes to the flower I'm lost.

So I thought of cuting stfu foam board and may be make it like a box with sides lard moss all down and flowers I don't know please share your ideas and photos please and also winter is coming do u think I should wait till next year but I still wanna here ideas.

I also tonight real quick took a pool floater wrapped it around a flower pot to see but I think I wanna do something flat to get more flowers.

 

[Lisak1]

Definitely wait until spring to plant a floating island, but planning and constructing are what winter is for!

I have a floating island that I purchased - just basically a foam ring covered with a fabric "bag". The fabric portion hangs about 6 inches below the water. I put some dirt in mine and plant almost anything - annuals mostly, but i also have creeping Jenny and watercress that come back every year, even though the island freezes solid over winter. The plant roots penetrate right through the fabric in search of water. Quite amazing!

People have built their own floating islands out of foam - I'm pretty sure I've read some posts here on how to construct them. They will either plant the plants directly through the foam (small holes) and let the roots dangle in the water, or make bigger holes that will hold small lightweight pots. So the choice is yours! You could do a combination - make a larger hole for a pot in the middle and then smaller plants all around it.

 

[fish pond Den]

What kind of dirt anything won't that mess the pond up. I saw one a guy took a pool noodle made a circle and attach a panty hose on the bottom for planting which sounded like a good idea.

What kind of flowers are there that dangle and don't need dirt.

 

[sissy]

panty hose will rot fast i use window screen and fishing line to hand sew it to the pool noodle

 

[fish pond Den]

But don't the dirt go right through it and mess the water up.

 

[sissy]

you don't need to use dirt you grow them like they are hydroponics .Bare root

 

[peter hillman]

Shade really helps a pond, though some Lily's like a lot of sun, 6hrs. I took shade over Lily's.

 

[sissy]

I made a lily pond so i could still have them and this way i could put plenty of fertilizer in it .Same with my stock tanks water hyacinth went crazy when i cleaned the lily pond out I through some in there

 

[sissy]

I wish the people who were supposed to pick them up for there green house would come and pick there's up .They were supposed to be here today

 

[fish pond Den]

Wow that's nice you have a lot. So what plants can I get that don't need dirt and like sun.

Thanks everyone

 

[sissy]

strawberries and cream is a grass ,cattails, corkscrew ,lemon grass ,creeping jenny .

 

[fish pond Den]

Thanks sissy love the cattails glade I joined this forum everyone and you have been a great help for me since day 1.

Now anyone of these plants don't need dirt so when I make my island just put a hole and put them in.

And koi will be ok with these plants

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks sissy love the cattails glade I joined this forum everyone and you have been a great help for me since day 1.

Now anyone of these plants don't need dirt so when I make my island just put a hole and put them in.

And koi will be ok with these plants

Have you done an internet search regarding this? You might want to do that, as well, to check out other possibilities and to see what plants will work well. It's my understanding that if the roots are exposed, koi will nibble on them. Some folks make them so that the roots don't get through the mesh, or whatever you use.

If you want lots of growth [which can easily be controled with this type of planter], you might want to try a variety of mint. Mint can be very invasive, otherwise.

And like @Lisak1 suggested, this is the time of year for planning [and experimenting with design possibilites], but wait until spring to plant anything. Let us know what you come up with as we're always looking to see what other people's ideas produce! Take lots of pictures....

 

[peter hillman]

You can get decent canopy with Water Hyacinths, they just float around sucking up bad stuff and showing pretty flowers. You can see by sissy's photo's they can cover the surface if allowed to. Usually low priced too.

 

[sissy]

but come winter you either need to save water hyacinth or buy new .I just set my plants in the floaters no holes just make the screen loose enough so it sinks into the water .Water lettuce is good also and duck weed it just floats around and fish eat it and so does fairy moss