Ideas for upper pond

[icewaterdon]

Hello,
I am at a little bit of a loss on what to do with this upper pond. The original idea was to have it full of water celery to aid in the filtration process. However, after this spring with late frost and cool days, the water celery that I had in it is pretty much gone. It really ended up making a mess of the rest of the pond.

The upper pond is approx. 5'x6' and 12-14 inches in depth.
What was left I put it in my up flow/veggie filter. My plan is to have this filter completely full of plants. It is approx. 300 gallons full of lava rock. So I call it my upflowveggie filter. LOL!

I had thought about putting water hyacinth in the upper pond. I understand that it is very good about removing nitrates from the water and aiding in keeping string algae under control. And it spreads very rapidly. The water moves pretty rapidly through this upper pond and also it swirls in a circular motion.

One last thought, I run ran my pond all last winter. So, I would need to buy WH every spring.

I am open to any ideas and or thoughts.

I have added a few pics to give you a better idea.

Thanks

Don

 

[Shdwdrgn]

If you were willing to add a bit more lava rock, I would suggest irises. Mine seem to grow in the rocks anywhere down to about 12" deep, and they will put down roots even deeper into the lava rock. It would probably be best to bring the lava rock up to where you have less than 6" of standing water -- this would open up a LOT more possibilities for the types of plants you can put in there. Plus you can also plant some irises in the ground beside your upper pond, blurring where the edge of the water is and making your pond look even larger.

By the way, hyacinths can be kept indoors over the Winter, it just takes a little setting up to provide the right conditions. I only get about 5 months where my pond is warm enough for the hyacinths, but they do such a good job of cleaning the water, and we like how they look, so its worth the effort to me to maintain some through the Winter.

 

[sissy]

Try grasses like I did .They are pretty hardy .I got lemon grass and you could use the gold moneywort too .Liriopi likes my pond also .Canna bulbs you can get cheap and just take them out in the winter and elephant ears the same way .Lemon verbena also and great lemon smell and keeps mosquito's away .Like said iris and colleen said about sweet flag as it survives her winters in Canada

 

[Waterbug]

water hyacinth works great.

 

[icewaterdon]

Thanks for all the replies. It has got me thinking about a few things.

 

[sissy]

The best thing is the grasses because the survive the winter in the pond with no problems .The sweet flag also .Colleen is a good source because her winters are harsh and he plants survive .I bought one grass and have now divided it into 7 different pots after last year and gosh does it clean the water .I just have to trim the roots because the growing season is so long here .But I was amazed at how clean my pond became after listening to colleen