my pond is coming to life!

[maxXx430]

been getting a lot of help from the forum. thanks for all the input!!!

this is my first pond that i am starting to enjoy. my liner came in yesterday and so far i am letting the water run for about 2 days, while i make my bio filter. If you notice around the pond, i have the reddish color cement block to hold the liner down. I would like to put some of those inside the pond to hold down the liner. will that be ok? i have about 30 of them and rocks/stone are too expensive.

btw...i have one water plant. Pond plants are hard to come by here in northern CA.

 

[j.w]

Are you worried for some reason about your liner floating upwards........is that why you want the blocks in the pond? Cuz unless you have some kind of a drainage problem w/ water getting under your liner from heavy rains you should not need those in there as the heaviness of the water in the pond will hold your liner down. You can order plants online for not too much money and they should grow very nicely in you sunny weather.

 

[JohnHuff]

Looks great!

Pond plants are hard to come by here in northern CA.

I've noticed that my local bigbox (either HD or Lowes, can't remember which) has water lily plants even though they don't sell any other water garden plants. Saw them hanging by the checkout in a plastic box, didn't pay much attention because I already have some.

 

[sissy]

The shear weight of the water should hold the liner down anyways and no rocks on the bottom as it makes it harder to net clean the bottom of the pond and plus anything in the pond on the bottom gets covered in muck and makes the pond healthier .lowes has them by the register here and also near the pond supplies .I would google local garden centers on your puter as that is how i found a place by me .Check your local paper or want ads you may find something there

 

[sissy]

looked and yellow pages have 3 garden centers that carry water plants and several that don't really say and if you have an OSI store they sell them or is that OSH lol

 

[maxXx430]

i checked HD and lowes and no luck. i will try different local places.

thanks for the advise. maybe i don't need rocks in my pond. i was afraid water may get underneath my liner

 

[johnnyi]

MaxXx430,

You're in luck. Sacramento (Loomis really) has one of the best aquatic plant outlets. The website is here: http://goldenpondwaterplants.com/.

Another business with great plants is in Escalon about an hour south of Sacramento called Creative Water Gardens, here: http://www.creativewatergardens.biz/

Both of these places are wonderful to visit. Another regular nursery that just started carrying bog and water plants is Fair Oaks Blvd Nursery at http://www.fairoaksblvdnursery.com/. Their prices for water lilies was high but the quality seemed good.

We've purchased most of our stuff at the first one. It's run by Sue Golden who is a consultant on aquatic plants and very easy to work with.

Good luck,

John

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Max, In case you decided on using a few blocks, the ones you mentioned are not good for your pond. They will slowly dissolve and raise your ph whereas normal portland cement products are inert and won't do that. For waterfalls a lot of people use rocks made from slate.

 

[sissy]

johnni those places you show really have some nice pics of ideas to use for anyone on the forum .