plants 4 my pond

[Doctor mcboy]

i have a 30 foot by 30 foot by 3 foot deep pond. it has a clay bottom and has one side gradual slope . i have been reading a lot about plants in this forum and i see that they are planted in clay. if i plant these into my clay pond will the roots of these plants hurt my pond bottom and cause leaks? i live in south Carolina zone 7a what plants would be good for this application?

 

[Lisak1]

Oh my gosh... so pretty!

I really have no clue what plants would do in a clay bottom pond. Is it natural? Or did you line it with clay?

 

[Stephen Noble]

I wonder the same as Lisa. In either case, those beautiful trees probably have roots drinking from the pond.

 

[JamieB]

The thickness of the clay will play a part in determining what plants will do best. If it’s a natural pond, as in you just cleaned it up and maybe enlarged it, natural clay soil, you’re good to find any aquatic plants that are good in your area. If you lined it in like a foot of clay over sandy soil, you’ll want to find plants that dong go so deep.

 

[Doctor mcboy]

i made this as a storm water retention pond last year. after it filled up 1 time it held water so i decided to enlarge it. this is a basin for about 10 to 20 acres of my field drainage. the ground here below a foot has 40 to 50 percent clay. it is a unusual formation, when i dug it out it had no rocks or roots below a foot and a half deep. i have a old farmers manual that said if the soil had at least 20 percent clay to dig the bottom up a foot deep with a tiller and clean out rocks and roots then pack the bottom. i did that and compacted it with my tractor tires and it is almost concrete hard. even when full of water. i have lived here since 1984 and this spot was always damp. so when it rains it will fill to the top and the first foot and a half will drain out then the level will stay. i collect rainwater in 7 330 gallon totes and i drip feed them into this pond. i wanted to cut the trees down around the pond but my wife said NO. we were worried this would be a skeeter pit, but within a couple of weeks the water had aquatic bugs and frogs then tadpoles in it, but no skeeters . the explosion of life in this pond naturally was impressive. i will plant some lily pads at the lower end and see what happens. thank yall!

 

[JamieB]

Ha, finally another person who says y’all! Since it’s naturally water retentive, plant what ever will grow, a few things to keep in mind is that lotus and lillies multiply quickly, rushes and reeds can take over along with cattails, but if you want a natural looking pond, you can add them and just try to keep them contained so they don’t take over completely. I like the look of a pond covered largely by lillies, so I’m cool with that. Add a variety of submerged and marginal plants, and research what isn’t legal to add due to being considered invasive.