Plants for active pond water?

[texmaster]

Unfortunately I made one of those classic mistakes when building a pond. Didn't make it big enough. The problem is the pond is open to the elements ie no shade and I can't get water lilies to grow because the waterfall and pond bubbler disturb the water far too much for water lilies and the sides of the pond are stone about 3 feet deep around the pond so I need something that can grow in the pond and handle an active water surface and most importantly, provide shade so the algae doesn't go nuts! EDIT: I do have a strong skimmer if that is important. On the pick below, the poor lilies all but disappeared hugging the wall to get away from the turbulence.

 

[Aaron S]

That is a nice looking pond there and I love the rock work. I don't think that I ever heard anyone say that they built their pond too big!
Watercress loves currents, but I think it needs to be anchored like in your waterfall. I don't know how easily you can find it down I- 35 there. I have looked everywhere here and can't find it. I recently made one of Koiguy's floating plant rings for my Water Lettuce. https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/floating-planter-rings.2581/
That could help keeping the plants closer to the center of the pond and will give you much more control.
Planting stuff around the pond will also help. You can go with something like Big Blue Liriope to soften the hard edges of the rocks.

 

[Lisak1]

Hmmmm... anything you plant in the pond is going to want to hug the sides because of the current. Floating plants and underwater plants alike. Maybe address the current? You could try adding a catch basin under the waterfall, so the water is still getting aeration, but it's not hitting the pond at full force. And have you considered only running the bubbler at night?

Otherwise, what about putting large tropical plants in pots outside the pond to provide shade? Although you do want plants growing in the water to remove excess nutrients from the water and complete the ecosystem so I would work on that. Some sturdy reeds or grasses around the edges would hold up fine - do you have a plant shelf? I can't tell from the picture.

 

[sissy]

I made plant holders out of window screening and hung over the side of my pond and the tail from the window screening just has to be weighed down with a rock.I used fishing line and sewed them by hand

 

[Aaron S]

That is a really cool idea!

 

[sissy]

They have been in my pond for 3 years now even through the winter .Cheap and easy to make and they have lasted .This is the third pond summer for these .But I did make some bigger ones also

 

[tbendl]

I really really like this idea sissy. I actually have some black window screen that would blend really well with the pond side. I may try to make some of these.

 

[sissy]

you can make them like this and just add a tail .

 

[tbendl]

Do you just put the grasses in or do you add kitty litter?

 

[sissy]

I put in kitty litter and crushed oyster shells because oyster shells stabilize ph for fish

 

[tbendl]

Now I have a pond project for the winter. I wonder if I can do Impatiens in them on the shade side of the pond.

 

[j.w]

I think you could put any plant you wanted into one of those sissy socks as long as it liked lots of water on its roots. You could make those any shape and as big as you wanted as long as not too heavy to lift out when you need to repot or do any adjustments.
And some plants could even go into them bare rooted don't ya think?

 

[tbendl]

"Sissy Sock" that's it. She could market them and get rich and then fly around and help us with out ponds... LOL
Well that's kinda what I was envisioning for the impatiens, bare rooting them.
I'm going to have to play with these this winter, I don't see why I couldn't do all kinds of bare rooted plants and flowers like creeping jenny.

 

[j.w]

I don't see why you couldn't...............try it you might like it, what can it hurt?

 

[tbendl]

That's what I'm thinking. I'll have to get Sissy to cut me in on the profits if I demo this thing and it does well....