Substrate to put around my pond.

[bletulle91]

Hi everyone,
My name is Brandi. I'm new to the forum, but not terribly new to ponds. I've had a few but recently built a new one after not having one for some time. It's a 500 gallon kidney shaped in ground pond. I have fenced it in to keep my dogs out and keep my turtle contained. I also have koi and goldfish in my pond.

I am looking for the best substrate to use around the pond. It has grass currently, but I don't like having to mow or take the weed eater to it because of my turtle. I wanted to use mulch, but wasn't sure if it was safe to use around the turtle or fish. Does anyone have any input on it or an alternative choice? Thank you in advance!

 

[seandelevan]

I’ve done mulch. Didn’t like it. Somehow someway it would get its way into the pond. I have decorative gravel and stones and varying sizes. clover and other ground cover has made its way on it so it looks more natural. personal preferenc.

 

[j.w]

@bletulle91
I have rocks and plants in dirt and then stone pavers w/mulch.

 

[Phaewryn]

Rocks/pea gravel all the way! Moss also works if it's in a shady area. Moss is better than grass since it never needs to be mowed so no clippings in the pond. If you do rocks/gravel, lay down a couple layers of some high-quality weed barrier and it will save you a ton of weeding (or spraying herbicide) work down the road.

 

[addy1]

Welcome!

I put rocks, plants, no mulch or grass around my various ponds. Mine have more the wild look, JW's is nicely groomed.

 

[GBBUDD]

Mulch today has pesticides and or dyes that you don't want in your pond. unless it was locally made hemlock or cedar mulch i would not look at mulch. River rock around a pond is a fantastic material one it won't get blown into the pond or get washed in and it looks very natural providing you don't use white marble chips. They also have plants with a generic name of stepables these plants are tough and can take some foot traffic .

 

[Lisak1]

We use mulch around our pond, but we also have various plants as ground cover all around the edge that keeps the mulch from being washed or blown into the pond. We get our mulch from a local Christmas tree farmer - he grinds all his trimmings and mixes with loads that get dumped on his property from tree trimmers. So no dyes. Maybe pesticides, but I doubt it as these are all trees that are growing under electrical wires around the county and need to be trimmed to keep the wires clear - I can't imagine anyone is spraying trees that grow along the roadways.

 

[j.w]

We make our own mulch from our Douglas fir tree limbs that we trim each year or so. Works great on all the garden beds and pathways. We have a ton of the trees on our property and they are huge!

 

[bletulle91]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think I'll be going with rock with landscaping cloth underneath. I live in the southeast part of GA so stuff grows almost year round. Hoping a couple of layers of landscape cloth will keep the stuff at bay.

 

[Dbarr1575]

I have a 250 gallon pond that I am currently "remodeling" mostly because there was mulch around it (pine bark) and it was getting into the pond and causing all kinds of havoc. I just laid down weed block and am going with different sizes of river rock, mostly 1/2 inch or smaller, but some are 2 inch and 4 inch, and then I have some bigger rock. My pond is in a screen enclosure near my pool and covered with sun shades and has one decent sized water fall.