Suggestions?

[MrsDowFire]

I have 4 compartments (see picture) in the top of our waterfall. Each are approximately 7x5 and 2 1/2 to 3 inches deep. Could I put pea gravel in these and plant something? What plant would you suggest that might be suitable? I'd like to cover the black plastic a bit more. We usually float some hyacinth in the big center portion.

Thanks for help and suggestions.

 

[Waterbug]

Lots of stuff. Not just "pond" plants either. Impatiens, sedum, moss, sedge. Looks like the compartments could hold soil? Gives you a lot of options. Many garden plants will grow with wet feet so mounding can work. Or a pot with soil and rock up around them to hide.

But really it would be easier to plant right next to the edge and let whatever branch over the edge.

Actual pond plants like Pennywort, Watercress would have to be trimmed back regularly, but they would work in gravel.

Here my bird bath "pond". Standing in water but the soil is mounded.

Has Sedum, Irish and Scottish mosses.Worked great.

 

[DrCase]

I like that waterbug

 

[MrsDowFire]

Thank you waterbug. Yes the compartments could soil. Can you explain wet feet for me? I'm not familiar. I mentioned pea gravel thinking it would be hard to keep soil in them because of constant water flow. We've had this pond for years and never planted anything in those compartments. It would have to be plants that can take full sun as there is absolutely no shade now that we had to remove our tree.

 

[addy1]

Wet feet means the roots wet the crown of the plant above water level. Creeping jenny would look great, it does not care if the crown is under water. I would stick with pea gravel with the constant water flow. Moss does well, Impatiens like shade, tend to burn in the sun, I have them in my stock tank filter I rinse the dirt off the roots and toss them in the water, they have double in size in the one week they have been in there.

Sedum is more of a succulent, with constant water it might rot, I have not tried it. Blue forgetmenot would look great, spreading light blue flowers most of the summer, needs trimmed back now and then. It gets leggy.

Find a neat looking ground cover and try it, I have others in the yard that have spread into the bog, they are all doing well. All have shallow roots.

 

[sissy]

grasses clean your water colleen told me and now i have lots of grasses in my filters .i have creeping jenny also .Those grasses really suck up stuff and make lots of shade .I was the proud owner of 4 lemon grass plants last year and they have just started to grow back .Purple fountain grass adds a pop of color

 

[MrsDowFire]

@addy1 Can I plant creeping jenny in pea gravel? I actually really like that plant and thought about using it. To accomplish this I would add pea gravel to the compartments and rinse dirt from the roots of the creeping jenny and plant in the pea gravel? I agree that creeping jenny look great and great minds think alike but I wasn't sure how to actually plant it or that plant would be an option. Then as a background to that I was thinking about planting Lantana in the soil behind my waterfall; that area doesn't get very wet and tends to stay on the dryer side since it's the highest point of our waterfall.


@sissy my husband loves purple fountain grass. Can that plant be used in ponds? Also what is the name of that purple plant (picture #002 & 005) with the small lavendar flower? I have that plant growing inside and going to bring it outside and plant somewhere this week. Is that a plant you can use in the pond or wet feet plant? Or are you just using it to decorate around your pond? Thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

[addy1]

My creeping jenny grows great in the pea gravel, grows in the stream, grows in the ground, it does fine. I have some that is under water, a little, crown above water, dry dirt that stuff just grows and looks nice. I have the green and the more yellow kind. I have taken some of the plants without roots, stuck it in the pea gravel and it grew fine, roots take off.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Grasses are good, they wave gently in the wind and not easily broken by big wind either. I like grass, all grasses are nice and soothing with their jagged spear shaped leafs, and a natural setting for in ponds. They are great for cleaning water, easy to grow, and and look good all winter as a dried tuff too.
I also just love my yellow flag water iris too. Look at the growth I have already, dispite freezing tempertures, things are still growing well!

 

[Lisak1]

Completely jealous of your yellow flag water iris, and I love your marsh marigold, too Colleen! It's one of my favorites - so bright and cheerful in the midst of lots of still brown landscape!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Ya, Thanks! nothing else is growing much, just inside my pond I have green thanks to hardy water plants. The front yard is still brown and not much going on, just a few tulips are finally starting to push up out of the ground. No blooms yet...

 

[Mmathis]

My day lilies have done very well in a bog-like setting: pea gravel in the compartment.

I like that container.

 

[Waterbug]

Thank you waterbug. Yes the compartments could soil. Can you explain wet feet for me?

Picture a potted plant. If you set in the pond so the top of the pot were submerged that would be "submerged". If you raise it up, like put some bricks under the pot, so the top of the pot and the soil in the pot was above the water but most of the pot was underwater that would be "wet feet".

But the amount of the pot that is underwater is important for different plants. Like Canna have a rhizome (bulb) that's just under the soul surface and goes about 2" down. Then roots come off the rhizome and down into the soil. So Canna do best imo when the rhizome is above the water level but the roots can be submerged.

Then you look at a plant like Irish Moss which roots can't be submerged at all, but their roots don't have to be deep either. So if it has 1" of soil above water it's fine, but it can be "in water". So even though their roots aren't technically in water I call it wet feet too.

So by varying the amount above water I've had great success with every plant I've tried so far. We're generally talking just an inch or two difference.

 

[Philphine]

i tried hosta last year, after reading about it here, and it worked pretty good. just put some in my skippy filter project last weekend that seems to be thriving also.

trying some annuals this year also, but i just started setting them up today, so i don't know about them yet. i read about that here also, so i'm hoping they'll do as well.

 

[Tula]

I really like your water fall with "compartments"! Do you know who manufactured it? My waterfall is mortared , with pvc pipes directly water over a slab of granite. If I ever have to redo my waterfall, would love something like what you have.