Water Lilies No Shelf?

[Spanky]

I am designing my first small pond. I would rather not have a plant shelf so as to deny the herons and raccoons easy fishing. I'll have some shubunkins and comets. I will incorporate a partition bog for filtration but I also want a few water lilies in the open water. The pond will be 24" deep. Would inverted clay pots be suitable risers for the lily baskets?

 

[Lisak1]

You don't need to raise a waterlily - there are many that are happy at 3 or even 4 feet deep.

Generally speaking, an inverted clay pot would make a good riser for a marginal pond plant though. We use a clay chimney flue as our koi cave - it gets covered with nice algae very quickly and you can barely tell it's there.

 

[sissy]

you can use a floating planter also and do it bare root .Mine is bare root in the lily pond .I can't keep it in my pond the koi destroy it

 

[Spanky]

"We use a clay chimney flue as our koi cave." I will do that for my goldfish. Thanks

 

[Mmathis]

"We use a clay chimney flue as our koi cave." I will do that for my goldfish. Thanks

Sure! Any time you can add hiding places....your fish will be happy!

 

[Spanky]

I like the rectangular chimney flue 12"x12"x24". They won't roll and 2 of them side by side will make a nice planting shelf in the middle of the pond. Would herons land there?

 

[Mmathis]

I like the rectangular chimney flue 12"x12"x24". They won't roll and 2 of them side by side will make a nice planting shelf in the middle of the pond. Would herons land there?

Will you have a lily pot on there? It might deter a heron.....but a determined heron is going to go after fish.

 

[Lisak1]

How deep is your pond? I think whether or not a heron would land on it would depend how deep the water is over the top.

 

[Spanky]

A natural creek borders our backyard. Herons are often seen there, fishing. They are easily spooked and we have a dog so maybe I'll not have too big a problem

 

[Spanky]

The pond will only be 24" deep, quite small, 520 gallons including the bog filter

 

[Spanky]

This is my latest drawing, but I'm thinking of eliminating the shelf and some other changes

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[Spanky]

 

[Lisak1]

Honestly with a 24" deep pond, a heron wouldn't hesitate to just walk right in. They walk into our native ponds up to their bellies.

 

[Spanky]

Oh, shoot. Well there's not more more I can do with a 15 ' square liner kit that my son gifted me. Guess I'll take my chances

 

[Lisak1]

Yup. Maybe they'll never bother with your pond if they have plenty of fishing opportunities near by. We see herons flying overhead daily - they have yet to bother with our fish.