I am totally soaked and wiped out after digging in this heat. I am starting work on my woodland garden finally. I had to dig and thin out a lot of plants so far this spring/summer. So, I finally hauled a wheelbarrow load down to my pond in the woods. It is all downhill from my house, and all uphill on the way back. So far, I have some rose of sharon bushes, daylilies, yucca, irises, sedums and red flowering quince planted down there. The rose of sharon I did earlier when it was raining a lot, so they are still hanging on. They have to be pampered if moved this time of year, and I just cant get down there enough to pamper them. The other stuff should be all right once it takes off. [I also gave a lot of plants away to friends getting started on their gardens.] The soil is VERY rocky clay, and you can barely dig an inch deep in it... So I planted most things close in to my pond. Hopefully, they will not mind when it rains heavily and floods. I do have a nice bald cypress that I planted by the edge of the pond some years ago, and it has a nice hump which is moist red clay so I planted most of my irises there. Most of those plants can handle neglect and still thrive. So those are the kinds of plants I am picking to plant down there. Later, I will plant some oxeye daisies, black eyed susans, and dame's rockets down there when transplanting them is likely to be more successful. There are a lot of wild things down there, but I hope to make a nice garden to complement it. I wont be doing any serious weeding down there. My woods are mostly pine, oak, cedar, dogwood, and various shrubs. I have tossed trumpet vine and wisteria seeds down there, but I dont see any growing at this time. SOME IDIOT put something oily and nasty in my pond this spring. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I hope they have not killed my pond. I need to put something in to get rid of a brown algae. I wish I could get some catfish or carp which eat algae to put in my pond. I hope to get some biological stuff to help next week. I saw some stuff online to help, but it is very pricey and you have to keep using it indefinitely to keep your pond cleaned up. my pond ( photo / image / picture from AAnightowl's Garden ) Here is a summer view of my little pond. That is my fishing rod in the foreground. I hope my plants thrive down there. [I forgot I had a photo of it in here]. ( photo / image / picture from AAnightowl's Garden ) Here is a winter view of my pond with snow on the ground.
I'm wore out just from reading about all your work. I was imagining this little bitty pond... but that's a POND! Very pretty area. Sorry to hear that it was vandalized.
I know they use Dawn Dish soap [in mega quantities of course] to clean up oil spills in the oceans. I wonder how much Dawn would be needed to clean up my pond ? Or maybe the biological stuff will help with that ?
I just noticed this was moved to 'water gardening'. That implies plants growing IN the water. I only planted my garden in the dirt around the pond. ? I dont guess it matters to me.
Water gardens do sometimes have a way of settling out. I hope yours is OK over time. It is certainly a perfect big natural pond.
Update July 28th: I was down at my pond working again this morning. It has been cool and rainy this past week, and lovely weather. It is very unusual for July, but I will gladly take it! I had a bucket of rose of sharon bushes and other plants that needed new spots to grow, and decided that since it has been rainy and cool, it would be a nice time to move them, and add them in down at my pond. I even found some soft clay spots that were still damp and easy to dig in. Yay. I added more of the rose of sharon bushes down there, and put most of them in clumps. They do not seem to mind being crowded up here in my yard, so why not. I dug up some of my red flowering quince and planted them down there. They reproduce freely also, and the honeybees and birds love them. I added in a few trumpet vines, and found a nice tree that I thought they could climb. Once they get going and blooming, the hummingbirds go nutty for them. I have at least three trumpet vines blooming up here. I have a few nice dogwoods around my pond, they are doing great. The plants that I put down there earlier this summer seem to be doing okay, despite that dry spell. I gave them all large drinks from my bucket, even though they have had good rains this past week. I am keeping my eyes out for some redbud seedlings to plant down there. It is about time to begin scattering seeds from things like my Dame's Rockets. I think I will scatter some black eyed susans and oxeye daisies down there too. Lots of other wild things grow down there, but I do not know their names just yet. I do not plan to remove most of them, just to add in things from up here for the most part. I also worked on clearing much of the pathway this morning, since it has become very overgrown with cedars and sumacs and 'weeds'.
I am not so sure about all my hard work at the moment. I just walked down there with a tub of Dame's rocket seed pods/seeds to scatter. After ALL of that heavy rain this part of the country has had, my little pond is FLOODED. It is nearly to the top bank on the far side [My property line runs along the top of that far bank.] All of the irises and day lilies and yucca are under water. I suppose they are all drowned? I will have to wait until next spring to find out, I guess. So, when I take more down there to plant this fall, I will have to remember to put things up high just in case. The rose of sharon bushes seem to be hanging in there. They are still a bit wilty from being moved, but maybe they will be alright? My bald cypress tree is loving so much water around it. I do not remember it flooding so much before, and I have lived here since the 1980s. I suppose water lilies would do well, but they tend to be invasive from what I have seen in other ponds. So do cat tails. What kind/s of fish would help clean it up ? I think catfish would, and perhaps carp and goldfish. Even the stumps that I put down there to sit on when fishing are floating around down there. I was thinking of making a bench, but it will have to be heavy, or else fastened down somehow.
Here are some ways to get rid of algae in your pond: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Algae-in-Ponds I am so sorry to see what has happened to your pond, I hope you have success with cleaning it, that's one huge pond, almost a lake!.
Thank you Decorative Soul. I will mark your link and check into it. I need to go down there again and see how it is doing. I have some more plants to move down there, but it has been so busy here that I am way behind on stuff.
