Boy, would I like this spot to plant - seriously! I can see those annual Shirley poppies on the banks and a range of sibtosa or setosa irises (see Joe Pye Weed's offerings) or variegated sweet flags just in the water or at its edge; you definitely need hungry plants to clear up the green. I wonder if this is seasonally wet or spring fed. I can see cephalanthus 'Sputnik' in the water too (see today's banner - pretty sure these are the flowers). It's a shiny leaved shrub that loves wet soil.

Hello Valerie!

Thanks for all the suggestions. All those beautiful plants would sure make this spot look awesome. The pond is fed from rain, although it is currently dried up because of the drought we're in.

In the pond we don't (or didn't) have any plants, unless you count algae as a plant.

Would I just sprinkle seeds in this spot for all the plants you mentioned (excluding the irises, which are bulbs)? I'd like to try out what you have envisioned.

The window for sowing poppy seeds has closed but you could try mid-Spring to get a few to germinate, bloom, and scatter their seeds but I would save most for July/August scattering. My irises from JPW come bare root in April and get planted in-situ; alternatively you could get them in September, which I prefer now that summers are so hot - and the irises prefer
I do grow those irises in much drier areas and they do OK but are spectacular in wet areas; occasional flooding of your hollow might just satisfy them and I think would look so much nicer than the algae