Hi all, I just joined this forum yesterday. Last Saturday I got my two tub gardens woken up from winter and they have now begun the season.

I have two plastic 55 gallon drums cut off to make my tubs. I got the drums from my workplace before I retired. I knew what had been in them so I was sure they were safe. I may have started using them back in 2012, but I'm not sure. I have one buried in the ground and the other above the ground. I actually have a third "tub" from the cut off piece of one of the tubs. Its maybe 8" deep. I have that above the ground and I have been fooling around with it for a few years now. I plant some Vallisneria in it each year directly in the gravel substrate mixed with mud on the bottom. I stuck in some mini Cattail last summer and I'm waiting to see if it survived freezing this winter-most likely did. Here is that tub:


Anyway, here's some photos showing what I did. First I removed water from in the inground tub. That is where I store my two hardy lilies and Iris versicolor and mini cattails. Once I dropped the water to the top of the first tub I pulled it out and placed it in a temporary tub I keep on hand. The photo shows my Iris growing nicely, even though it was totally submerged all winter. The cattails are white and stretched out. Plus they burned once I brought them up into the air and light. The waterlily is in the bottom tub. I bought it at Waterford Gardens in Allendale, NJ in 2019. That place opened in 1895 as Wm. Tricker and Son and I visited it as a boy with my father. He made a pond while in High School at his home in Bloomfield, NJ. That was around 1936. It was still holding water when we'd visit his sister in the late 1960's.:


The next photo is of my second lily. It is the same as the other: Nymphaea Pygmaea Rubra. It produces so many offshoots I have to divide it every 2-3 years. Waterford Gardens is very happy to get the divisions back!! They even take the divisions themselves and repot my plants.


The flower from July 2019 :


Next is the empty in-ground tub:


I didn't take any shots of how I use bricks to raise the plants to the correct depth, or of the finished tubs. More to come.

Welcome to the forum and to NGA, Jerry! Beautiful bloom there.

Johannian said: Welcome to the forum and to NGA, Jerry! Beautiful bloom there.

Thanks Johannian. Question for anyone: is this thread the place to discuss Aquatic Gardening, as in growing plants in aquariums? I have not seen one specifically for that yet.

Yes, this whole forum is for discussing aquatic gardening. We also have a thread specifically meant for posting pictures of your blooms (click on my text), if you'd like to participate there. Or, you can just post them on your own thread, whichever you'd like!

Yes, would love to see and talk about plants in aquaria. That's where I started before I wandered off into ponds and above water growing. I don't have much going anymore (I try to keep my plant obsessions to a minimum in the house for my wife's sake), but I've got paludaria, and I often set up tanks in the winter. I would love to see and learn about what you're growing.

Today's update:
The deer have found my unprotected aboveground tub. I went out today and saw Cattail leaves and Waterlily leaves floating on the water of my tub, a sure sign of deer. I'm going to have to go full protection with pieces of reinforcing wire mesh around the tubs. The deer don't like to step into the mesh.

This is the aboveground tub and you can see the stalks on the waterlily where they ate the floating leaves. I added water to the tub before taking this photo, so most of the leaves are now about an inch deep. The waterlily is Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Rubra' or 'Pygmaea Rubis' which is an Heirloom mini Dark Pink ageing to Deep Red waterlily hybridized by Marliac back in at least 1906.

You can see a floating Ceratophyllum or Hornwort underwater. This piece survived overwinter submerged at the bottom of my in ground tub. I use these as places for the White Clouds to spawn. I'll be adding them to my tubs for Mosquito control tomorrow or Saturday.

The mesh ring around the top of the tub is stainless steal diamond mesh which I bent and filed sharp on each point to create a big irritant to Raccoons when they try to get into the tub to clean their food or whatever it is they are doing. Its working. I have used Coyote urine in the past.


The next two are of my in ground tub. It also has a Pygmaea Rubra and it also has an Iris versicolor I got in trade with another hobbyist for divisions of my waterlily. The first photo is an overall shot and the second is closer in. These plants are not deer damaged, but they also had water added, so the leaves are under water.

There are ferns growing in the rocks that appeared on their own a few years ago. I don't know what they are. Anyone know? I pull out the ones that shade the tubs so the lilies get as much sun as they can.

Hard to tell from the pictures, but it might be a sensitive fern, with those connected leaflets.

psa said: Hard to tell from the pictures, but it might be a sensitive fern, with those connected leaflets.

I'll look into what a Sensitive Fern is. Thanks Paul.

Interesting ideas using plastic drums as cheap waterproof planters. I used to deliver chemicals to tree surgens using 30 and 55 gal plastic drums. Does the water freezing in the drums cause leaks and cracks in the winter?

jpm995 said: Interesting ideas using plastic drums as cheap waterproof planters. I used to deliver chemicals to tree surgens using 30 and 55 gal plastic drums. Does the water freezing in the drums cause leaks and cracks in the winter?

I just looked back at all of my photos to jog my memory of these tubs. I started out with the black tub back in the Spring of 2012. I had it above ground until the winter freezes were enough to kill my plants. First was Spring 2014. Lost everything. Second was Spring 2015. I buried my tub in the Fall of 2015. And that is when I started storing my plants in the water underground at the bottom of the sunk tub.

So the black one went three years full and above ground. No splits or cracks. Since Fall 2015 the black one is above ground but emptied each fall. The blue one was sunk into the ground in the Fall of 2015. I leave that full all winter. I store the lilies, Iris, and a pot of cattail in it at the bottom. The surface freezes enough so I can stand on it. I don't know how thick the ice gets.

I have a cut off end which is about 8" tall and I have it above ground. I grow Mini cattails in it and it freezes solid. I don't empty it. I've done that since 2019. Still surviving.

This is all three tubs on July 2, 2019:

I added the White Cloud Mountain Fish to the two lily tubs yesterday afternoon. I kept them over winter inside in an aquarium. So far the raccoons have not found them. I hope they don't.

Edit: I forgot to say that I'm hoping the two Green Frogs that appeared in my tubs don't eat the fish. The frogs were there last year and I harvested fish in the fall...so, maybe they don't eat fish.

And, I fertilized all of my plants yesterday for the first time this season.

I'm going to have to lower the two water lilies to their final depth later today as it is warmer and the leaves are at the surface. Right now the pots are about 2-3" deep. I'll remove bricks to get the water lily pots 6-12" deep. The Iris versicolor and Mini Cattail will stay at their present waterline depth.

Jerrytheplater said: I'll look into what a Sensitive Fern is. Thanks Paul.

I am pretty sure you are correct Paul. Thanks.