Ooh, I'll have to look that one up. That would like nice in the front pond under the lotus.

Love all the great pond ideas! Mine are just those cheap round $30 Home Depot pre-formed black ponds. Can't beat the price!!! I've had mine for about 5 years and they are in great shape. Weather hasn't seemed to bother them at all so far.



I also grow water lilies in smaller water pots. You can see one pot with water lilies and the other pot has lotus in it:

Your lotus pot looks just like mine.
Can't locate a photo of it just now, though.

Becky, in those preformed ponds, what do you do to keep the water from becoming stagnant? Do you have some sort of drip system, or do you change the water, or do the lilies just keep it clean?

I do nothing to my pond water. No filter. Just still water. The plants (water lilies) seem to keep it clean. I occasionally get an algae bloom, but it will clear up on it's own after a week or so. If I get string algae, I just use my fingers and twist and pull it right out. But the water usually stays really clear and the fish seem to be quite happy! My biggest issue is the tadpoles. I have to scoop hundreds of eggs out of the water constantly. Seems the frogs like the crystal clear water for mating and laying eggs. Ugh!

Water gardening is the easiest gardening I do! Takes the least amount of effort except once a year when I clean the small ponds out and repot and fertilize the water lilies and marginals. I have to put the fish in a bucket temporarily when I do that, too. Tadpoles get dumped. I don't need another single frog here! They are Cuban Tree frogs and very invasive critters. Noisy too! But everything else is a real delight and so easy to maintain. The best part is that I don't have water any of the plants every 2 days. Since they grow in water, I just have to top the pond off once a week from evaporation. And I use mosquito dunks to keep the mosquitoes from multiplying in my water containers. The fish help control the mosquito larvae too. I love how nature balances everything eventually!

Paul - Those Lotus pots were cheapie containers from Wally World. I got them because there were no pre-drilled holes in the bottom and they had that asian symbol on the side of the containers. I have two of them. One on each side of the arbor.

Thanks Becky! I'm going to try some smaller pots next year then. I think I have a sheltered enough area to overwinter them.

We have tons of frogs. I just love them. The ponds not deep enough for fish.

Thanks for your help, as always.

My fish are minnow type fish. Not big fishies! LOL! Goldfish are popular in those small ponds, too! But the water fowl might see the goldfish so I have the less attractive fishies in my ponds to control the mosquitoes! I still have to feed them because they've had babies and now I have a lot of fish! They swim in schools! It's really neat to watch them! Rather calm and relaxing! But not enough mosquito larvae to feed them all. I can't let them starve so I feed them fish food once a day! LOL! What's a water garden without the water critters? LOL! The tadpoles were eating my water lilies which is another reason I don't like them. They eat the fish food too, but that I don't mind.

I finally saw an adult frog in my pond. There are two frogs that appear to actually be living in and around my pre-formed ponds. I assumed that they were Cuban Tree Frogs because we have an abundance of them here for years and I've found them laying eggs in my ponds. But when I saw the frog, it is not a Cuban frog, but instead perhaps a Southern Leopard frog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... I don't know anything about them except they produce a ton of tadpoles! Ugh! Anyone know more information about these frogs? They are reproducing at an alarming rate! Yikes! I want my toad frogs to return! Very few toad frogs left around here!

great ponds ya'll .. I love them... at a tour to the Bronx Botanical Garden the other day .. saw their work... along with the magnificent Victoria llies.. they had the most gigantic lotuses I've ever seen... the leaves and flowers seemed to stand 8 ft tall...
Here's my pond.. no lilies ths year.. but some years there are.. usually I order them from lilypons.. in MD... also a nice place to visiit and see lots bloomng there...
http://www.lilypons.com/
no fish this year either.. just some Water Hyacinth.. a small fountain to circulate the water.. and a pond fogger with lighting I can change the color of.. in dfferent ways..
Some years I've had raccoons vist the roof garden pond but not a sign of them this year...
I'd love a bg pond... for some Koi... lilies and things... but the weight on the roof quicly mounts up... that 100 gal pond weighs over 800 lbs.
OH... I now alot about that leapord frog... I believe that was the subject of lots of lectures during sophmore biology.. just before disecting .. maybe there's a market there for you

I have a container with a water lily but it has stayed really small. Could it be because it doesn't get much sun? It has been like that for years.

Sandy

do you know what the variety of the water lily is? Some are small, so are predisposed to a specific size.

No I don't remember. I am thinking I got it a Lowe's but don't remember. It doesn't ever bloom either.

To get blooms you need to have the waterlily in a sunny spot. And the use of pond tabs helps too! If you provide both of those, you should get blooms!

Ok Great TY

[quote="ilovejesus99"]No I don't remember. I am thinking I got it a Lowe's but don't remember. It doesn't ever bloom either. [/quote



Becky is right - plenty of sunlight and fertilizer. WL's wont flower unless they have a minimum of 6 hours of sun and they are heavy feeders.

They also don't like moving water.

Ok great I will be moving it as it only gets maybe 2 hours of sun. I will also be giving it fertilizer.
What kind of fertilizer do you both use?

Sandy

I use the Laguna once a year fertilizer stakes. If I had to do it more often, I am sure it wouldn't get done.

Carolyn I totally agree. I am not very good at making sure anything gets fertilizer. Thanks for the name on the one you use.

Interesting reading. Great ideas. I will be doing my ponds for frogs mostly. The development is going to get bad here at some stage and I want to get frogs breeding and homing back to ponds here before it is too late. The problem is a few frogs breed in ephemeral inundating shallow water and soaks. I just don't know how to create these.
As well, with ponds at ground level the introduced Cane Toad just takes over with females laying 30 thousand eggs in one sitting. Becky, you should see this tadpole problem of thousands of black, very poisonous toadpoles. I can get round toads because they can't climb but in doing so one eliminates the non-climbing native frogs, of which there are many. Ponds were not meant to be easy I suppose.

Glen - That is the other reason I cover mine at night .... to keep the Cuban Tree frogs from laying eggs in my 2 above ground small 35 gallon round pre-fab ponds. Some still manage to get in, but not very often. The illegal introduction of Cuban Tree frogs that are quite large .... and are HIGHLY invasive here since they will eat the other frogs which is believed to be the cause of loss of toad frogs as well as native tree frogs here in Florida. I get so excited when the rare occasion happens and I actually see a toad frog. There used to be lots of them here when I moved into my home 20+ years ago. Now it's a rare sight to see one. It makes me sick!

As far as a shallow pond, try using large shallow containers like the plant saucers and bury them to the rim in the ground. It might work, just make sure that you keep the water level up so it doesn't dry out. Place them in a shady area of your yard.

I love the native frogs of Florida, but the Cuban Tree frogs have all but eliminated many of the different species. It's really sad! You are lucky that Australia is so much more strict about such things. Florida is stricter now, but it is too late. They've already thrown the baby out with the bath water (so to speak). (sigh)