Last fall I was so tired by the time it was time to take the pots out of the pond I just pulled them up, drained them, and dug holes in my raised bed and buried them with only about 2-3" of mulch on top. This spring I was amazed to see growth. For the life of me I couldn't remember what I had put there. When the ground finally thawed out enough to dig a little I saw the edge of the black pots and remembered. I am really amazed. They are awfully tough little guys. Don't know if they will survive enough for me to get them out of the bed and into the pond.

Wow, I've never tried leaving them out of the water. Do you have pictures of them waking up?

False alarm. I did put the lilies upside down in the hoop bed but they rather predictably died. I have no clue what is growing other than it had to have been in the pond as it is still in the rubber pot (one with holes I believe) and you can see the algae around the rim. All I can think of is maybe water celery.. I had it survive in the rocks and then come back in the spring.

Water celery is pretty tough stuff. It's fast becoming a favorite fish fodder and small container cleaner for me.

"small container cleaner?" What's that?

Not very clear, was I? I like to throw plants like water celery into small containers of water like whiskey barrel water gardens and quarantine tanks because it helps stabilize the water and health of the system. It oxygenates, stabilizes the nutrient cycles, and provides habitat for small fish that I scatter around to control mosquitos. It grows fast both above and below the water line, but isn't so invasive that I can't rip it out as a small water garden matures.

Yes, it does spread rapidly. I would be afraid to put it into a mud bottomed pond. I planted some blue betony along the edge of my pond and it started spreading everywhere, under rock even to cross a barrier. I had to work like a son of a gun to get it all dug out. Also in my pond I fight algae all summer long and it hangs around anything growing like lilies or water celery. Makes a terrible mess and I can't get it out of the plants. I put Algaway 5.4 and barley in to try to keep it down in the little stream that ends in a falls.

What "small fish" do you scatter around? I have a bunch of "pocket ponds" (22" containers, some partly buried) that get too warm for goldfish since there are no pumps. I was thinking of trying gouramis or bettas (yes I know they'd need to come inside for the winter). Meanwhile, I'm sticking with my weekly dosing of mosquito bits, which works out well.

I do, in fact, mostly use large feeder goldfish, sometimes in containers as small as 10 gallons. They do all right for me with water temperatures up to 90F, once established. I've tried other fish, but nothing seems to be as tough for me as the goldfish.

I used feeder goldfish last year, but only 1 survived after a week of 100 degree temps. Some floated rather than simply vanishing, so I know they didn't get fished out by raccoons. Maybe I'll try again...

I was thinking that labyrinth fish (gouramis, bettas) should do better because they naturally occur in warm, slow-moving streams that are often not much more than puddles... the "labyrinth organs" in their heads allow them to gulp air and absorb oxygen from it... not quite lungs, but better than relying on gills alone.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping up the mosquito bits!

We can get free Gambusias (mosquito fish) from vector control here. They're just guppies, but the Raccoon still tore up my water lily pot an got most of them.

Sorry to hear you had a pesky critter! Guppies... there's a thought... Thanks!

I came across another idea via googling just now... bait shop minnows! Seems to me like they'd need a pump in the container, but the article I read said they could be utilized like mosquito fish in smaller water gardens.

just plain ol minnows are great and live through the winter. I don't know about shallow pots though where they freeze completely. I assume your pots freeze totally in the winter? It may also be that a buried pot of water is going to get too hot for any fish period. Not to mention that there is no moving water. Most fish need moving water or filtration or at least something.

For now, I'm sticking with tadpoles.

I believe tadpoles mostly eat algae...

tad poles will not eat anything but algae.

Critter, I used the mosquito dunks after the varmints got my mosquito fish, but that stuff floating looks awful. Now I depend on dragonflies. I don't know if they would over winter in your zone, but the nymphs can live a long time here, and they are voracious predators.
My buddy

The mosquito bits seem to sink after a day here. I occasionally see a few small mosquito larvae between applications, but of course I don't let them mature before adding more bits... and I don't see them in pots with tadpoles. Possibly the tadpoles eat the mosquito eggs and not the larvae, although I've learned not to keep big tadpoles together with little ones when we've taken some inside to raise.

I have seen dragonfly nymphs a couple of times in my lotus pots -- very cool! Great photos of your buddy, Carol.

Hoping to attract my own Mosquito Patrol, I just ordered a bat house (from an Amazon store, but the same kind that the Bat Conservancy has on their site). It's well made and sturdy, and it has mesh inside instead of just grooved wood, so baby bats can get around easily.

Just stumbled over this thread,
Mary I over winter quite a few of my water plants in the Veggie Garden. Since I have several small ponds not deep enough to over winter all my plants. I dig up an area of my unplanted Veggie Garden each fall and put the pots in there and cover them over, then in the spring when it is time to start using the Veggie garden again I dig them up and put them in the ponds. Last year I did over winter a few of my water lilies that way and several of them did survive but generally I would put them in the bottom of my deepest pond and only put the more marginal plants in the ground to overwinter.
I wrote a very short article about Overwintering Hardy Pond Plants this way
http://garden.org/ideas/view/H...

I also use pieces of the mosquito Dunks in some of my still pots but only the ones that don't have fish or tadpoles those don't need them as the fish and tadpoles eat up the mosquito larvae before they are a problem. I don't really know what dragon fly larvae look like I will have to check that out. I do see dragonflies here from time to time.