I need suggestions for planting ground cover around the edge of my new pond to control erosion and provide a safety margin, so I don't have to bush hog so close to the edge. I do plan to seed some rye grass in and around the new pond as soon as the contractor finishes next week. In the spring I plan to come back with centipede. We have a bed of Monkey Grass (Mondo) that needs thinning, and I was thinking about trying it around the edge. I know from experience it can be invasive around a flower bed, but in this case it would be bound on one side by the water, and I could mow it to keep it from spreading out too far from the edge.

Is this a good idea? If not, are there some better options that would help stop erosion and provide a safety margin for the tractor around the edge?

On a related matter, if anyone knows any good pond landscaping consultants in the East Alabama/West Georgia area, please send me any suggestions.

Will the water level in the pond stay the same, or will it fluctuate during the year. If it will fluctuate, how much? There are different plants that do well submerged, partially submerged and others that do well in the capillary zone around the pond edge.

I think monkey grass would do just fine, and think it's a great idea. Attractive, very thick, small plant, slow spreading. A row of monkey grass is so thick it would act like a check dam.

If it spreads too much, you can give it a sniff of glyphosate wherever your mower won't reach.

I'm currently using bermudagrass for erosion control, and it works OK. Not real pretty to look at, but works.

I'm glad you said that. My wife had the gardener here today, so we went ahead and thinned the monkey grass and planted a row along the edge. I thought I needed to get something down there ASAP before the rains.

I'm torn between bermuda grass and centipede for the area around the pond. But that decision can wait until spring.

I hope it will stay pretty constant--assuming it ever fills at all. Right now I'm just trying to reduce erosion in the pond and at the water edge and above until spring. I'll spend the next couple of months picking all your brains about long-term landscaping. I already have lots of questions on my list.

We'll be here to help answer them...

Hi Farmer Charlie:
Why not send for a catalog from JF New Corp? They sell everything and their catalog has very nice photos and descriptions of native plants for different areas.
I have a buffer zone about 3-4 feet between my lake and block retaining wall, with river rock at the water's edge. I find that just about anything grows in my sand (I bet you have clay, maybe red?). I use things that you would not think would do well, but it works really well holding the sand in. Iris, Ajuga, Daylillies, Coneflowers, Black eyed susans, rushes, sedges, and in the water pickeral weed, zebra rush, sweet flag, hybrid water lillies and on an on. It was hit and miss but I made sure not to plant anything invasive.

2catmom:

I'll have to tell my sister what you said about the photos. She took probably 90% of the ones in the catalog. Thanks!

Farmer Charlie, throw some annual rye grass and winter wheat in all the bare areas including the pond basin. The grass will not only help reduce erosion, it will help keep your water from getting as turbid as it would without grass as it fills. You may want to add several tons of Ag lime before it fills as well if a soil test indicates it.

That's my plan. The fertilizer company was scheduled to come spread a couple tons of lime per acre yesterday, but we got enough rain Thursday night to have to postpone it. I'm not sure a spreader truck is exactly the kind of structure I need in the pond. If the rain will just hold off a few more days, then we can get this project finished, and I can start hoping for rain again.

I am in the same position roughly. The lime truck was here on Friday and spread 3 tons of lime an acre over the pond and area around it roughly 3 acres. been little tilling and planting since Friday afternoon. The whole area has been scratched up and fertilized at 100-60-60 am acre except for the pond basin that got no fertilizer. The fertilizer was tilled in. I have to plant the lawn area (dam top, front, building site) and the oats in the area that will be frost seed to wildflowers and short warm season grasses in March.

And so do my sheep. I was just out for my dawn tour of the pond, and I noticed the lambs were also on patrol. They had made the circuit around the pond and had dug up a lot of the monkey grass we planted yesterday. They didn't eat it--just dug it up. For spite I suppose. I just might get even by converting one of them to chops for supper.

How cool is that Scott? The first MLSA conf. GF LakeChair and I went to was cool: We partied with the guy from JF NEW (he's not there anymore) and it took him at least 4 beers to fess up that he was once the VP of the bad co. that we threw out of here. He was the 1st fun person we met in our saga. Boy, we learned more in the bar than at the conference...........

That's the way it usually is! The rumor mill is saying that J.F. New will be sold again shortly.....

We got the monkey grass replanted, and I now have the sheep fenced out of the pond area. Here is a view from the east bank with the monkey grass at the bottom and looking towards the west bank.


A large sweet gum root ball from the front yard is near the center with an underwater island behind it and an underwater peninsula behind and to the right. The tree behind the island is on the edge on the west side.