We lost 20 cherry trees after we built the pond. Even though they were back aways from the pond, the water must of saturated the roots. Also we are finding that growing grass around the pond is hard to do when using dirt that was gathered from the digging of the pond.
You need to seed, throw on some topsoil, and then roll burlap over that and stake it. You can buy 300 feet X six feet wide rolls from Dayton Burlap for about $100.00 on the Internet.
Straw is cheaper but if you don't keep it wet it has a tendency to blow into the pond.
