My pond is now about half a year old and is a little over an acre and a half. The soil was high in clay content. The dam has a compacted core that went down over 12 feet below the stream bottom we dammed up. The pond bowl was shaped and marginally compacted just by the nature of driving around on it with the dozers and trackhoe. Areas of soil ended up fairly loose, especially in the back which I assume is helpful for all the emergent plants I'm starting in the back. I was planting some spatterdock and waded in and would sink into the clay/silt in some places almost up to a foot. It wasn't this soft before it filled up. My goal is to get the back filled in with spatterdock, lily, iris, various sedges, rushes, swamp milkweek, pickler weed, etc for looks and habitat. The whole pond gets fairly muddy after heavy rains but I figure that will quit once I get some real good vegetation going. It clears back after a couple weeks back to green.

Can I expect the soil to stay this loose or will it settle down over time and compact a little so it's easier to walk on? My dog who was formerly terrified of water has now become quite the water bug and loves to run around in about a foot of water stirring up the clay on the bottom. Will this end up getting covered in algae or anything that will limit how much clay she stirs up or is there anything else I can do? I have grass coming up around the pond perimeter.


David Clapper