We renovated our spring-fed pond late last summer, and into the fall. We are working towards creating a natural swimming pond. We killed all the fish in the pond using hydrated lime, and the water looks great. The weather's warmed up, and it's time to plant water plants!
I would LOVE to have ideas on specific plant genus/type and if you know a source online that you'd trust, that would be awesome to know!
A few perimeters:
1. We live in zone 5, and prefer perennials.
2. We want as many bare-rooted plants as we can on the assumption that they'll sap more nutrients from the water.
3. Pond is almost entirely full sun.
4. We have the pond rimmed with rocks that start at the edge at just under the surface, and then slope down to a barrier to about two feet of depth. This "margin area" for plants is about 1600 square feet, so we need to try to use less expensive plants.
5. We know that it'll take a few years to create a mature water garden.
OUR CURRENT IDEAS (tell me if they should change)
1. Water irises, planted bare root in pea-gravel corrals.
2. Water forget-me-nots planted on the margins at water's edge (we got two from the nursery, do they have to stay in pots?)
3. Arrowhead (do they have to stay in pots, or can I transfer to marginal mud/pea gravel corrals?)
Thanks, in advance!
