I had pretty steep banks around the pond, and after renovation and finish grading, used a local hydroseeder. He cost me ~!2k but he did a lot more than just around my 1 acre pond, and I'm glad I did it. Used a "california" erosion mix of seed containing native grasses and wildflowers. Both perennial and annual. Some of the ryes and fescues do really good. Had record rains this winter and it held up good. Dont know if you got NE native mixes, some prarie mix...consult locals.
One concern I had was the fertilizer in the hydroseed, and subsequent run-off to pond, but I dont think it had much impact, maybe helped out some phytoplankton......
Our situations are undoubtedly different, just my 2 pennies.
Have posted pics at photobucket.com, username jdsmith2, password pond101....please log me out when done. There's one pic taken shortly after the seeding. The hydroseed work was done in Nov.05, and you can see just how well it all took in all the green pics taken this May.
Oh, and Russ if you catch this post, I added some pics in the snow, very cool (so to speak), photo album is now 2 pages for complete collection.
