Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Unfinished Pond - Prep for wait

hi all

love this forum. i have been a lurker for a little while but first time posting.

i had to fire my contractor. work started beginning of June. the ~1/2 acre pond is still not finished. maybe about 70% done.
the contractor i'm talking to now won't be able to start until late spring/early summer next year.

i have about 100 pounds of buckwheat seed i had planned to plant around the pond once completed. since that's not gonna happen now for a while and i have a "mountain" of soil waiting to be used then, should i go ahead and sow said "mountain" with the buckwheat seeds? i'm in middle/east tennessee and we get 50+ inches of rain a year. a lot of it during winter. i don't want any of that soil mountain eroding into the unfinished pond.

i'm also wondering if i should sow some wheat or annual rye seeds on the pond banks/sides for the same reason.

what do you think?

thanks a million

maureen

It would be a good idea to sow some seeds on that fresh dirt to avoid as much erosion as possible, here in MO I do a lot of annual or perennial Rye grass, and also wheat on exposed soil, its really cheap and it doesnt have to be certified seed wheat, I buy regular feed wheat, comes up fast and holds soils well. remember, as others said, your soils from a deep source like that may not have much nutrients at all, to counteract that you will need to fertilize it well with a good triple 13 fertilizer, which may be the only source of nutrients for the seed to grow on.
I finished my pond in March, it had no topsoil cover, just some rocky, chirty, clay from way down deep. On the back side and top of the dam, I immediately seeded it with a wheat and rye grass mixture and fertilized it really well and it took off like crazy, I added clover the next winter and havent touched it since other then to add fertilizer, even with a huge amount of rain in the first several months I have had almost no erosion problems and a clover stand on the back of the dam so thick that it choked out my crown vetch that I wanted to take over for the long term when the clover dies out. Good luck!

P.S. Don't worry so much that the knot in your stomach persists. A little dirt washing back into the pond at this stage is not a big deal! You already have arrangements for equipment to be on site anyway next spring.

It is AFTER your pond is completed that erosion control is very important. Consider this fall a practice run, so you will be very good at it next spring when your pond is finished!