Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations STRAW-HAY-AERATOR ON NEW POND

Gang I've just had a 1 acre pond dug out. The area use to stay kind of damp with crawfish holes like little fountains all over, there is creek about 40 feet away that runs about half way around the pond. We got down about 6-8 feet and hit some tough slate so we built up the sides so it would be about 6-12 feet deep "if it will fill completely" anyway I already have about 4' of water at one end "nothing much at the other shallow end" I plan on using some lime however, I thought I might try to bring in another larger excavator in and try digging it a little deeper here and there. In the meantime though should I throw some hey "almost afraid to use hey" or straw in and around the pond to help keep it from errosion problems? I don't want to seed grass around the pond until late fall next year so I can see what the water level is going to do, does this make sense? The weather here in Ky is getting cold now, with rain and snow probably all week, I'm curious how the pond will react, will it fill quickly or just mellow, LOL
Also I wanted to out a fountain in, would this work about as well as an aerator? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :-)

If you have a way to hold the hay in place, do it. But, there are cool climate grasses which can grow on disturbed soils. I would do that. Your county agent can recommend the best grasses, but I bet there's a bluegrass or a rye grass which will work for you.

Meadowlark has posted several times about his use of large round hay bales. Unroll them along the dam and they should stay in place. It's a tough job but should work better than anything else. If you have any obvious areas that will erode, I'd toss some rocks in that area to slow down or disperse the water.

That's strange...thought I had read this same post last night and it was ...

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=002193

"It's like deja-vu all over again!"