Re: Barrel pond plans / questions

Flash Wilson wrote:
Okey doke... I now have a half barrel in my yard and want to know
if my plans are sane, please! I have googled lots but basically
I like to keep things simple, and also have no water or electricity
supply to my back yard.

So, I have a half barrel 27" wide and 18" deep which arrived today.
The plan is to fill it with water over the weekend, and to put some
lava rock in the bottom for bacteria to colonise.

Then to order a plant starter pack (plants and baskets) from here:
http://www.wetlandplants.co.uk/acatalog/info%5fmp1%2ehtml
That should arrive next Thur or Fri.

Then next weekend I should be able to get some toadspawn from a friend who has loads (I plan to put rocks around the tub).

Does this all sound ok so far?

Sounds like great fun. I have a pond with 3 half barrels chained together and spillways between them. I love it!

Are you planning to line the barrel? It's safer for the fish/frogs. Pond liner works well. Half-fill the barrel, fold it to fit, add more water go push all the air out, and tack the liner to the edge of the barrel with staples or roofing nails.

I'd want to know what the plants are in the pack. It sounds like they've left license to give you whatever doesn't sell. ;-) It's also twice as many plants as will fit in a single barrel.

If I only had one barrel, I'd use one tall marginal like dwarf papyrus or pickerel weed, one short - I love my sweet flag, a hardy lily, a couple bunches of anacharis, and some water lettuce (it's not as invasive as hyacinth and inhibits green water algae).

Watch out for the plant baskets. I made the mistake of using them last year and now I'm going to have to cut them apart to thin the plants. The roots make a solid, tangled mass when they grow through the holes. I'm switching to regular 1 and 2 gallon pots with some weed cloth in the bottom to hold in the soil.

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Relevant Pages

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