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Post by mountaindweller on Jul 4, 2012 1:04:48 GMT -5
I didn't know were to put this: it's about growing food in ponds.
Now, as I have to mound some fruit trees I need dirt and I dug this pond (not that you think that I start always 5 projects at the same time).
I have a bad of bentonite laying around too. The pond will be dry at times because it feeds with our neighbours stormwater runof. I dug a meandering drench to feed that pond.
Do you plant your food plants in pots or do you fill a bit of good soil on the top of the bentonite? How do you prevent the pond and the drench from silting up? Or does it always silt up and you must dig out and refill the bentonite?
What soil mixture do you use for pond plants?
I have ordered Arrowhead, pickerel rush and waterchestnuts. (All but the pickerel rush are still in the house, but when I wait until it's warm enough here they're gone)
What edible water plants do you grow?
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 4, 2012 4:19:37 GMT -5
We NEED a pond, but we just don't have the wherewithall to do it yet. It had not really occured to me to plant things in it that I could eat. We were thinking more of things for the goosie to eat.
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Post by rowan on Jul 4, 2012 4:40:22 GMT -5
I've decided to try growing water chestnuts and lotus in large plastic tubs.
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Post by steev on Jul 5, 2012 0:12:58 GMT -5
When I get around to a pond, I intend to start browsing the local Asian markets for things that grow in ponds/bogs; there are maybe half a dozen such (like water chestnut) that are often seen, but the names of which I am ignorant.
Cattails and lotus will also get a shot.
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Post by raymondo on Jul 5, 2012 0:23:29 GMT -5
I'd like to try cumbungi (bullrush) but I'd probably just try it in a big tub. I can't see myself making a pond though parts of my yard do very good pond impressions during heavy rain.
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Post by mountaindweller on Jul 5, 2012 3:01:14 GMT -5
I really must call some of the bathroom renovators to get old bathtubs.
Then I could lead the overflow of the tank into a bathtub or two and the overflow of the bathtub into a pond. (Unfortunatly Australian bathtubs have no overflow). Best would be getting an old spa bath.
We have a 2 m² roof connected to a drum and I would like to have the overflow connected to a bathtub and we dug a pond there yet.
I am not sure weater directly planting in the pond or bathtub or in pots of buckets.
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Post by circumspice on Jul 7, 2012 4:20:29 GMT -5
I didn't know were to put this: it's about growing food in ponds. Now, as I have to mound some fruit trees I need dirt and I dug this pond (not that you think that I start always 5 projects at the same time). I have a bad of bentonite laying around too. The pond will be dry at times because it feeds with our neighbours stormwater runof. I dug a meandering drench to feed that pond. Do you plant your food plants in pots or do you fill a bit of good soil on the top of the bentonite? How do you prevent the pond and the drench from silting up? Or does it always silt up and you must dig out and refill the bentonite? What soil mixture do you use for pond plants? I have ordered Arrowhead, pickerel rush and waterchestnuts. (All but the pickerel rush are still in the house, but when I wait until it's warm enough here they're gone) What edible water plants do you grow? I know virtually nothing about building, stocking or maintaining a pond that would be useful for growing edibles... BUT! I would recommend that you consider stocking it with some sort of wildlife that will eat mosquito larvae and algae. It would probably be a living hell to 'grow your own' mosquitoes or have algae foul your pond... One lady whose blog I read stocked her pond with plants that oxygenate the water & fish that eat algae & mosquito larvae.  |
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Post by mountaindweller on Jul 7, 2012 22:36:29 GMT -5
We are having a lot of frogs around so that won't be a problem, and snakes love this environment too. Oh yes, we have some of the deadliest snakes here....
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Post by steev on Jul 8, 2012 23:50:20 GMT -5
Among the Aztecs, mosquito eggs were royal food. Can't say the idea appeals to me, much, but I am no blue-blood.
Algae is quite useful in the compost pile, being a way of removing excess nutrients from the pond and returning them to land, also very useful just spread on beds and worked in.
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