Over Wintering Pond Plants

[Crabbergirl]

Originally Posted by Gloria

I have a hyacinth problem..Hubby and I had a pond dug a few years ago. I'm not talking the cute little gold fish pond..we dug a 35 ftX 65 ft pond! I wanted a natural pond with catfish, brem, bass and a load of ducks swimming around. RJ brought home a small bag of hyacinth from a friends pond and now we can't see the water for the hyacincth. It doesn't die because our winters are not cold enough to kill it. It continues to multiply. I read about a poison that will help control it but it sounds too dangerous to try. We tried scooping it out but there's too much of it and it's very heavy with all the hairy roots that have grabbed the water like a sponge. Any suggestions besides filling in the pond and growing a garden there?

Here we have them naturally, so the state sprays for them which by the way I hate, We just drg them out of the water with a long handle rake. Watch for snakes of all kinds, they love hyacinths. If you leave them out of the water and dry them in the sun they can then go to the compost.

[Trax]

Re-copy, edit, and paste: Okay, I'm convinced! Maybe a small pond for hyacinth and a bigger pond for water lilies and stuff (other side of the yard). I hope it attracts some interesting snakes cause I love taking photos!

[Gloria]

Sorry that this pic is so blurry, I'll remove it later. It's so humid here that my lens fogs up and I can't get a good pic right now. But here is a glimps of my problem. RJ and I have decided that as soon as possible, we'll hire the track-hoe man again and dig it out. Sure hate that cause we'll lose all the fish.

[Treva]

Gloria Get Muscovey ducks!!!
They eat them!
I had a few in my small pond and the ducks ate them along with all other water plants and a few goldfish!
Needless to say I know longer have muscovy ducks!
But looks like you could use them!

[Trax]

Gloria: Omg! That's a jungle! Treva has a good point, though. Every plant has definite enemies. If you can find one with a huge appetite (maybe the ducks), that might be easier. Best of luck with that project and please keep us posted!

[Crabbergirl]

Muscovy's are dirty little birds! Gloria , that's alot of weeds! Looks like our river bank. Goto Watergarden.com they have all kinds of orgainc agua safe weed control. Might be cheaper than the backhoe guy. Just a thought.

[Gloria]

I've heard about the ducks and I'll do more research, it can't hurt. So you know it wasn't always this bad..here's a pic when we first added the Hyacinth. I liked my back yard and pond..now it's awful. I've moved most all the flowers because snakes will hide under them and I just don't care to look at the pond.

[Treva]

Gloria i am sorry you have had to go through this!
I know the ducks will work...i did not have one piece of one water plant left! lol

[Gloria]

Treva, I'd gladly give up all the water plants and fish for the return of a Hyacinth free pond. I could always restock and start over and with the things that's non-invasive. Thanks for the suggestion. I am going to look into it.

[Treva]

The ducks wont bother any fish except gold fish...we have brim and bass inthe big pond they never touched!