I have been wanting to do something similar after seeing the episode where Adam Frost had tanks around his garden that collected rain water and had aquatic plants. However, I live in St Louis, Missouri, and we have mosquitos. Do the plants keep them from breeding, or would I need to have a bubbler? Would love any advice!
You need to line these wooden barrels. Problem solved.
Can't help you with mosquitos @pvessig, but they like warm conditions, and I doubt any plants would have any effect on them breeding. Not sure what a bubbler is, but if you mean a small fountain or similar, I doubt that would have any effect either, but someone else may have experience of that. You can always gather them up with a net and chuck them out for the birds though
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I've had exactly the same problem with my barrel pond. It started well, clean and very attractive but gradually got murkier and the plants (including the oxygenator) started to go grey, then had black, slimy stems/leaves and the water became completely cloudy with a dreadful bad egg smell. The plant compost stank when I took those out, so I have flushed them, left them in buckets of clean water which I changed regularly to remove the smell before putting them back in. I then refilled it and put all the cleaned rocks/plants/little fountain back in, but within a week it had turned again! I have renewed the water four times, topped the water up many times but nothing seems to work and it's a very unpleasant smell. It seems these barrels are burnt before filling with whiskey and it leaves a charcoal layer inside, which is meant to act as a filter but I'm wondering if that is causing the problem, but really don't know for sure. My other little water feature in a large plastic plant pot tray has been fine for two years, so I am now going to get a liner for the barrel and start again, despite GW showing it without the need to line. Very perplexed as it all seemed to be so easy!
I had the same problem when I started my barrel pond @debspanton, I ended up buying a piece of pond liner and stapling it to the barrel. After that it was completely fine.
I feel so sorry reading all of the stories about barrel ponds failing. I have never tried to make one, thought about it often but never got around it. They look so attractive on patios. I would assume it is essential to use a pond liner. It is recommended when building a garden pond, you fill it with water and leave alone for at least a fortnight before putting any plants into it and certainly do not put fish in until the water has settled for several weeks. The very hot weather will not be helping as it ideal for algae and pond plant growth because the water will get really warm to hot.
I'm having to start mine over. I used a pond liner and everything was great for the first year but last year some blanketweed crept in and I didn't deal with it proactively enough and I just couldn't get rid of it. The main issue was that it had managed to attach itself to the pond liner. The oxygenators were no good as they just got caught up in it and disintegrated. The only pond life left in it has been the water lice. I took everything out of it a couple of months ago to make sure the blanketweed would be well and truly dead when I put it back. I'm going to use the remaining water to water the plum/green gage trees so it's not completely wasted. I don't think I had enough surface coverage so will have to take that into account when restocking on pond plants.
I'm a couple of years on from the original post now and all I can say is, persevere! It's definitely not as easy as they make it look, in terms of it not turning into a barrell of sludge, but I never did end up putting a liner in and it has been fine.
Over the winter I got a lot of blanket weed which was suffocating the plants, so I took some out and replaced them, gave the sides a scrub and did about a 50% water change. I also added in some barley straw which is supposed to be a good, natural way of keeping it clear. Touch wood, so far it's been crystal and have various wildlife visiting.
I had a frog last year but s/he doesn't seem to have returned this year. Not sure if that's because they are no longer about, or if he didn't like the pond! I do have some tadpoles though. Amazingly these seem to be ones from last year, that never turned into frogs and survived by burying themselves deep during the winter?! It must be this as when I was cleaning the pond as mentioned above in about February/March time, there were a few tadpoles in the water! No idea if they will turn into frogs this year, or just stay tadpoles forever haha. I'd love to see more frogs visiting ☹️
Frogs only really use water for mating and spawning. If you have frogs each year you will have had spawn at some time. Frogs usually go back to where they hatched, to lay their eggs, each year. Despite being told frogs do not stay in water, I can usually see frogs in my pond, sitting on top of the pond weed or basking in the tops of plant pots so I take that info. with a large pinch of salt. I have newts, toads and frogs which are not supposed to survive together, another large pinch of salt. It may depend on whether the pond is large enough for everything to survive separately.
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Would love any advice!
Can't help you with mosquitos @pvessig, but they like warm conditions, and I doubt any plants would have any effect on them breeding. Not sure what a bubbler is, but if you mean a small fountain or similar, I doubt that would have any effect either, but someone else may have experience of that.
You can always gather them up with a net and chuck them out for the birds though
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I would assume it is essential to use a pond liner. It is recommended when building a garden pond, you fill it with water and leave alone for at least a fortnight before putting any plants into it and certainly do not put fish in until the water has settled for several weeks. The very hot weather will not be helping as it ideal for algae and pond plant growth because the water will get really warm to hot.
I'm a couple of years on from the original post now and all I can say is, persevere! It's definitely not as easy as they make it look, in terms of it not turning into a barrell of sludge, but I never did end up putting a liner in and it has been fine.
Over the winter I got a lot of blanket weed which was suffocating the plants, so I took some out and replaced them, gave the sides a scrub and did about a 50% water change. I also added in some barley straw which is supposed to be a good, natural way of keeping it clear. Touch wood, so far it's been crystal and have various wildlife visiting.
I had a frog last year but s/he doesn't seem to have returned this year. Not sure if that's because they are no longer about, or if he didn't like the pond! I do have some tadpoles though. Amazingly these seem to be ones from last year, that never turned into frogs and survived by burying themselves deep during the winter?! It must be this as when I was cleaning the pond as mentioned above in about February/March time, there were a few tadpoles in the water! No idea if they will turn into frogs this year, or just stay tadpoles forever haha. I'd love to see more frogs visiting ☹️
Despite being told frogs do not stay in water, I can usually see frogs in my pond, sitting on top of the pond weed or basking in the tops of plant pots so I take that info. with a large pinch of salt. I have newts, toads and frogs which are not supposed to survive together, another large pinch of salt. It may depend on whether the pond is large enough for everything to survive separately.