I have water lilies in a basket with gravel but a handful or two of soil in the centre of the gravel. I find this works the best, enough soil to boost the plant but not too much to encourage the roots to take nutrients from the water. I have a koi pond I want the plants mainly to keep on top of the algae and if they look better than algae that is a big bonus.
Mark thank you for your video, I've recently renovated my filtration system and now have Canna Lillies growing in pea gravel in canvas pots, partially submerged in the filtration system, and so far they are thriving. And yes, lots of goldfish poop contributes to their wellbeing 😀!
You are the first to give me an idea to cable tie water lily to a rock. We tried baskets with medium and rocks but our koi kept digging and displacing the rocks and medium. I want to try this thing method.
Hi Mark, you briefly mentioned UV in this video, I have recently built a new pond with a wetland filter (still need to sort out what plants I need) I was wondering what your views are on UV in this kind of setup, should I, shouldn't I ? Keep up the good work, love these vids, hope your back starts feeling better soon :)
UV filters are needed and great on fish pools with no plants or few plants. They do great a sterile body of water. In my preferred system of ecosystem ponds they go against the system so I recommend not installing them. My first few ecosystem pond I did install UVc but no one has been switch on or serviced in the history of the ponds. This is recommended to be a six month thing with pools
My Aquaponics system has a growing media of gravel and hydroton clay balls and their roots are not constantly in water they have a flood and drain system.
Great video, but What can I feed my plants. They all are looking bad !! I am changing my swiming pool to a pond. I have 22 Talipi. And 17 Minnows. It's a 17, 000 pond, lots of ALGEE, My baby Tuts are doing great but? What can I put in there? Not enought poop for the plants?plants?? Thank you
Olá! What about sand? In a wild life pond without fish.. I get plants from nearby wild ponds with a bit of soil and planted like that in the sand, there os a lot of shrubs arround, i thought it would be a lot of nutrients falling in the future🤔 Nice work you have! I admire all of your ponds
I would like to use plants in gravel with the main purpose of removing nutrients from the water . I recently re-lined the pond with a butyl liner and an refilling it with rain water off a garage roof. It's about 5,000 litres. It is ominously going a little green. I have used barley straw extract and have put in some barley straw bales. Do you think i could use plants to take nutrients out of the water? If so any recommendations as to how to do it. There are no fish in the pond.
I have just found your channel and need a bit of advice I am going to put a pond in my lawn would it be ok at lawn level or does it need raising up. I am thinking of putting koi in. Thanks for your time. Carl
Hi Mark, thanks for the video. I’m setting up a new pond, it’s going to be mainly a water garden/wildlife pond. I may put some sticklebacks and a few Rudd, if I plant into the gravel would you think I need to add plant food tabs into the gravel to feed the plants? Cheers
im just doing a frog pond and been looking for plants today and im thinking weather to take them out of there pots and putting them in gravel after watching your video would i be better leaving them in there pots and covering the pots with gravel also i wont be having any fish so how would be best to feed the plants
I've had a Horsetail Rush (Equisetum Hyemale) for a year and it's not grown at all. I have some stalks that have gone brown, and some smaller shoots but it's like it's just frozen in time. When I bought it I envisaged a decent amount of growth by now. It's in a barrel pond in a 20cm square pot. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Do I need to cut off the bronzy coloured shoots? It does say online that it's a relatively slow grower compared to other rushes.
Yes it’s slow and it will sit for a while when divided, 4 ds on all water plants. Check out “what to do with a pond in February” as I talk about the 4 ds and so footage of cleaning up the horsetail rush. Also I have a full video on this plant! Think it’s I. The pond plant playlist well I hope it is, lol if you can find both these videos let me know I will dig them out for you.
My lillies are always red and never grow very big, they always flower lovely thry are now , stringy algae what's my problem at the minute. My Lilles are in mesh pots on thr bottom no food just rocks in tbr bottom. I have been wondering lately if there's enough food , but the weve had algae bad
If you have a problem with weed, then treat with multi aqua or clear to help fight the blanket weed. Sounds like you are feeding the lilies with pond waste.
Hello my friend Your videos have inspired me to build my own pond.ive just moved and have plenty of room. I intend to build a pond approximately 4m x 2.5m x 1.5m deep and use most of the spoil to create a waterfall/stream.my question is,what do I need regarding hardware ie pumps etc.minus the rocks and gravel etc. I also have outdoor plug sockets, are these OK or do the electrics need to be wired straight to the mains. Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I'm a complete novice when it comes to pond building. Many thanks
@@ThePondAdvisor thanks mate. I'm not sure what the the functions of each item are but I will research them .but if you think that's all I need I'll be pleased. I operate mini diggers n jcbs for a living so the digging out won't be a problem. Thanks again, ryan
Hi Mark. I'm new to pond gardening. And I planted my marginal plant in the gravel. Can I put fertilizer on them the same way as when it's planted in aquatic soil? Kind regards
hi Mark , recently i have potted some plants in planters in the soil and covered with gravel but somehow the soil kind of disappear and plants start floating on the water , what to do ?
@@ThePondAdvisor I second that. What plants do fine/well in gravel in a wildlife pond? All my marginals are in gravel in my new wildlife pond, following some examples in your previous videos. Now I'm concerned they won't do well.... I have lily's in a basket though with aquatic soil and fertilizer balls, I knew about those.
Yes you can plant oxygenators in any depth you can see down too. Water Lily’s for 3’ 90cm I would go for “N, Attraction” but really depends on the colour you want.
Not at all, built correctly you can build a pond for a horse to walk around on a liner. We have a layer of protect under the liner, so an under liner made from fabric and then the liner and also an over liner another layer of protection. In extreme cases you can have 17 plus ton boulders placed on protected rubber liner.
![[TF2] The Russian Bear Trap](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YFNSwz2_rOA/mqdefault.jpg)
I have water lilies in a basket with gravel but a handful or two of soil in the centre of the gravel. I find this works the best, enough soil to boost the plant but not too much to encourage the roots to take nutrients from the water. I have a koi pond I want the plants mainly to keep on top of the algae and if they look better than algae that is a big bonus.
Sounds like a happy balance
Mark thank you for your video, I've recently renovated my filtration system and now have Canna Lillies growing in pea gravel in canvas pots, partially submerged in the filtration system, and so far they are thriving. And yes, lots of goldfish poop contributes to their wellbeing 😀!
Sounds lovely
Nice tips mate and the fish are looking very happy swimming around you
Yes they love it lol
You are the first to give me an idea to cable tie water lily to a rock. We tried baskets with medium and rocks but our koi kept digging and displacing the rocks and medium. I want to try this thing method.
I don't have any fish for poop, but the dozens of bird that visits certainly leave a lot of poop to fertilize.
Yes they will bring in other waste as well
Real question is.... will Mark grow in pond ?
lol I must admit, if I had any superpower I would want to interview freshwater life!
Thanks for all advices
Thank you for watching
Good video mate , could you do a video of planting different zonal plants in a pond , searched youtube but nothing much out there!
It will be my pleasure
Great vid. Looking out for a detailed step by step video on building an intake bay and what to do when hitting ground water when digging a pond.
What size this video is a small single aqua bloc intake
ruclips.net/video/EvVlOSPHwi0/видео.html
Thanks for the video awesome and great to know
Thank you,
Hi Mark, you briefly mentioned UV in this video, I have recently built a new pond with a wetland filter (still need to sort out what plants I need) I was wondering what your views are on UV in this kind of setup, should I, shouldn't I ?
Keep up the good work, love these vids, hope your back starts feeling better soon :)
UV filters are needed and great on fish pools with no plants or few plants. They do great a sterile body of water. In my preferred system of ecosystem ponds they go against the system so I recommend not installing them. My first few ecosystem pond I did install UVc but no one has been switch on or serviced in the history of the ponds. This is recommended to be a six month thing with pools
@@ThePondAdvisor Thanks Mark, I'll give the UV a miss and see how the wetland copes
My Aquaponics system has a growing media of gravel and hydroton clay balls and their roots are not constantly in water they have a flood and drain system.
Perfect 👌
Great video! Love the “rafting” plants ;)
Yes we have some rafting ;) plants
lol 😂
Very useful 😊
Thank you 🙏
Fab vid Mark 🍻
Thank you, interesting subject
Thanks mark 👌, like in another comment, could you do a video on zone plants and what would be best for each zone
It will be my pleasure
@@ThePondAdvisor please send us to where the pond zone videos are as so confusing when plants are put in many different zones or depths!! Cheers
@@jackstone4291 ruclips.net/video/hySD5y7CvSk/видео.html
Great video. Thanks
Great video, but What can I feed my plants. They all are looking bad !! I am changing my swiming pool to a pond.
I have 22 Talipi. And 17 Minnows. It's a 17, 000 pond, lots of ALGEE, My baby Tuts are doing great but? What can I put in there? Not enought poop for the plants?plants??
Thank you
You can make a pond plant ball, rap fertiliser in some clay and insert the ball in the media
Olá! What about sand? In a wild life pond without fish..
I get plants from nearby wild ponds with a bit of soil and planted like that in the sand, there os a lot of shrubs arround, i thought it would be a lot of nutrients falling in the future🤔
Nice work you have! I admire all of your ponds
Thank you, sand is the same as gravel, nutrients low
I would like to use plants in gravel with the main purpose of removing nutrients from the water . I recently re-lined the pond with a butyl liner and an refilling it with rain water off a garage roof. It's about 5,000 litres. It is ominously going a little green. I have used barley straw extract and have put in some barley straw bales.
Do you think i could use plants to take nutrients out of the water? If so any recommendations as to how to do it.
There are no fish in the pond.
I have just found your channel and need a bit of advice I am going to put a pond in my lawn would it be ok at lawn level or does it need raising up. I am thinking of putting koi in. Thanks for your time. Carl
Yes level or water level a little lower than the lawn. 100% make sure you have a mechanical filter so lawn clippings don’t become a big problem.
Is it safe to plant flowers in a pond with a bottom drain?
Hi Mark, thanks for the video. I’m setting up a new pond, it’s going to be mainly a water garden/wildlife pond. I may put some sticklebacks and a few Rudd, if I plant into the gravel would you think I need to add plant food tabs into the gravel to feed the plants? Cheers
Depends, you will be ok, do you want the bigger sand most amount of flowers?
great tip this my lillies dont flower..should i add more fish
Feed the waterlilys or more sun
The answers are: yes and yes.
Yes and No for both questions as it depends
im just doing a frog pond and been looking for plants today and im thinking weather to take them out of there pots and putting them in gravel after watching your video would i be better leaving them in there pots and covering the pots with gravel also i wont be having any fish so how would be best to feed the plants
Depends on a couple of things, if your not having fish then creating planting pockets is the next best thing!
Jeez, how deep is that pond?
3’ deep
I've had a Horsetail Rush (Equisetum Hyemale) for a year and it's not grown at all. I have some stalks that have gone brown, and some smaller shoots but it's like it's just frozen in time. When I bought it I envisaged a decent amount of growth by now. It's in a barrel pond in a 20cm square pot. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Do I need to cut off the bronzy coloured shoots? It does say online that it's a relatively slow grower compared to other rushes.
Yes it’s slow and it will sit for a while when divided, 4 ds on all water plants. Check out “what to do with a pond in February” as I talk about the 4 ds and so footage of cleaning up the horsetail rush. Also I have a full video on this plant! Think it’s I. The pond plant playlist well I hope it is, lol if you can find both these videos let me know I will dig them out for you.
Thanks Mark, I'll have a look. Have a good Easter.
Right back at you
You can put feed balls in the gravel can’t you?
Lots of nutrients will leach out however
My lillies are always red and never grow very big, they always flower lovely thry are now , stringy algae what's my problem at the minute. My Lilles are in mesh pots on thr bottom no food just rocks in tbr bottom. I have been wondering lately if there's enough food , but the weve had algae bad
If you have a problem with weed, then treat with multi aqua or clear to help fight the blanket weed. Sounds like you are feeding the lilies with pond waste.
Hello my friend
Your videos have inspired me to build my own pond.ive just moved and have plenty of room.
I intend to build a pond approximately 4m x 2.5m x 1.5m deep and use most of the spoil to create a waterfall/stream.my question is,what do I need regarding hardware ie pumps etc.minus the rocks and gravel etc.
I also have outdoor plug sockets, are these OK or do the electrics need to be wired straight to the mains.
Sorry if I sound like an idiot but I'm a complete novice when it comes to pond building.
Many thanks
We’re about are you from in the UK 🇬🇧
@@ThePondAdvisor I'm in Nottinghamshire mate
I would look at the medium pond kit
waterfeature.shop/products/aquascape-medium-pond-kit-uk
@@ThePondAdvisor thanks mate.
I'm not sure what the the functions of each item are but I will research them .but if you think that's all I need I'll be pleased.
I operate mini diggers n jcbs for a living so the digging out won't be a problem.
Thanks again, ryan
will iris, marsh marigold and water buttercup grow in garvel in a fish pond?
Yes they will do well
Well the blue herons keep eating my fish so looks like just gavel will not work for me.
Have you seen my predator videos (it’s pretty easy to stop herons)
Can you put a in plant food in the water for your plants that are in gravel
I would say you can but the algae will eat the nutrients, your better off using a finer media like sand or Sandy loam if you want to feed.
ruclips.net/video/ejcm49j92AI/видео.html
Hi Mark. I'm new to pond gardening. And I planted my marginal plant in the gravel. Can I put fertilizer on them the same way as when it's planted in aquatic soil? Kind regards
No as the gravel will not hold on to the nutrients
If you feed your fish the fish Poo will feed the plants. Some will grow better.
hi Mark , recently i have potted some plants in planters in the soil and covered with gravel but somehow the soil kind of disappear and plants start floating on the water , what to do ?
Did you use solid pots?
ruclips.net/video/SA7vBEZ6pOY/видео.html
I waited for one question: Which plants for Different depths are doing Great in gravel ?
You want me to produce a video on the different depths and which plants for growing in gravel?
@@ThePondAdvisor that would be cool. I‘m currently looking for plants to grow in gravel at about 60cm depth. And some for the margins. Happy Easter !!
@@ThePondAdvisor
I second that. What plants do fine/well in gravel in a wildlife pond?
All my marginals are in gravel in my new wildlife pond, following some examples in your previous videos. Now I'm concerned they won't do well....
I have lily's in a basket though with aquatic soil and fertilizer balls, I knew about those.
can you plant oxenagating plants 3ft deep and can you recommend a lilly also ?
Yes you can plant oxygenators in any depth you can see down too. Water Lily’s for 3’ 90cm I would go for “N, Attraction” but really depends on the colour you want.
How deep is that pond???
90cm 3’ in the deepest section 18” most of the way around
What kinda soil you recommend?
Aquatic soil or cricket wicket loam
Hi mark. how many plants would you recommend for a stillwater pond that contains a few fish that is 5 foot long by 3 foot wide.
50-70% coverage have a look at this video
ruclips.net/video/V5v7pw6nxYU/видео.html
Keep the plants in check to avoid oxygen levels dropping
will typha minima grow in gravel
Soft silt is best, yes it will grow but not flower as much in gravel.
How is this guy just walking into the pond? Won't his weight on the stones puncture the liner?
Not at all, built correctly you can build a pond for a horse to walk around on a liner.
We have a layer of protect under the liner, so an under liner made from fabric and then the liner and also an over liner another layer of protection. In extreme cases you can have 17 plus ton boulders placed on protected rubber liner.