A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 pond floors

Does anyone have anything at the bottom of there pond..sand..rock? any suggestions..

Just leaves and some dirt
I know I need to get it out, but the frogs like to hide in it!

I think rock would be beautiful!

we have rock currently at the bottom of our pond now..and it seems to be doing just fine..but the pond we are going to be filling soon .is huge..i'd need like 30 bags of the stuff..hehe..it also holds icky stuff in it..

I don't have anything on the bottom of my pond, just the liner. Makes it easy to suck up the debris with a shopvac once a month, just takes about 10 minutes (but my pond's not that big). It takes a short time for the liner to get covered with a carpet of green algae, which looks natural enough for me.

OOOH Pianolady. I like that idea of sucking the crud up with a shopvac! Do you have snails or frogs? I wonder how the snails would fair going through the vacuum.

I can just see me sucking up the stuff and pulling up the hose, only to find a frog with his back stuck to the thing being sucked in! Poor guy! He'd have a huge hickey on his back!

valerie, that is such a funny thought! but i agree, the shopvac is a great idea!!

I don't think I've ever sucked anything up in the shopvac. If you get one with a drain hole, you can just fill & drain if you have an area downhill of your pond where you can just open the drain & let it go. I highly recommend a shopvac with the larger tubing, and 25 gallons. Don't buy a smaller 10 gallon unless you're going to have to pick up the thing and carry it. Watch Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving. They were selling the 25 gallon one at Home Depot last year for $30! It's great & they were gone 5 min. after they opened.

That is what i use as well at the end of the season and the beginning (shop vac) during spring & summer i use an old pool vacuum hose..works good