Actually all of my plants are planted in pea gravel, most in pots on my
shelves. Those on the shelves are all diff. varieties of Louisiana iris,
which are blooming nicely again, as we speak. I live in zone 5 and they
overwinter here fine, left right on the 12 deep shelves where they sit all
winter..
My VF (adjacent to the water garden) consists of a bog garden, approx 8 x 9
ft. It runs 4 inches in depth, with 2 inches of gravel, into which L.
irises, Lizard tails, Pickerel rush, and Sweet flag were planted and grow
like weeds (esp. the invasive Lizard tails).
The first 2 years I had soil in the bog (clay), and the leached nutrients
had to have been significant, as I had tons of string algae in the water
garden.
Got sick of that, so removed all dirt from the bog one spring, and replaced
it with 2 inches pea gravel. The following season, and ever since, have had
no trouble with algae. (and that's for pond in full sun all day long). I no
longer even use a uv. Sold mine couple of years back.
Only things I fertilize are the lilies, (also planted in pea gravel), in
pots 16 inches under water. I use plant tabs, 1 per gallon, once a month
when blooms start.
All the marginals, floaters, and all others never get any supplemental
fertilization. They get enough from the fish!
Happy ponding,
Greg


"Sam Hopkins" wrote in message
.. .
Iris wont work as VF plants. They'll get thier nutrients from the dirt and
not the water column.

"BenignVanilla" m wrote
in
message ...
I am using WH and Iris as my primary VF plants. I was thinking of taking
the
iris out of the pots they are in and planting them directly in piles of
pebbles in the VF. Any thoughts?

--
BenignVanilla
Pond Site: www.darofamily.com/jeff/links/mypond
Remove MYFRONTALLOBE to email me.