Oh Boy - do I ever remember this episode. It took me literally
weeks to lift all the gravel out of the veggie filter. Ugh! Bonnie
is absolutely right. If you plant anything in the veggie filter, please
do yourself a favor. Incorporate the mesh planters in your
plans. If you do intend to plant lotus - put the gravel in a
mesh planting basket, then the seeds. That way you can
rather easily lift the baskets out in the fall or spring for division.
Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118
"Bonnie" wrote in message
...
Mickey wrote:
The link should take you to pictures of my soon to be Veggie Filter. The
pond is a work in progress, so it is still rough around the edges. The
water
is still a little cool 40 -50 deg F. I am thinking of putting pea
gravel in
the bottom of the veggie filter this year and planting lotus seed and
see
how they do. From what I have read they should grow well in an area that
size. I would like to put a plant in that will grow easily and not
require a
lot of maintenance. I figure that will also help the small stuff settle
out
and hopefully cut down on algae. Being that the pond is above ground it
is
emptied in the fall and the fish moved indoors for the winter. So it
will be
cleaned yearly. Remembering I would have to overwinter indoors any
plants I
get are their any other suggestions? Anybody bought the Lotus seed on
EBay?
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mic...=/dab1&.src=ph
Hi Mickey,
When I put in my first veggie filter I added 2" of pea
gravel. When I cleaned it the end of the first year, I
hated the pea gravel but thought it was necessary and put
it back into the filter. The next year when I was cleaning
the filter I thought this is nuts and got rid of the gravel.
My advice is not add any type of gravel in a veggie filter.
It's horrible to clean (ask Nedra) and completely
unnecessary. If you have a strong back and love to lift all
the gravel and rinse it thoroughly once a year - go ahead.
--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/