Dave wrote Thanks Kathy.....I live in central Missouri whatever zone that is


I paged Nedra in the header, she lives in Missouri. I tend to think of Missouri
as part of the steamy south but from reading Nedra's posts over the years I was
surprised to find it can get rather wintery!
Water hyacinth is a great veggie filter plant because of its nice long roots,
they gather up muck and use up the nutrients.
You can find out if they are illegal in your state by searching
'Missouri, noxious aquatic plants'. What states are concerned about is ponders
dumping their excess plants in natural waterways or ponders who live on a
floodplain and their plants all get washed away.
Other good filter plants are water celery, watercress, water mint. Others will
chime in.

Hi Dave,
Some of your questions' answers will be better answered if we knew what
area of
the country you live in and what your garden zone is.

Here in zone 7, SE WA, arid, I'd plant moss in the spring and I use water
hyacinth in my veggie filter and watercress in my waterfall.
Some plants are actively discouraged and outright illegal in some parts of
the
country (SE USA and water hyacinth come to mind).
In the winter I don't heat my pond. I usually use an air pump and bubbler
to
keep a hole open in the ice or a stock tank heater.



kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html