In deference to the fish - I removed all the plants that they could reach
this year. Those plants will go into a watergarden in the back yard. For
something to take the "barren" look out of the pond, I went to the local
"artificial plant" warehouse and purchsed some plastic ornamental "grass"
(18-24" long) and siliconed it into 3-hole bricks. They collect algae and
look very natural, but they don't grow, don't shed, don't require
fertilizing, don't need trimming, and the koi only hide in there - they
don't try to destroy it GBG!!!! Yea!!! So the plants I'll be replanting
won't have any demon fish (a.k.a. spoiled brats) to root around in them. I
may find it hard not to have fish (What??? water and no FISH???), but if I
put any in, it will only be small ones. I'll have 2 ponds with koi by then
to worry about, and I think a stress-free plant pond would be nice!

Lee


"Bonnie Espenshade" wrote in message
...

Plain kitty litter is clay. My koi had a wonderful time
digging in it even with a layer of 1" stones on top. I then
added larger stones and they still dug in the kitty litter.
I quit using the kitty litter and soon dug a pond just for
the koi with no plants.

--
Bonnie
NJ
http://home.earthlink.net/~maebe43/