We are soldiering through February, here in New Orleans with rain and upstate NY with a dozen feet of snow. But spring is coming.
I am going to start selling live plants on my web site at pondlady.com in March, so I want to spend some time talking about different kinds of plants and why we either need or love them.
The work horse of ponds is the underwater or submerged plant. You cannot have an ecologically balanced pond without submerged vegetation.
Many kinds can be used, (anacharis, cabomba, hornwort and more), but the most popular and efficient is anacharis, pictured above. The underwater plant feeds your fish, but it grows faster than they can eat it. The underwater plant give off oxygen that the fish breathe. And the fish waste feeds the plant. There are even a couple more advantages of submerged vegetation: It filters the water and keeps it crystal clear and because it floats around your fish can hide under it and avoid predators.
One caveat about anacharis and many other types of submerged grasses: They can be invasive and therefore considered noxious weeds in some states. Be sure to check with your local extension service before purchasing any, not just from me, but anywhere. Do not introduce anything to your pond that could escape into native waters, spread wildly and harm the ecobalance of the body of water.
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