Hi Holldoll,
I realize that you posted your question last July, but I might have an inexpensive answer for you. September of 2008 I put my 365 gallon pond , and right away I put beauty bark down around the pond. Realizing that beauty bark wasn't a natural look, I decided to plant irish moss and wooley thyme. The beauty bark was getting tracked around by our dog. Irish moss took over rather quickly, and the wooley thyme spread a little slower. Despite how nice irish moss looks around the pond, I found it isn't as hardy as wooley thyme. Wooley thyme withstands hot, dry weather better than irish moss. I think irish moss would be more suited for a landscape area with a lot of shade. Also the slugs and cut worms love irish moss and won't touch the wooley thyme. From this last August on I found myself having to go outside in the cool evening and pick out slugs and cut worms while they were chowing down on the nice green irish moss. Nothing would eat or mess with the wooley thyme. One other nice feature of using wooley thyme and even irish moss is that if you have to you can walk or neal down on it, and it won't damage the nice green looking landscape around your pond. I'm sure there are quite few other ground covers you can use to beautify the landscape around your pond.
Go to:
www.picasaweb.google.com/oldmarine1969 I have some hodge podge pictures of the evolution of my pond so you can get a rough idea what I'm talking about.
