Covert ponding

[Bearb]

Last year a building down the street from my office was torn down leaving a building sized crater of concrete and rubble. The hole promptly filled with water and has been that way ever since. The property was to be developed, but the developer lost the funding and I don't know how long we will have to look at this eyesore. I noticed that some cattails have shown up along the shore and thought it might be fun to toss some other water plants in. The problem is the lot is surrounded by a 6 foot fence and locked gate. The “pond” is within throwing distance from the sidewalk. Could I tie some rocks to bare root plants and throw them over and have a reasonable chance of them taking root and growing? What plants could work? I could spare a chunk of pickerel rush. I also have some aquarium plant bulbs that are really tropical lilies. I grew a few out to flowering size in my pond for fun last year, would they work without being planted? How about a section of hardy Lilly rhizome (with active growing tip)? It is hard to gauge the depth of the water but I estimate it to be about 2 feet deep in the middle. The bottom looks pretty muddy. It must be fairly fertile as it was recently covered in green slime but the water is now clearing. Is this a dumb idea? I would love to see some lily pads instead of submerged garbage. . .

[ponderer]

What the heck! Go for it!

[Kat]

Joyce has spoken of her mud pond planting method of a rock/rubberband/& water lily division.  I think she'll toss it into the pond approximately where she wants it to grow & apparently it has been successful.    I would think you'd need a decent sized division for it to work quickly.  Good luck.

(I've thought about doing this with a local small pond but it is privately owned/has a fence.  So I've behaved myself & not done it, LOL  )

[PondmaninAL]

I've passed many farm ponds riding/driving down the road here, some that use to be in pastures but not anymore, and thought to myself,"That would look better with some water lilies and some marginals in it."

[Indiana Karen]

I think its a great idea. 
Only us ponders would understand. 
Hopefully it will work and you can sit back and enjoy your creation anonymously.  Keep us posted...........maybe a before and after pic?

Karen

[Bearb]

For the record, I would never consider doing this to a "real" pond that I didn't own. This one will be filled in and have a building on top of it in a few years, so I don't have to worry about plants taking over and ruining anything. I think I will give it a try. I don't have much left over this year, but as the summer progresses I'll see what I come up with (in the way of hardy plants). It would be neat to see this really break out next year.

[turtlemike]

  Go ahead and throw a lily grenade and watch it slowly explode in color.  Your ethics sound good to me and you never know someone might walk by and see the beautiful lilies and be inspired to learn more and even make a water garden of their own.
Who knows it might become so popular in the neighborhood that people could organize and fight to prevent the developer from filling the hole in!   It could lead to the city creating its own water garden in a park somewhere.

 You should throw more than one color grenade in the hole as well as a tropical day bloomer and night bloomer.  Also throw a few shiner minnows in to eat mosquitoes and maybe a few tadpoles and there you go, instant nature show.

Do the rubber band-rock thing and wrap it in clay for good measure. Pull the pin and throw that sucker.

I saw on TV that people are organizing small groups of people to do plant and dash flower plantings of traffic islands and similar areas in big cities with no approval from the city.
They look out for cops and when the coast is clear they all swarm the small area and rapidly plant a bunch of flower bulbs or something and then quickly make their getaway and go back into hiding to plan their next attack. A sort of a cityscape beauty insurgency.

You never know the way things are these days they might consider you an eco terrorist,
I can see the headlines now; The lily bomber strikes again!

[Bearb]

I'm going to try to gather plants Mike, but I don't think there is much chance that this property will ever be a water garden. It is just too valuable (because of the area) and privately owned. One thing I will say about St. Louis is that we have a ton of parks. In fact, not far from where I work is Forrest Park which is about1,300 acres (almost twice the size of Central Park in New York) and it is loaded with ponds and lakes. A little further away is Missouri Botanical Garden complete with water lily collections and Japanese garden (Koi and all, I think the lake is 4 acres). I have no delusions of influencing the city to set up a water garden that could even compete.

[Indiana Karen]

With your description of the city gardens..........you have me wanting to come to St. Louis. 
It's less than 4 hours away, could practically do it in a day..........I'll have to think about that.

[Kat]

Karen--the trip to St. Louis to the the Botanical Gardens & Arch are WELL WORTH THE DRIVE!  If I was closer I'd be visiting MoBot all the time.

[karen J]

Go for it. You can call yourself "The Lily Bomber". Love it.

We have tons of ponds around here. I've always wanted to do that- toss a few lilies in. Nothing invasive (we do have some ponds around here that have been taken over by N. oderata)... only well- behaved cultivars, like Perry's Baby Red, and/or Helvola.

I saw on TV that people are organizing small groups of people to do plant and dash flower plantings of traffic islands and similar areas in big cities with no approval from the city.
They look out for cops and when the coast is clear they all swarm the small area and rapidly plant a bunch of flower bulbs or something and then quickly make their getaway and go back into hiding to plan their next attack. A sort of a cityscape beauty insurgency.

That's really cool. I helped another mom tend to a courtyard garden at the local elementary school. Lots of native plants, birdhouses, etc. Then a local landscaping company decided to donate professional landscaping to the school and they turned it into a lawn. Shameful.