Author Topic: Wife hates the ugly Skippy cover (Read 2790 times)

Jerry · « **on:** May 28, 2007, 02:55:40 PM »

Ok here is the plan. Consider this the "Before" photo. I will try for an "After" photo in a month.
Yes, that is a banana plant. We know they grew in a pond for Bonne Hale. Also Monywort and Plectrantus. I know the latter roots easily in water, maybe it will thrive?

SueSTx · « **Reply #1 on:** May 28, 2007, 03:00:14 PM »

good luck with trying to make the wife happy. You know how us women are...HeHeHe

Parrot feather really roots down in the skippy. It might be just another mistake I've made here.

Jerry · « **Reply #2 on:** May 28, 2007, 03:46:16 PM »

i know Sue, so I chose plants (I hope) with less invasive root systems. We will keep our eyes on it.

gander · « **Reply #3 on:** May 28, 2007, 03:50:15 PM »

I use my stock tank as a settlement tank. Its not supposed to have plants in it at all. Sometimes I do things I aint supposed to do though. The rocks are just dry stacked. I am going to replace them this winter. When I get a round toit.

Vickie · « **Reply #4 on:** May 28, 2007, 07:38:35 PM »

I bought a dwarf Cavendish banana that grows in water.

MikeW · « **Reply #5 on:** May 28, 2007, 08:08:13 PM »

I am going to try taro this season. Black Magic grew like gangbusters in the pond a few years back, as did Canna Tropicana, but I now have some good Violet Stem taro from Lorenzo that is going into the filter.

Cheers,

Mike

Esther · « **Reply #6 on:** May 29, 2007, 04:38:47 AM »

Here's what we did with ours.

We didn't have much choice because of location. What abour putting bamboo pieces around yours to carry on your jungle theme? Cut the ends on an angle, lay them down side by side, attach a strip of some sort of strapping to the insides and then pound them into the ground. You could put something flat on the top like a capstone if you wanted.

Jerry · « **Reply #7 on:** May 29, 2007, 07:30:54 AM »

My idea too Esther, But the skippy is right up to the pond edge, I did try match stick drapes over the front. The Boxwood is doing well the front is 95% obscured now. Only the top dhows. Hopefully that will be a good place for the greenery.

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #8 on:** May 29, 2007, 08:41:05 AM »

How about making a fiberglass rock cover for it? You saw mine on the faux rock posts, right?

karen J · « **Reply #9 on:** May 29, 2007, 09:03:25 AM »

Back-

Front-

That's what it USED to look like. I haven't planted anything in it yet this year. It looks horrible.

Some of the rocks shifted, and knocked the drain valve out-of-whack. Now it's leaking. I'll probably have to dismantle the entire thing.
Since I have to do that, I may as well do some upgrades, right?

As long as I'm doing upgrades, I may as well just start over with a new stock tank.

As long as I have to do all that, I may as well fix some other mistakes. The main pond isn't deep enough.
And the upper pond is too small.

Maybe Gary will loan me his "round tuit"

Jerry · « **Reply #10 on:** May 29, 2007, 10:28:08 AM »

All good ideas, Yes Karen i need a roundtoit too. I will let the planting I did get a month to look good. We can decide then

Rocmon · « **Reply #11 on:** May 29, 2007, 08:48:24 PM »

Karen your pond is beautiful.

There is a little cafe here in town and in the outside seating area they have a narrow concrete trough that is maybe 6" wide and maybe 10" deep and 5' long. It has only equisedum in it. It makes for a very nice clean fence.

Jerry the rocks look good. What does your bio when the skippy becomes a settlement tank?

Timgod · « **Reply #12 on:** May 29, 2007, 09:05:07 PM »

Jerry,
Have you got any bacopa?

It will spread out and get about 9" tall but it will also spread out and cascade over the edge like a waterfall.

This picture is from 3 years ago. It is still on one of my websites.
You can see the waterfall of bacopa on the left corner.
There is a lemon variety and a fuzzy variety.
The lemon smells good but the fuzzy one looks a little nicer.

Man does my yard look naked from what it looks like now.

Tim

Jerry · « **Reply #13 on:** May 29, 2007, 10:20:53 PM »

Bacopa? I don't know that one, but it looks good and sounds good.
Rocmon, I don't understand your last sentence.

Timgod · « **Reply #14 on:** May 30, 2007, 07:29:30 AM »

Lemon Bacopa is also called Bacopa caroliniana.
It has small blue flowers throughout the summer here.
That waterfall of plant you see in the picture was from a 4 inch pot that I transplanted into the pond. It probably took about 2 months to get that big.
The only downside is that it dislikes intense heat where it lays. Where it touched the landscape timbers I had to put fabric under it to keep it from cooking.
High 90's is normal here.

Tim

Jerry · « **Reply #15 on:** May 30, 2007, 08:32:19 AM »

Hot here too Tim. I will watch for Bacopa. Worth a shot.

Ky Kim · « **Reply #16 on:** May 30, 2007, 08:35:43 AM »

They work great, but they are hard to conceal. I think your idea sounds good.

Kim

Timgod · « **Reply #17 on:** May 30, 2007, 08:42:16 AM »

I would offer to send you some but the pool it is in is covered with that #@$*%! azolla.
You can never wash it all away as it can come back from microscopic spores.
I hate the stuff.
Evidently a bird or frog or something gave it to me as a present a few years ago.

I wouldn't want to infect a friend.
So far no one has come up with a way to kill it without taking out everything else.

Tim

Jerry · « **Reply #18 on:** May 30, 2007, 08:48:55 AM »

Thanks Tim, I appreciate that.

karen J · « **Reply #19 on:** May 30, 2007, 09:09:59 AM »

Rocmon, Thank you.
I like that Equisetum idea. It is such an interesting plant. Have you seen the "World of Equisetum" website?
http://members.eunet.at/m.matus/ Looks like it hasn't been updated since 2001, but still a lot of great information there. Beware, some of the images may be offensive (photos of models amongst the equisetum).

Timgod, I love the layout of your pond area. The square stepping stones amongst the gravel (is that pea gravel?). Looks like a good way to have lots of pots and not worry about weeds.

I was thinking about gluing small stones around the top of the skippy. Wouldn't want to hamper accessibility, though.

Lemon Bacopa is a beautiful plant. I haven't seen it at the nurseries lately.

Rocmon · « **Reply #20 on:** May 30, 2007, 09:51:44 AM »

Jerry that last sentence is asking what are you going to use for a biofilter if you change your skippy from a biofilter to a settling tank. (I'm assuming it's a biofilter now.)

Bacopa has been great in my yard. Stuff with little white flowers, blooms almost all year long. Mine looked great till this winter and a week of freezing temps. It's just about all gone now.

It's the stuff behind the pond growing down the rock wall.

Jerry · « **Reply #21 on:** May 30, 2007, 10:44:21 AM »

AHH Rocmon, I had not planned to do anything, must I? I do believe in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Now I am concerned. Do you see a problem just having plants in my Skippy?

Bonnie · « **Reply #22 on:** May 30, 2007, 10:53:20 AM »

Jerry, If the main problem is that you want to find something to conceal the top of the stocktank, you need something that spreads.

Parrots Feather, Bacopa, Creeping Jenny, Watercress, etc...

Rocmon · « **Reply #23 on:** May 30, 2007, 01:57:03 PM »

If you do have filter media in the skippy now and your going to remove it, yes that could be a problem. Plants in and of themselves are not enough IMHO, if you have fish. If that's what you have had, then you shouldn't be upsetting the apple cart to add more plants. It is good to have mechanical filtration and biofiltration, the plants are the icing on the cake.

Some people have filtration up the wazoo, some have none. It's a matter of where your going to be on that spectrum. If you have koi you need to move higher up the scale and have a great deal of filtration, volume, depth and a whole bunch of stuff I don't have a clue about. If you have goldies then you don't need all that stuff, but a bottom drain, skimmer, and biofilter is probably a good thing to have. Depends on the time you want to devote to cleaning the pond to keep your fish healthy and happy. If your growing just plants...who cares?

I had a friend who had a pump with a piece of mat filter with a spitter chock full of plants and comets that bread like rats. When he drained the pond and gave me a few fish and plants the plants were really gross in the roots—all kinds of black yuk and stank. But they sure grew well. It's a matter of whether to collect that stuff in a pond, or collect it in a filter.

Bartman · « **Reply #24 on:** May 30, 2007, 02:05:12 PM »

Cattails in a pot of gravel also work well for sucking out the nitrates. You can always repot them if they start sending runners outside of the pot.

Bart

Bonnie · « **Reply #25 on:** May 30, 2007, 04:17:16 PM »

Jerry I thought that you had filter media in your skippy but I guess I'm getting you confused with someone else. ( I do this at times, too many of us to keep track of)

I'm assuming that your filtration must be fine for the time being.
If your filtration is fine for now why don't you use filter media in the bottom.
Cut up some PVC conduit and put on the ridge that's on the inside middle of the stocktank then top with one of the light grates ( don't recall the correct term)

You can then put plants on top of the grate and clean out your filter media yearly or as needed.

You just need to watch this method because if you have plants with invasive root systems it can get tangled in your media......

karen J · « **Reply #26 on:** May 30, 2007, 07:19:47 PM »

It is Gander who is using his Skippy as a settlement tank. I think Jerry's only issue is the ugliness of the top of the Skippy. Correct?

Yes, it sure is hard to hide.

Jerry · « **Reply #27 on:** May 30, 2007, 10:06:48 PM »

Yes. I have filter media under the top grate. My water is close to crystal clear.
Yes to spreading plants. I did that with moneywort and others. Yes, I will watch the roots.
I know some can be a nightmare.
I have NO Koi. and NO concerns about their needs
Thanks all