I will be repotting plants this year, having skipped last year. I used fabric pots and clay kitty litter (no additives) to originally pot the plants. They've done so well they must be divided. Is there any good reason to buy expensive potting medium? I covered the clay with gravel. I wonder if the clay leaches a lot of organic material into the water that could be avoided with medium. I can see that I will be battling algae this year. I'm in Michigan and winter was very slow in arriving, and stringy algae grew in the pond up until January when it finally got (very!) cold.

When I set up my pond and the plants were small four years ago, I covered the flexible liner with flat limestones. I did so because I didn't want to look at the liner. I wonder if I should remove the stones so as to make it easier to clean the pond during regular water changes. I use a wet dry vac with a narrower tube attachment and I try to siphon out under the stones, but you know, it's not easy. Do most of you leave the bottom clear? Do you use gravel?

My pond contains a few bluegills and a number of frogs. Thanks for any help you can give me on these two matters, and let me know if you need any more information.

The expensive pond "soil" is in fact just reddish brown clay. Plain cat litter is also clay. They're similar. The cat litter is much more dusty though. Both require rinsing. I mostly pot my pond plants in dirt that I dig up from our property. It's heavy, clay dirt. I top that with pea gravel. Digging your own dirt is cheapest, then the cat litter, and then the pond "soil." I use some of the clay pond "soil" to pot up some of my smaller pots, mostly when I'm either too lazy to go dig some up, or I'm afraid the pot may be tipped and spilled. When spilt, the clay "soil" makes a lot less mess than real dirt. I doubt there's more leaching from cat litter versus the clay pond "soil."

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These sections on my site may be of some minute help:

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/plant2.htm - pond plant care

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm - pond algae

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/setup.htm#rock - the pros and cons of putting rocks/gravel in the bottom of the pond

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It's up to you if you want to remove the rocks from the bottom of your pond (see my list of pros and cons). Limestone should be avoided in ponds because it will leach over time and raise the pH and hardness. You'll want to check those levels regularly if you have limestone in or around your pond.

The builders put pea gravel in the bottom of my pond but some of the time I wish it weren't there (due to the cons). It does make the shallows look much more natural though. Probably about half of people with ornamental ponds have gravel or rocks on the bottom and half don't.

I have pea gravel in the bottom of my pond. I have even potted a couple of plants just in pea gravel and they are thriving. I don't know if it is a good idea or not, but it worked!!

Some plants grow in the shallow parts of my pond that have pea gravel, mostly the really shallow areas. These plants love it - water celery, water forget-me-nots, iris, frog fruit, parrot feather, and more. They extract nutrients from the water and debris down in the gravel.

Thanks for the answers. I will continue to repot with the kitty litter. My soil is purest sand and loam, no clay. I will also start removing some of the limestone to make it easier to clean.

Kim...That's a Wonderful question... :D I've an avid gardener and of course I have to have more pond plants...lol...I know there are a few water lilies,cannas,cattails and a few others I'm not sure about in my new pond..I will be adding several more plants..mostly to keep the water cooler for my new fishies...by shading it...again Robyn..thanks for the great info and the cheapest way to add plants to my pond... :)