Plants around a koi pond

[Heruga]

Hello. In the future when I buy a home, I would like a 10x10 koi pond in my backyard in part sun. I don't want any plants inside the pond, instead I'll have large boulders in it. Anyway for plants around the pond(not touching water), are these good choices? Japanese black pine-kotobuki, Japanese painted fern, cephalotaxus prostrata, Japanese garden juniper, Japanese iris, petasites, hinoki cypress, Japanese weeping maple 'waterfall', and some moss. I don't know how knowledgeable you guys are about plants since this is a pond forum but for those of you who know, are there any negatives in any of the plants listed?

 

[sissy]

10x10 will not be close to big enough and then you add in the stone .I have koi that are over 2 feet long

 

[Tula]

Keep in mind, large boulders displace water , reducing the area for the koi to swim. I think your plant selections sound lovely.

 

[Heruga]

Ok then I will not put in any stones. Will a 10x10 still be too small without stones?

 

[Lisak1]

Ok then I will not put in any stones. Will a 10x10 still be too small without stones?

Well, that depends. If your pond is 1 foot deep, you'd have 750 gallons. If your pond is 4 feet deep, you'd have 3000 gallons. Pond volume is what you need to determine. And too small for what? You don't say what your plan is for fish.Goldfish? Koi? Some of each?

And you can plant whatever you want outside of your pond - there really are no restrictions. You may want to be careful if you plan to plant anything with an aggressive root system - pond liners are thick and pretty impervious to roots, but that doesn't mean the roots can't go up and over the liner, causing water to seep out of your pond over the edge.

Some people worry about plants being toxic to their fish should the leaves, berries, etc get into the water. Without looking up each of the plants that you listed it would be impossible to know if that is a concern for any of these. How did you choose the particular plants? What do you know about their characteristics and growth patterns?

 

[Heruga]

Hmm.. perhaps I would want something 10x10 and 4 feet deep so yes 3000 gallons. I want koi really badly(the pure red one)but it doesn't seem so hardy and its expensive and plus a lot of predators which makes me think if its even worth it. And if I were to get a koi I would only have one inside the pond. But I would probably get pure red shubunkins(if that even exists) if koi doesn't work. They're much hardier.

For the plants, yes I actually looked up whether these plants are safe for the fish or not all of them are ok. I wanted my pond partially in full sun and partially in half sun/shade(5 feet in full sun and the other half 5 feet in part shade). So I picked the shade loving ones to go in the shady part of the pond and the sun loving ones in the sunnier part of the pond. And then I chose a bunch of conifers as well because I don't want my pond to look completely bare in the winter. I also want the petasites, Japanese painted fern, Japanese iris, and moss to be very near the pond border since they are moisture loving plants.(Although petasites are very invasive so I may have to install a root barrier). The weeping Japanese maple will also be near the border so when it weeps, the canopy can partially cover the pond so the fish can hide there, which makes up for the absence of aquatic plants. And then the rest I will give it a considerable distance from the pond, yet not too far where it can make the pond lose its appeal. I also forgot to mention one more plant: the Japanese silver grass. By having a tall ornamental grass near the pond, it makes the pond look almost swampy and natural which I want.

 

[Tula]

I have 4 koi and love them dearly. I take measures to keep predators at bay, but I suppose nothing is completely full proof.

Straight dropping sides, deter predators from walking / wading, into your pond. Fencing around or fishing line over, or a net, will keep herons out. I put up a shade sail this year and I think it hides the heron's aerial view of the pond.

Koi prefer to be in groups, so one koi wouldn't be happy. A pond of 3000 gallons could easily accommodate several koi

 

[Mmathis]

I hate to sound negative, but it really sounds like you have but then haven't thought this through very well -- your choices and your reasons for choosing the plants sound lovely, but..... How much open land are you going to have around your pond? Some of these ideas for plants would be more appropriate as background-scaping, but it sounds like you're wanting to cram everything all together around the edges of the pond, and have everything else off at a distance (?) Ten X 10' isn't a lot of space inside or outside the pond.

Unless they are actually in the water (like in a bog), plants that like more moisture won't benefit just by being next to a (lined) pond, root barrier or not. And any plant or tree that will have a "canopy" over the pond is also going to drop leaves into the pond. Whether the particular leaves are toxic or not isn't an issue so much as the problem they'll cause when they decompose.

And don't forget to take into consideration the seasonal changes when the sun is at different angles. My pond that is about 90% unshaded during summer, is now mostly shaded. Your 50/50 shade will most likely change as the seasons change. So, since you're still in the planning stage, that's something to keep in mind -- notice where the shadows fall and keep track, so you'll have a better idea where to place plants, and even how to orient your pond (how far off are you from having a house?). If your trees are too far away, they won't be good for shade.

And now, regarding your fish choices.... Shubunkin make very nice pond fish! Shubunkin are goldfish, but they are multi-colored variety of goldfish, like calico (but not all Shubunkin will look like that). So, there is no such thing as an all red Shubunkin. But with any goldfish, since they are smaller than koi, you can keep more of them in your pond.

 

[Lisak1]

I guess I'm a little confused by your half sun/half shade plan. The movement of the sun makes that an impossible situation, unless you know something I don't know. My pond is shady in the early morning and again in the evening, but full sun during the mid-day. How you plan to create a oermanently shady half in essentially five feet of space is the part I am curious about.

 

[Heruga]

Well this is just some very early general planning of my future home which I don't even know how the backyard will look like, its size, how many existing trees there's going to be(I will have every single giant deciduous tree removed by an arborist), and sun angles. The factors I listed are just my ideal ways of doing my pond.
Actually, in the home that I currently live in there is an area that is almost always shaded all year round because its right behind my house and the house blocks the sunlight. So if I have half of the pond in that complete shade and the other half out of the border of my home's shadow, that half will get sunlight. And don't worry about too much shade because I currently have a pond behind my house in complete shade and my hostas bloom nicely every year and my painted ferns ferns do well there too. So there must be some indirect sunlight. Anyways, I don't know if my future home will provide shade like that and if not, I'll just have the pond in a sunny location and have all my shady plants under the trees I will be planting there so it gets some shade.

 

[sissy]

If I had it to do over again I would get all fat fantails .I got my fish when they were about 2 or 3 inch's long .My pond is 5000 gallons 2 filters also