To shelve or not to shelve?

[Huckleberry12]

The pond I'm digging is 9'x5'x2'. My plan was to have no 12" deep planting shelves thus hopefully foiling visiting raccoons (and herons, though I'm not sure if shelves make any difference to them). I'm putting an edging shelf 6" deep and 12" wide (that's beyond the 9'x5') so that the liner goes over the 12" and then vertically up the 6", and then I can put rocks and gravel on the shelf and have the water level come half-way up (i.e. 3"), so the rocks are sitting in the water and the liner isn't exposed.

I don't think there would be many things that could grow in the 3" of water where the edging rocks and gravel are... would there? One of my concerns is that my planting will be quite restricted with no 12" deep planting shelf. I will have a bog a few feet behind the pond, and know that I can put plants on supports in the pond and I have a water lily that I will do that with, but don't want to take up a lot of the pond with supports. It seems that planting is one of the major components in making a pond beautiful. I'm at the point where I have to decide whether to put a shelf in or not, and am wondering if others have felt this quandary.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

The pond I'm digging is 9'x5'x2'. My plan was to have no 12" deep planting shelves thus hopefully foiling visiting raccoons (and herons, though I'm not sure if shelves make any difference to them). I'm putting an edging shelf 6" deep and 12" wide (that's beyond the 9'x5') so that the liner goes over the 12" and then vertically up the 6", and then I can put rocks and gravel on the shelf and have the water level come half-way up (i.e. 3"), so the rocks are sitting in the water and the liner isn't exposed.

I don't think there would be many things that could grow in the 3" of water where the edging rocks and gravel are... would there? One of my concerns is that my planting will be quite restricted with no 12" deep planting shelf. I will have a bog a few feet behind the pond, and know that I can put plants on supports in the pond and I have a water lily that I will do that with, but don't want to take up a lot of the pond with supports. It seems that planting is one of the major components in making a pond beautiful. I'm at the point where I have to decide whether to put a shelf in or not, and am wondering if others have felt this quandary.

There are many plants that will grow well in only 3" water depth. The problem that you will have is that with only 3" of gravel there is limited space for root growth. This will be your limiting factor.

 

[MariaTeresa]

I had the same dilemma, having had a raccoon destroy the previous (tiny) pond. In the end I decided to make a foot deep shelf, hoping that when the coons tried to step in and didn't find footing that they would stay out. They did try to climb in twice (that I know of) on potted plants, tipping the pots over. I don't regret the shelf because the pond almost isn't worth it to me without all the wonderful plants!

If you decide not to do a planting shelf you could always make planting islands. Even if the islands were floating on the side they wouldn't hold a raccoon's weight and so hopefully wouldn't encourage the raccoons. You could probably even make a floating shelf that would hold plants but not raccoons.

As with the 3" depth, I'm sure there are plants with a more horizontal growth habit that would work. I think forget-me-nots would work well in such a space.

 

[Tula]

I pondered this decision too , when our pond was built. I went with a straight drop on our sides, no planting shelf. I've had success with sticking various plants, grasses, forget me nots and water celery in crevices of rock. I use three floating water baskets and put in parrots feather, begonias and water hyacinth. I also make use of beautiful ceramic pots in groups around the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

Lots of plants will grow in 3" of water - in fact, many marginals prefer that depth. Lobelia, obedient plant, grasses, rushes, sedges, irises... all do well in the shallows. You can also grow plants right on the outer edge of the pond that spill over and soften the edge. My goal is to get rid of the pots on my shelves and naturalize the edge of the pond - the less I have to deal with in pots every spring the happier I will be!

 

[CometKeith]

I have a shelf that's 8 or 10 inches deep. it works fine for plants. I have seen raccoons walk on it but the deeper parts of my pond give the fish plenty of room to run away. Raccoons don't want to get too wet.

 

[Huckleberry12]

What a lot of encouraging responses! Thank you all so much; I can see there are lots of possibilities for me to try out. I didn't know there was such a thing as a floating basket. That is so cool! It makes me think of a book I read as a young girl (60 years ago) "Floating Island." I love that idea! Can't wait. I'm going to pick up the pond liner on Wednesday.

 

[addy1]

My pond starts at 1 foot goes in a slope to 5.5 feet, pretty quickly. I have never had racoon issues, and we have a lot of them. I do have a shelf around 1.5 feet down on the bog wall, the entire length of the pond, stick a plant in a old pot, like the black plastic you get plants in, they grow great. The racoons have never messed with them either.

 

[Huckleberry12]

I think that an 18" deep shelf would be too deep for raccoons. Addy, one thing I've been confused about is that I believe you suggest 12" of gravel for a bog, with the water generally coming to about 3" below the surface of the gravel. (I know in some places you have it higher.) Would you then just slope the surface of the gravel down to be lower than the water at the end where you have it overflow into a pond or stream?

 

[addy1]

The stuff I read suggested pea gravel from 12 to 18 inches deep. Most bog type plants have shallow roots. My bog is real deep, mainly because I got carried away digging it.

The water is anywhere from under the gravel to 1-2 inches above the gravel, the plants don't seem to care. I usually dig a hole into the gravel to make sure the birds have a place to bath. My waterfall back to the pond, I made it level with the gravel when first built, over time the gravel has settled, at the waterfall stone now it is around an inch deep or so.

 

[Huckleberry12]

Thanks, Addy!

 

[addy1]

I worried about all that stuff when building, water under gravel, above gravel etc, how plants should be planted, now 5 years later, the plants grow like weeds. In the same bog, the same plants, some under water i.e. wet crowns, the same plant above water, dry crowns and both grow the same, well.

 

[Lisak1]

We all worry - Nature has Her ways!

 

[BlueOrca]

I'm not sure if this is the esthetic you are looking for, but I made a shelf-less pond and then installed those black plastic shelving storage units (2 sections each) in my pond. Once your pots are on top of them they aren`t visible, and the fish can hide under them if need be.....it also increases the amount of water or swimming area for the fish.

 

[Huckleberry12]

Sorry, I seem to have missed your post, BlueOrca. I'm not sure what kind of shelving you mean, but it sounds like an interesting idea.