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Jay Angler wrote:I was in a similar situation and was seriously shocked at the amount of electricity it used. We couldn't turn the pump off, as then it would overflow as depending on the design, it would need a reservoir for the circulating water. If the sun hit it, the evaporation was huge and risked damaging the pump if we weren't watching it.
Eventually, I decided to just ignore it and see what would happen. Local ducks brought duckweed (a Lemna species) which brought frogs who controlled the mosquitoes. I have domestic ducks, so when the Lemna gets too thick, I harvest it for the ducks (Quack Coc___n). This helps to remove enough of the organic load that we have not had any issues with algae blooms.
If I was doing this again, I would look for useful plants that would like the pond, such as cattails, or if you're warm enough, Lotus Root is edible and wonderful.
Because it's not natural, I do have to top of the water depending on the weather. When I'm not so busy, I try to save barrels of rain-water for the job as our well water is high calcium. I would be less happy if I had to use chlorinated water.
Depending what the liner is actually made of, they have to be inert enough not to kill the fish, so continuing to use it is likely not any worse an environmental thing than sending it to the land-fill, in my opinion.
If you were able to plant bog/swamp/cattail/rushes and have an overflow system to somewhere useful, it could be the start of a stealth grey water system.
Nancy Reading wrote:Would it suit an aquaponics setup perhaps?
Nancy Reading wrote:There are so many wetlands edibles, but I'm not sure what will do well for you.
Watercress (nasturtium officinale) is so easy, good if you like spicy flavours.
I've found marsh woundwort (Stachys palustris) to be much nicer than expected, Stachys floridana is maybe your equivalent, although apparently it can get out of hand, so you may need to check if you are allowed to grow it.
Others that look interesting are swamp morning glory (Ipomea aquatica) although again that can be invasive in some states. Rice; apparently there are perennial forms, and wild rice, Arrowheads are tasty (Sagittaria cuneata, and latifolia and sagittifolia), trapa bicornis I'd love to try but haven't managed to get hold of, pfaf reckon Wasabia, but I think you'd probably get a bit hot/cold there for it. Bistort (Bistorta superba) mine has quite large seeds, I'm interested to try those, also butterburr (Petasites japonicus) has many edible uses.
There are more that would be good with a bit more cold protection: Canna indica, Colocasia esculenta, they could maybe be transplated out in spring like potatoes....
What sort of area will you have? Could you have part aquatic and part boggy?
