A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens Floating Island for pond tutorial

I read a tutorial on how to make these on another webstie. It looked easy enough, so I bought the supplies yesterday, and whipped one up this morning lickety split - less than 10 minutes. I substituted power lock cable ties for the plastic screws, as my husband had a huge container of them, and I thought they'd be easier to use - they were really easy!

Here are the supplies -
1 - green styrofoam floral wreath. I only found these at Michaels - the other stores had flimsier white ones that came apart when I touched them - I figured the fish could swallow parts - not good! {nono}
1 - coc liner - again, only found this at one nursery and 12 inches was the smallest size they had.
8 - power lock cable ties.
A scissor to cut the mat to fit to size.



The mat was too big for the wreath, so I had to cut a small wedge out of it to fit. This was fine, as the mat split on one side as I was handling it, and it was the perfect place to cut.

The split area



Cut and pieced together


Continued in next post due to 3 picture limit...

Checking the fit before attaching


Cable ties locked around liner and wreath


Planted and floating in pond


I didn't have the best plants to put in it, but I had gone to many private nurseries yesterday and they are mostly closing out their plants already for this season. I put a lantana in the center, surronded by marigolds and dwarf zinnias. Hopefully they will fill out soon.

I am planning on making a couple more, and hopefully I will be able to find different plants. The pond is in full all day sun, so that's a bit of a problem for plants.

Cool!

That's neat!

yes, very cool and neat !!----and as an added bonus, you never have to worry about watering !!!

Way Pretty! Thanks for sharing

Excellent

thanks for sharing.

That's such a cool use of a foam worm...

cool...thinking a pool noodle would make a bigger one...wowo

Lynne, did you ever make more? I didn't see this last year. It's very cool.

I had made 2 last summer, but as it was the end of the season it was hard to find the correct plants that would endure wet roots and full all day sun. I haven't found any this year yet, but I am on the lookout. Most of these planters that I've seen online get at least 1/2 day of shade, so I cannot use the same plants they do.

wonder if something like lantana would work in one? Might grow over the sides. Would that be ok with your pond?

This is a great project. A few things I would note. First - normal zip ties are not UV resistant and will break down in a year or two, thus risking your fish chocking on the pieces. There are UV stabilized versions. They also come in black.

Next, I would need to figure a way to anchor this to keep it from moving over to the skimmer or just being pushed by either the fish or flow of water from my waterfall. Likely a heavy duty piece of mono with a weight to keep it from moving around too much.

Finally, I would throw in some creeping plants to cover the foam. I'm wondering if it was mounted a couple inches below the top edge if it wouldn't stay more or less submerged so that it was less noticeable.

Thanks for sharing.

would love to see how this has filled out and held up.

Lynne has trouble logging in and then staying in...but I will see if I can ask her how it all went and report back to you, Sheri.

me too

great.

Wonder why she has that problem? I have the same problem on another forum. Remember Jim and Dianna? Can't get in there anymore. Started with my old computer but has continued with this new one. Hope Lynne can get back here someday.

Hi all! I am finally able to stay logged in for a few days, so I will answer here finally. That first summer, I had problems finding plants that would enjoy being in that much water while also being in all full day hot direct sun. The second summer I put some variegated liriope in it and it did pretty well, filling out to cover the Styrofoam ring.

Since I have to take most things from the pond indoors for winter, here in NY, there isn't a problem of the zip ties breaking down, as Remydog suggested. I did have to replace the coconut liner though, so new zip ties were used anyway. I get those on sale at JoAnn's at a very cheap price. We planted the liriope in the ground for winter and were able to use it again this summer. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it.

Thanks for telling us plants 'n pots.