Local pond supply store?

[sns26]

Hi folks--my wife and I want to set up a small backyard water garden using a half whiskey barrel or something similar sized. (We don't want to do an in-ground pond because our daughter is at the stage where she toddles around looking for ways to hurt herself.)

These sorts of containers are a bit cumbersome to ship; does anyone know of a local pond store that would carry pond plants and pumps and either (a) premade liners for a whiskey barrel (I know they exist) or (b) some other suitable container? Appearance is an issue, so a big rubbermaid tub is not an option.

I'm in DC, by the way.

[krisw]

At this time of year, all of the big-box hardware stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) carry pond liners, pumps, and a small variety of pond plants. Most fish stores also carry pond supplies.

For my above-ground pond, I bought the smallest pond liner I could find at Home Depot, and cut it down to fit my needs.

For exact fit liners, I googled and came up with several matches like: (I haven't bought from this vendor myself)

http://www.kentuckybarrels.com/barrel-liners.html

[Chris]

If you want to come out to Alexandria I can show you the 3 container gardens I have set up. I use 2 fibergass 17gal pots that don't have a hole in the bottom and look like stone. In one pot I'm keeping and Indiana Red lilly, water poppies, Pickrel weed, a varigated grass, a spider lilly, water lettuce, and salvinia natans along with some orange platys and while mollies. On that set-up I'm running a Current submersible skimming filter. The other pot has a tropical lilly water hyacin, tadpoles and neon tetras (no filtration). The 3rd "pond" was susposed to be a daphnia culture but it quickly became overtaken by water hyacin, so I put some tadpoles in there as well. I got the pots from Lowes and Walmart. I have plenty of plants to share/trade, PM me if you are interested.

[DelawareJim]

Check with local garden centers as well.

All the garden centers in my area stock whiskey barrels and rigid plastic barrel liners during the summer.

Cheers.
Jim

[SCMurphy]

And there is always Lilypons out near Fredrick and Maryland Aquatic Nurseriesout in Jarretsville if you are looking for a more diverse plant selection. I'd probably suggest getting the equipment at the local box store and doing some visits to other places to see what the plants are. I've also bought equipment from Valley View Farms, they have a nice selection of stone too.

[sns26]

I had good luck at Merrifield Garden Center--they stock various sizes of pond liners, including ones specifically sized for whiskey barrels. They also had some nice bog and pond plants as well. I also grabbed a few gambusia for skeeter control. I hadn't planned on actively filtering the pond, but I have a nice little solar pump that I could probably turn into a simple bio filter with some work...