Have you looked into adding any aeration? Aeration can pay big dividends in controlling algae, especially in an earthen bottom pond. There are also other things like dyes to help filter sunlight where your other aquatic plants are not. Our company helps a lot of people with large ponds control algae and w/out hazardous chemicals and one product talk to people about is GreenClean Pro as it is safe for all types of aquatic life. Combine that and some beneficial bacteria and you have a solid 1-2 punch for controlling the algae. As someone mentioned earlier, oxygen depletion can result if you kill too much algae too fast, however you also must realize if you kill algae and it is left to naturally decompose, it will simnly fuel another round of algae unless it is removed or broken down by bacteria. Here is a link that might be useful: Pond Algae Control

I found a new gardening book at the library that looked promising. It was titled 'Plantiful'. It turned out to be a different book than I expected and it fits right in with this topic. This author decided when she started a new garden that she didn't want to wait for what she considered the usual amount of time for a landscape to fill in, 12 years according to her. She wanted a garden fast. So she went with a lot of self seeders and spreaders. I was surprised at the plants that she was recommending. Especially since she left out any warnings about how much they could get away from you and become a problem. She did identify any plants that were on the invasive list, which there were quite a few of, but there were plenty of things on her list that were not considered invasive that I would never have in my garden. Plume Poppy? Mint? Stipa tennuisima, Creeping Jenny, Oxeye daisy. Teasel? I don't know much about that one, but it looked lethal. [g] Mexican Evening Primrose, Perilla and Sweet Woodruff. Chamomile. Maybe some of these could be used in pots, but I wouldn't want them in the ground. I can't imagine a garden using all these plants. I suppose it is a different style of gardening, but I think you must really love how it all works out because I can't imagine ever getting them all out once they'd been growing for a few years.

Generally blackberries, and other brambles, seem to like the same soil conditions that Camelia and Rhododendrons do so unless you eliminate all the roots from them you will see them forever. The single best method of control is to keep the green above the ground part of the plant cut off so the roots do not get any nutrients and eventually starve and they die. We should not be poisoning our planet with weed killers. http://www.guarding-our-earth.com/aggrand/roundup.htm Compiled by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides- (NCAP) Roundup, and related herbicides with glyphosate as an active ingredient, are advertised as products that can "eradicate weeds and unwanted grasses effectively with a high level of environmental safety." However, an independent, accurate evaluation of their health and environmental hazards can draw conclusions very different from those presented in the ads. Consider these facts: 1. Glyphosate can be persistent. In tests conducted by Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were required for half of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear from agricultural soils. At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in lettuce, carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment. 2. Glyphosate can drift. Test conducted by the University of California, Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300 feet) during ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during aerial applications. 3. Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans. Ingesting about 3/4 of a cup can be lethal. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung congestion, and erosion of the intestinal tract. Between 1984 and 1990 in California, glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause of illness related to agricultural pesticide use. 4. Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in laboratory tests. The National Toxicology Program found that chronic feeding of glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm counts, and a lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes into heat). Other chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an increase in the frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an increase in frequency of pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along with an increase in the frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and cataracts. (ne fruit fly study used Roundup; the other studies used glyphosate.) 5. Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients. These include polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and bums. 6. Roundup kills beneficial insects. Tests conducted by The International Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup caused mortality of live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing, a ladybug, and a predatory beetle. 7. Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms, Tests using New Zealand's most common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20 of standard application rates, reduced its growth and slowed its development. 8. Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi. Canadian studies have shown that as little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or colonization of mycorrhizal fungi. 9. Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation. Amounts as small as 2 parts per million have had significant effects, and effects have been measured up to 120 days after treatment. Nitrogen- fixing bacteria shown to be impacted by glyphosate include a species found on soybeans and several species found on clover. 10. Roundup can increase the spread or severity of plant diseases. Treatment with roundup increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot in barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves against anthracnose.

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