Hi Pat, Your mom is one lucky lady! There are some very experienced ponders on here that have forgotten more than I will ever know. But I will share some of the things I've picked up from them and from my own small garden. First and foremost, you might think small is great, but then you get hooked and it must grow. So in your mind's eye and your plan, leave room for future growth. This is our small pond in the very beginning. Not much larger than the kit you are looking at. We could not use a premade because of the oak roots, sewer pipe and other house utilities we had to work around. A few months later the pond grew to this. Here it is now, and this winter we will be adding on the other side of the sidewalk. Most water lilies will need more room than you will have. Look specifically for hardy lilies classed as suitable for very small containers/ponds. Or, try water poppy. Pictured is hardy lily, Yellow Pygmy "Nymphaea "Yellow Pygmy". Hardy from zone 4-11. Plant Size: Small. Bred by Latour Maliac 1879, flower is a soft yellow, 2"-3" across. Has a spread of 1.5�-3�, marliac root system. Leaves are slightly mottled Will grow in 6" to 1.5� of water. Best to grow in 10" of water. You can use a 1 to 2 gallon container to grow this one. Great miniature for a small pond or patio container. Extremely good bloomer flower. This is one of the oldest hybrids known in the water lily world. Full sun" If you build it, they will come. You will have wildlife. Plan a no spray/chemical zone. Expect frogs, dragonflies, snakes, etc .... etc. Fish are fun, in addition to eating mosquito larvae, they are a hoot to watch. Plan a spot right beside the pond for a spot for your mom to sit and watch the pond. And a place to sit a glass. I love to sit out in the morning with my coffee and watch the life around the pond. Feeder goldfish and feeder rosy red minnows are good choices for small ponds. They will reproduce, so not many fish. And once the pond is established the fish don't need to be feed. I have struggled keeping floating and oxygenator plants growing inside my small pond. The fish and the tadpoles decimate them. That said, if they can be contained in a floating corral type of thing they would do better. See the floating plant ring post in this forum for some ideas. I usually get my oxygenators at Petsmart in the fish dept. Also, mondo grass and society garlic work really well. What I evolved to is a 'bog garden' that is right beside and connected to my pond. I pump to a pot that serves as a filter out to the bog that then flows back into the pond. Presto beautiful spot for plants. I started off thinking I would not need any filtration for such a small pond. If however, you want to see your fish, you will need filtration. And you will likely want it to be something easily maintained. Something else that I kind of wish we had done was to install a float valve connected to a rain barrel to automatically keep the pond topped off. Oh, and we found this very realistic fake rock that we use to cover our electrical source, which is really just an heavy duty exterior extension cord ran in PVC pipe under the path. http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1vZbx82/R-100631149/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=rock&storeId=10051 I like talking to myself, so I've kept some written notes on the progress of our pond. You can find it at the link below. I predict your mom will love her pond, and if you plan spots for plants but leave them out, puttering around the water garden could be a lot of fun and good exercise for her. ~dianne Here is a link that might be useful: Our small pond

Jewelie, don't worry. You won't see the chemical level go down as the canes won't absorb the levels we would through a straw. If the product says it works on dormant plants, I would think you should be on the right track. What you've done is what I am doing with glyphosate right now with prickly cucumber. It should work just fine. Good luck! Kim

4 inches?!?! No, that's not OK. Not in your wildest imaginings. Not for any of the plants you've chosen. And certainly not for a combination of plants! You need to do some homework, and find out just how big these plants can get. You need to remember that for most plants, the bits you don't see (underground root system)are AT LEAST as big as the above-ground bit you do see. If those roots are too confined, they'll choke the plant to death very quickly - at best, they'll never had enough soil from which to extract nutrients and water. START with at least 8 times larger than the ones you envisage. Yes, I mean it. You haven't chosen small plants by any means. Think: Rosemary: can get to 1.5 metres tall and at least the same wide. Lemon Verbena: 2 metres or more tall and about the same wide. Lemongrass: 2 metres tall and just keeps on getting wider. Mints: at least 30cm tall (some are much taller), and the root system can spread for miles. Lemon Balm: 30cm tall and at least the same wide, and it's a member of the mint family so has great spreading potential. Thyme: about 20cm tall and can spread about a metre or so as it self-layers. Lavender: species vary in size, but average is about 1 metre tall, some taller, and at least the same in width. Try squeezing any of these into a 4 inch pot. Can't be done. I think you would have been better to consult with your mother before starting on this venture. If you want things nice and tidy, herbs aren't the way to go! Most of them don't believe in being manicured and tamed! Oh, and most of these plants don't do so well indoors, either. They'll all need lots of natural sunlight - and that isn't the same as filtered light through glass windows.

Just a quick update. I spent days reading material on air tubs and whirlpools and got my decision down to a 36 x 72" Jason and Purebath. To get an outside opinion, I called an online bath dealer in the Richmond, VA area where I used to live (Whirlpooltubs.com, Steve) and after discussing a lot of models, which he sells as well, he steered me to Mansfield, an UN-fancy company that offered a ton of features and everything I was looking for, at a nice price. I ended up with the Baywood 6 Ariance GentleTouch (air bath version) which has back jets with heated neck/back rest, heated silent air (all offer this), included neck pillow, chromatherapy. This combined the features I thought my husband might benefit from (back jets) with the surround air jets, in a quiet system, as we will put the motor on the other side of the wall with insulation. Mansfield offers the Ariance in 3 models: HealthTouch (whirlpool), GentleTouch (air bath) and DualTherapy. I would love to tell you what I think about this bathtub, but we are still building our home and are months' out yet. This dealer was on the ball and very helpful.