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About BioHavens: Planting |
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***QUICK START ***
If you're looking for suggestions for some attractive and fail-safe planting (no guarantees, though) please go straight to the links below:
Plants for floating islands
and Moisture-loving pond plants by size
 It's possible to grow an enormous variety of plant species on a BioHaven Floating Island, no matter what your local climate - from temperate to tropical. Water-loving annual and perennial forbs, sedges, and rushes can all thrive in the island environment, and in addition - with properly aerated water - a large number of terrestrial (garden) plants will thrive: even cactus can be grown hydropnically!
The plant species that can be incorporated into your island will be determined somewhat by geography, although we've found that the microclimate created by the island's location in a body of water can expand the growing zones of certain plants. For instance, if you live in zone 4, you may be able to grow zone 5-6 plants on your island.
  We are great believers in starting off an island with sod (turf). Sod gets the island instantly green and it provides a good base for other plantings. The roots grow quickly and bind into the matrix. It can be sprinkled with wildflowers and other seeds for added variety. Sod can achieve a full coverage, preventing any exposure to UV rays. There are different varieties of sod to choose from, from "ready lawn" to native sod, to soilless sod (pictured).
Plant Succession
As we say, we like to plant islands with sod here in Montana. After the first season, the sod dies back, to be replaced next season not by new grass but by volunteer plants from the surrounding area, which tend to be more hardy than grass. Within a season or two, the island is completely natural, with a wonderful diversity of species which blend in with the surroundings. We call this natural planting succession.
Planting and Waterfowl Thoughts from Bruce
1. Sodded islands seem to withstand duck and goose activity reasonably well. Native sod has been difficult to find. However, one of our distributors based in Idaho can source it ( Native Sod Solutions ). They can grow up a native grass over the space of a season. The grass is seeded into coir or jute mesh, and shipped in blankets. The blankets are significantly lighter than conventional sod, and an FII team is prepared to install it without moving the islands. This would require removal of any existing fencing or other barriers currently on the islands. Concurrently, the team would install our new anchor design on all of the islands.
2. As mentioned earlier, at least two clients have experimented with providing waterfowl with a convenient, waterfowl friendly island, somewhat removed from the immediate vicinity of the archipelego. Easy access, food, and security tends to draw them in. In some instances geese will not tolerate mallards, but in others they do. We are not sure what you would experience. If geese would not share such an island with ducks, perhaps two such islands could work. Such a strategy is enhanced by making the archipelego less friendly, which it sounds like you and Aaron and team have been working on. By giving waterfowl a path of least resistance we would hope to take some pressure off the archipelego, allowing it to develop fully.
3. In general, it is well known that waterfowl prefer flight over fight as an escape strategy. Thus they normally prefer an open viewscape (this does not always apply to duck nesting however.) Some clients have experimented with this in the form of plantings that grow relatively tall, like cattails and bushes. In your case, if the entire archipelego were pulled together with the larger islands in the center, piled with dead branches and planted with reeds and rushes, I would anticipate duck/geese usage around the perimeter, allowing the bulk of the island surface area in the center time to develop and mature. A couple strategic owl/eagle decoys might facilitate such a design. It would be critical to have the islands butted up against each other, to prevent easy access to the center by swimming waterfowl.
Plants
Below are the scientific names of some plants you may want to consider for your own floating island.
Acorus calamus
Alisma plantago-aquatica
Asclepias incarnata
Beckmannia syzigachne
Caltha palustris
Carex aquatilis
Carex nebrascensis
Carex stricta
Carex utriculata
Decodon verticillatus
Deschampsia caespitosa
Dulichium arundinaceum
Eleocharis acicularis
Eleocharis equisetoides
Eleocharis obtusa
Eleocharis palustris
Eleocharis quadrangulata
Hibiscus militaris
Hydrocotyle umbellata
Iris fulva
Iris pseudacorus
Iris versicolor
Iris virginica
Juncus balticus
Justicia americana
Leersia oryzoides
Lobelia cardinalis
Onoclea sensibilis
Osmunda regalis
Osmunda cinnamomea
Peltandra virginica
Phalaris arundinacea
Phragmites australis
Polygonum hydropiperoides
Polygonum pensylvanicum
Polygonum punctatum
Pontederia cordata
Rumex verticillatus
Sagittaria graminea
Sagittaria latifolia
Sagittaria rigida
Saururus cernuus
Schoenoplectus acutus
Schoenoplectus maritimus
Schoenoplectus pungens
Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani
Sium suave
Sparganium americanum
Sparganium eurycarpum
Spartina cynosuroides
Spartina pectinata
Symplocarpus foetidus
Thelypteris palustris
Typha angustifolia
Typha latifolia
Woodwardia areolata
Zizania aquatica
(list compiled by Robert Mohlenbrock
USDA, NRCS, 1997 - Northeastern Wetlands Flora @ PLANTS Database)
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