Garden club looks under the surface of Lakewood Ranch ponds

Camelle Romero isn’t a member of the Gardeners Out East, but two noisy aerators in the pond outside her Eagle Trace home led her to the club’s latest meeting. 

She showed up hoping to find a natural alternative because the guest speaker was Sean Patton, an aquatic biologist and owner of Stocking Savvy, an environmental consulting firm.

About 30 people attended the meeting Jan. 13 to learn more about the ponds surrounding their Lakewood Ranch homes. 

“Many of us, who moved to Lakewood Ranch, don’t know that the ponds aren’t really ponds,” club president Nancy Schneider said. “Keeping them healthy is a very important thing.”

The ponds in Lakewood Ranch are manmade detention ponds. They were designed to look natural, but engineered to serve a purpose. 

Under ground, the ponds are interconnected as one big network that catches stormwater runoff and filters pollutants before the water makes its way into the Braden River. 

During summer 2022, a pond in Lake Club turned brown. Tests showed runoff to be the cause; the lake performed as planned and cleared on its own. 

As for Romero’s problem of two noisy aerators, according to Patton, a native pairing of the right plants and fish doesn’t require even one aerator. 

However, the benefits of aerators can include a more robust fish stock and less algae. 

Stirring up the water gives the fish added oxygen and reduces thermal stratification, which happens when the sun warms the top of the pond. The water separates into two layers according to temperature, and the warmer layer promotes algae growth. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

Patton uses herbicides as a last resort for treating algae. Multiple species of fish are his preferred treatment.

“(Algae) can evolve to resist a chemical,” he said. “It is much harder to evolve to resist a fish because that fish coevolves with (the algae).” 

While Lakewood Ranch doesn’t stock algae-eating fish, Anne Ross, executive director of Lakewood Ranch’s Stewardship District, said several ponds are stocked with carp. 

Lakewood Ranch has Triploid Grass Carp permits for those ponds. The permits are issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission because the carp are an effective way to control aquatic weeds. 

The grass carp are imported from Asia, so "Triploid” indicates that the fish have been sterilized at a hatchery to prevent spawning into Florida waters.

The garden club meets at the Robert Toale and Sons Celebration of Life Center, which overlooks a pond. Patton walked the group outside. It didn’t take more than a glance for him to spot and pluck a little green sprout from the water. 

“This is one of seven federally banned plants in the state,” he said. “This is Hydrilla verticillata.”

Patton explained that Hydrilla have tubers that herbicides don’t kill, so stocking a pond with carp is the best control. It’s also far less expensive. 

According to FWC, spraying herbicides costs between $100 and $500 per acre. Stocking a pond with triploid grass carp costs between $15 and $150 per acre, depending on how many carp are needed. The range is from three to 10 per acre, and restocking is typically not required for at least five years. 

“We work with developers now,” Patton said. “They’ve said (bio control) is so effective, it’s actually in their best interest. They’re having less algae issues because we stock the ponds right.” 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

All that stocking costs a little more upfront for the first year or two. But once the ecosystem is established, the maintenance costs are minimal. Patton has worked on several ponds in Venice’s Wellen Park community. 

It should be noted that carp do compete with native fish for food.

As with the ponds, every plant and fish serves a specific purpose. Patton sees 90% less algae in ponds stocked with floating plants because they help to block the sun and keep the water cooler. 

Planting a species like Elderberry around the edge of a pond is more aesthetically pleasing than an overgrown “no-mow area" and helps protect the pond. Mowing directly next to the water can spread torpedo grass into the pond, and a heavy lawn mower can cause the banks to erode. 

While the crowd was enthralled throughout Patton’s presentation, he mentioned something that had nothing to do with ponds, but piqued an audible interest from some members of the audience. 

“There’s a state law exempting you, if you’re using native plants and xeriscaping, from Homeowners Association bylaws,” he said. “You cannot be told by your HOA not to use those species. They can, however, say you are a bad gardener and tell you to make it look nicer.”