My husband successfully carried our 25 square foot and 64 square foot bio-islands and the accompanying bio-mix, rock wool and landscape staples home from the lumberyard on a 5 x 8 trailer. It was windy that day, and since the islands are more bulky than heavy, he secured them with rope, and placed a couple of empty pallets on top of them. They were wrapped in plastic, and in good shape.

I was happy to see that my islands were not actually square; the small one was a kidney-bean shape, and the larger one was longer than wide with nice curve shapes on all sides. They each had many small holes drilled in, with a few larger holes too. The 25 sq. ft. was easy to handle by two of us. The 64 sq. ft. one was more difficult, and we probably could not of handled one much larger than that by ourselves.

Inside the plastic wrap was a printed brochure with instructions on planting and launching the islands. Also attached were tags showing they had passed inspection, and the weight per square foot they were built to float.

The instructions said to put the island on a tarp next to the shore and plant it there. It said to only use the bio-mix to plant in, as it has the proper wicking properties. The brochure didn’t say anything about the other bags of white fibrous looking stuff, so I looked on their website and found out that it is called rock wool, and was to be placed in the holes first, under the bio-mix. It also said that the island itself is UV sensitive, and to use the bio-mix to cover the entire top, and to put sod on the sides to protect it from the sun.

I had knee surgery last winter, and decided to try planting on my deck, where I could stand on the ground and reach up to the deck instead of kneeling. I did the small one first, by placing a tarp on the deck so we could drag it from the deck onto a trailer after it was planted. It was a good thing I did the small one first, as I realized that this would not work with the large one – it would be way too heavy. The 25 sq. ft. was almost too heavy for us to drag from the deck onto the trailer, but we did it. Getting it from the trailer down to the ground and then into the pond wasn’t a problem with the tarp underneath, but without the tarp we probably would not have been able to manage it.

I did place the 64 sq. ft. island next to the pond on a tarp as directed in the instructions. A bag of bio-mix made a great place to sit, so I was able to plant it without much kneeling. There was plenty of bio-mix and Howard at Ion-Exchange had sent plenty of plants. I did not need as much sod as I had estimated either, since it only needs to be about 6 inches wide. I cut the sod rolls in half, and it was still to wide, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to use the wider strips. I found out later that it probably would have been better to install it as recommended – as my islands are floating lower than they are supposed to. However, I am not too worried about it since the plants I choose are all rushes, sedges, grasses and forbs that want to be wet. Moving the larger island from the shore into the pond was quite a challenge. It was VERY heavy. In fact, we could not pull the tarp; we sat on the ground with our backs against our ATV wheels, and pushed it with our legs. We made it, but I can see where a larger one would be almost impossible for only 2 people to handle.

The 25 sq ft went into a pond about 1 acre, and the 64 sq ft went into a pond that is a little less than 3 acres. The plants are thriving. The islands look small in the ponds, but I am sure I (and the ducks, fish, and geese) will be thrilled with them once the plants have grown.

THANK YOU Howard, for letting me know about these and helping me with ensuring I have added diversity to my ponds by adding native plants to them!

Here are some more pictures.  The grass has really grown, so I trimmed it a bit but left enough for them to feel like they have some privacy!   Note - the ducks use the island a lot but of course they leave when we approach with the canoe.  You can see all the feathers all over the island!!

Mary Ann Kirch
President
Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist
Santa Cruz  Home Finance
1535 Seabright Avenue
Santa Cruz,  California 95062/p>