Garden Pond

Aquatic Plants are your filters.

Aquatic plants keep the water clear and clean in your pond. However, not all aquatic plants contribute to water quality. Some are grown just for appearance.

There are very important functions that your water plants perform, making them indispensable to the ecologically balanced pond.

Not all aquatic plants do everything. There is no one most important aquatic plant, a combination of types chosen for function and asthetics will be best.

Anacharis grasses

These grasses are the most popular for underwater use in aquariums, and ponds.

These plants are known as oxygenators because they do produce oxygen in the sun. But their real benefit is how, and how much, they eat.

Anacharis consumes nutrients directly from the water. This plant uses its roots just to hang on.. The plant actually absorbs nutrients through its leaves.

If your pond bottom is covered in anacharis you will most assuredly have a crystal clear pond.

Floating Plants

The next most important plant is the floating plant. Water hyacinths and water lettuce are the best. They provide a place for fish to hide from predators, they provide food for fish (usually what is hanging on their roots), and they provide shade for the water below. But the most important characteristic is that they feed directly from water born nutrients through their hanging roots.

Buy and grow as much anacharis
and other floating plants as you can, especially in a new pond.

Lilies

Lilies are put in ponds primarily for their appearance, but they do have some other benefits. They shade the water as they fan out their leaves and they hide fish from birds above. They also consume a large amount of nutrients. As your pond begins to develop a nice layer of sediment, lilies will send out roots to gobble up the nutrients from fish wastes and other decaying plant matter as well.

Bog Plants

Their primary function in your pond is appearance. Elephant ears, taro, papyrus, cattail, iris, rushes, horse tails, there are many to choose from. They do not have a lot to do with your water chemistry but they do provide refuge for pond animals like frogs.

Plants are benificial to good water chemistry.
Plant anacharis floating plants.
Then waterscape with your lilies and bog plants.

Planters

Putting plants into your pond at the proper depth is very important.

A bog plant planter is best build 16" square and 6" deep. Keeping the size managable is important in case you have to move the planters when they are water logged.

A secondary function of your bog planter box is to provide a hiding place for fish.

A bog planter box should have four legs at a length so the top of the box is about 2" below the surface of the pond. This depth will suit almost any bog plant.

Lilies

Lilies are usually planted in plastic tubs, the bigger the better. Again, size the tubs so you can move ythrem later if neccessary. Strong plastic tubs are good for this. Remember to buy dark colored ones so you can't see the pot when it is installed. Try to get UV stabilized plastic or the tubs won't last one season. Brown or black is best.

Make sure there are lots of holes in the sides of the lily planter as it needs the additional water flow.

Anacharis grasses are best planted in small (one gallon/6") black nursery pots. These pots are perfect, cheap to get and they are already black or dark green.

Planting soils and other pointers

There are three different soil mixes for ponds.

Water Lilies

Lilies demand a rich soil with lots of food. Lilies are heavy feeders.

• If you have oak leaves, put a 1 inch layer of leaves on the bottom of the pot covering the holes. If you don't have oak leaves, put newspaper in the bottom to cover the holes to keep the dirt in until it sets up. Also an acidifier, newspapers will help fight the alkalinity.

  Mix the soil completely with the composted manure and fill the bottom 1/2 of the pot. Sit the lily plant down on the soil and fan out the roots as much as possible. Put in the remainder of the soil to cover the plant up to the ground line of the plant. Then put in a layer of pea gravel or washed sand the last 1" on top. This top layer of rocks or sand keeps the fish from messing around in the soil and muddying the water.

• Oak Leaves; the acid in the leaves helps stabilize the pH in the water. Since the tendancy for ponds is to go alkaline, oak leaves work. In lieu of oak leaves, you can use a chemical acidic agent.

• Depth    If you have purchased a young lily, chances are that it has short leaf stems. Put your tub in the water to a point where the leaves are below the water surface about 3-4". Within a couple of days, the leaves will grow to float on top of the water again. Then lower the tub as the leaves grow until you get the tub all the way to the bottom of the pond. Place them on other plastic tubs, pots turned upside down, or a box of wood. Do not use hollow blocks as they will upset the pH in your pond.

• Food    I used tree fertilizers sold in briquettes. Put 4-5 of the large briquettes in the soil. Push them down to the root area after the pot is planted. Three months later, or mid summer, give them another round of briquettes. You don't need to take the pot out of the pond, just push the briquettes completed down into the soil. Do not fertilize lilies after August in temperate climates.

  There are commercial lily briquettes available from mos tgarden supply outlets as well. Follow the package instructions.

Bog Plants

Bogs are weeds. They usually grow very large root systems to scavenge for food. Two or three bogs per 16" square planter box is sufficient.

Anacharis

Anacharis does not feed through its roots so putting anything in the soil for food is not neccessary.

For a nice ambiance, let a few strands of Anacharis grow along the surface. They will shoot up little tiny white flowers adding a nice touch to your garden pond.

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