Picking Plants for Your Water Garden

After you've finished building a pond, it's a great idea to add some plants. Plants help, not only to beautify the pond, but also to oxygenate the water and make it livable for fish or other creatures. The types of plants you'll get will largely be based on what you like, and the size of your pond. In this article I will discuss the four types of water plants that are available.

Floating Plants

Floating plants are fun and do just that, they float. If you have a lot of water flowing they may always sit downstream, but they are fun nonetheless. Floating plants are mostly invasive species and therefore require quite a bit of maintenance to ensure that they don't take over the pond. Keep this in mind if you are a little less attentive to your plants than you should be.

Surface Plants

Surface plants have their leaves and stems above the water, but their roots planted firmly in the soil well below. This plant family includes lily's, which are beautiful, and help to stop the growth of algae. Algae makes your pond water green and should be avoided at all costs, so these plants are great.

Submerged Plants

Submerged Plants are what we know as seaweed. They are green leafy plants which stay underwater and are not really seen by you. These help immensely in oxygenating the water, so they are good if you have fish, but they do little for the aesthetics of the pond.

Marginal Plants

Marginals are an in between sort of plant. They have their roots in the soil but only marginally submerged underwater. To plant these you will need a very shallow area along the side of your pond. The plants in this classification are many including rush's and cattails. These are beautiful taller leafy plants so consider putting them on the opposite side of the pond from where you normally view it so as not to obstruct the view of the pond itself.

Consider the size and shape of your pond, as well as the amount of work you want to put in before selecting any plants. Each individual plant should come with a small informational insert which will tell you the light level it likes and its propensity to reproduce (or how much you need to trim it). So read carefully and find something you like that you will enjoy taking care of.