Now that you’ve installed your water feature, it’s time for the real fun to begin: adding your plants. While most aspects of planting aquatics are similar to planting other gardens, there are just enough differences to add a little extra interest and discovery.
Growing aquatic plants in a thriving water garden has its unique challenges. The key is to be well-prepared from the start.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
It’s best to plant most aquatic plants in submersible containers or baskets with porous sides. This permits easy care, including the ability to quickly reposition the plant in the water garden or remove it for fertilizing, pest control, pruning and deadheading.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Container baskets should allow water to easily flow through the soil and roots of aquatic plants. Most are made of durable polypropylene plastic.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Generally speaking, aquatic plants should be planted after the last frost of the cool season, once warm spring temperatures have become established and are consistent. (The exact date depends on your particular region and climate and, to a lesser degree, your desire to stagger blooms throughout the season.)
In a natural environment, aquatic plants grow in the soil at the bottom of a pond or stream, or along its shoreline. There’s actually a method for growing submerged and shoreline plants in soil within a water garden liner. In fact, some rigid liners are molded with depressions in them to hold soil. The prevailing and preferred planting method, however, is to avoid placing soil directly into the liner, simply because it makes things easier: It eases thinning and fertilizing chores, lessens debris and loose soil that can clog pumps and filters, reduces overall soil needs, makes cleaning the liner easier for you and safer for your plants, and allows you to easily isolate sick plants.
Shoreline species should be planted in amended native soil outside the edge of the liner and watered frequently to keep them moist. Note that some shoreline plants can be invasive, and some have soil needs different than typical garden soil. The solution for both of these issues is to install your plants in containers before burying them in the shoreline soil.
Within the feature, you can just pour floaters from their containers onto the water surface and let them float away or tether them with nylon fishing leader. Install marginals and deep-water submersibles in prepared soil placed in specialized shallow containers and topped by a thin coat of holding gravel. Submerge the container into the water of the feature to the depth required by the specific plant as indicated on its label.
Unseen and submerged underwater, plastic baskets or clay pots designed specifically for water gardens provide constant water intrusion while holding the plant’s soil in place and keeping it at its proper depth. Marginal plants in containers are often set on shelves built into the liner. Deep-water submersibles are generally set at the bottom of the feature, but some plants require repositioning in the water as they grow. Set your containers on some type of risers – be they clay pots, plastic buckets, concrete blocks, etc. – and adjust as needed.
Wait 2-5 days after filling your feature with water before placing your plants into it to give water-treatment chemicals common in municipal supplies time to evaporate. (The length of time needed depends on your feature’s water volume. Larger ponds will need more time to sit than smaller ones.) As you wait, your pond may turn green with algae, signaling that the water is ready to support plant life.
As your plants grow, they’ll shade and stifle the algae and keep it under control, and milky green water will transform into clear, with a healthy brown tint. (If you’re introducing fish into your water feature, first add chlorine-chloramine neutralizer, available at pet stores, to the water. Carefully read and follow all package instructions for proper dosage amounts and use.)
Use caution when setting plants within your water feature. Wear waders or soft-soled shoes (or some people go barefoot) and cushion the edges of the risers holding the planting containers, always seeking to prevent damage to the liner.
Growing aquatic plants in a thriving garden pond has its unique challenges. But like many gardening endeavors, creating an aquatic environment provides an opportunity to cultivate your gardening skills, imagination and passion. Once you learn how to prepare for those challenges, you’re on your way to floating toward success.
