As well as adding beauty to your pond, aquatic plants represent an excellent addition to the discerning pond owner. They enhance oxygen production within the water while keeping your pond properly aerated.
In summer, they keep your pond water cool and provide shade for your aquatic life. Furthermore, during the breeding season, submerged aquatic plants offer female fish critical surfaces to attach fertilized eggs.
Submerged pond plants plants will help in the prevention of algae spreading out of control. These plants bring shade that reduces light coming into your pond thereby limiting algae photosynthesis.
The natural filtration system they bring to your pond prevent formation of blanket weeds. This is through absorbing harmful nitrates that create an environment for blanket weeds.
All you need to ensure is that you pick the right aquatic plants that live with your fish in harmony. Ensure you undertake appropriate plant placement and avoid planting vegetation your fish will eat away.
Going About Choosing The Right types of pond plants
Taking into consideration expertise collected over time by pond owners and experts, you need to learn about the categories of pond plants list out there. That way you attain critical knowledge regarding which varieties to pick and which to avoid.
You have to put into consideration your goals before picking plants that accommodate pond inhabitant needs besides algae control. Learn creation of a balanced pond that will not rely on expensive mechanical filters or toxic chemicals. This is through applying natural solutions.
Water lilies, for example, come with top recommendations. For someone new in water gardening, water lilies are a good starting point. This is due to their iconic image on your backyard pond and resilience during any season or within any region.
However, different plants remain more appropriate for your pond based on your climatic zone and the time of the year. A good strategy involves planting combinations of warm and cool season plants. That way, you attain algae control throughout the year.
Furthermore, prohibited plants are a danger since they take over other species with speed when just a single piece gets in. Again, certain areas of the country prohibit some plants due to this taking over. As such identify prohibited plants and avoid them.
Traditionally, pond plants fall into four main groupings. These are marsh or bog, floating, oxygenating, and marginal plants. Some overlap between the groupings sometimes occurs, however, these classifications remain quite useful.
Bog or Marsh Pond Plants
Marsh or pond plants are wetland vegetation growing near the water edge. To your pond, these bring architectural interest and enhanced beauty.
The lush and colorful Bog plants grow in the shallow waters of your pond or in the saturated soil that surrounds the margins or rim of your pond. This category has a heavy root feeding tendency.
They search for their nutrients basically from the soil. They rely very little on pond water for their nutrients.
However, they will improve water quality through removing excess harmful nutrients from your pond environment. This is before these can accumulate to dangerous levels.
Emergent Plants
This category features plants with erect leaves and stems that emerge above pond water surface. Among the most recognizable and well known pond plants fall into this group.
Deep water emergent vegetation roots venture deep underwater into the pond bottom. Flowers and leaves subsequently emerge, spreading all over the pond surface. This provides various inhabitants, such as fish, with cover and shade against predators.
They may call for cutting back, however, since they have a tendency to take over a pond garden fast.
Marginal Plants
These are plants that require to grow along the shallow edges of your pond which later extend out into the water. Some types weather occasion drying out. Others survive only in a few centers of water.
Marginal pond vegetation often have their growing points or crowns, and soil underwater. On occasion, their lower foliage grow underwater as well. To attain a true marginal plant definition, this vegetation category needs to thrive with water over its crown or in waterlogged soil throughout the year.
Oxygenators
This category have their foliage entirely underwater. The live on your pond bottom or within the deeper shelves. They also float suspended under the water. At any depth, so long as there is light, oxygenators do well.
This variety has excellent traits for trapping sediments thereby improving water clarity. During daylight, they create lots of oxygen, thereby gaining the identity oxygenators.
For best effects, groups of them need to go where water moves by or near a waterfall.
Floating Plants
This easy to care vegetation brings surface cover, fish hiding spots away from predators or places to raise their fry, and shade to a pond. They simply sit on the water surface with roots drifting below, acting as filters.
Most floating pond plants make flowers you can cleverly use to beautify and disguise water filtration gadgets and other elements. They improve water quality through competing with algae while enhancing water clarity.
Their fast growth rate and excess nutrient removal traits make them important additions to a healthy garden pond.
When Should I Plant My Pond?
Any time of the year is good enough to plant up your pond. Cool season vegetation start growth in winter. This makes them active during early spring, assisting in combating algae blooms in early spring.
Conversely, warm season vegetation begin growing late in spring. This makes them active throughout summer, which helps in battling algae blooms in later summer.
However, for most ponds, late winter or early spring is ideal. That way, plants get fresh soil and food just before they start growing, getting the most benefits in this.
Alternatively, think of qualities you desire in a plant. For plants flowering in early spring, make sure they are planted and established the previous autumn. This way, it is not trimmed or moved as flowers form.
For a soil bottomed natural pond, planting in late summer or early autumn means water and soil are warm. This enables plants establish faster.
Floating plants tend shrink into small shoots or buds at the pond bottom in winter. Therefore these are not available in this time of the year until September and April.
How Many Pond Plants Do I Need?
Start with the rule of the thumb ideal where a bunch of plants around pond edge that goes into a square foot of pond water surface.
Another criteria involves dividing plants depending upon the surface area of your pond.
As an example, for every two meters squared, plant one water lily, eight marginal plants, fifteen bunches of oxygenating plants, and two floating plants.
Plant Tips from A Water Gardening Expert View
Should you be wondering if plants are right for your pond, think of this. In natural wetlands, ninety percent of all life consists of plants. These keep water conditions in top health and perfect balance for all the other ten percent life forms. This is through consuming waste organic nutrients from birds, mammals, fish, and so on.
Placing floating pond plants on shallow beds with rims or securing floating barriers works best should your pond lack still areas.
Dividing thick and tough rook systems among iris plants stops root compaction. This is benefits overall plant health and prevent flooding planters with excess root growth.
By planting media around roots in shallow rim areas of the pond or in basket planters and topping with pebbles prevents plant damage from water currents and fish. This also gives baskets and planted areas that finished and natural look.
It is good practice to have a good mixture between perennial, cool season, and warm season plants.
Remove that foliage that starts leaning or withering into your pond. When left in place, these foliage fuels algae growth.
Rather than depend on chemicals, best practice would involve keeping things fresh, orderly, and neat. That way, you naturally maintain your pond.
Oxygenation with the aid of a filter or pump also circulates water. The resulting water movement enhances vegetation natural ability to trap more sediments and nutrient uptake.
A good strategy involves establishing water plants long before algae peak season. This is in later summer or early spring. That way, benefits attributed to purifying become more optimized.
Building a pond with slopping sides for planting terraces or with shelves, and stepping down towards your preferred pond area, allows plants habitat diversity for critters.
Maintaining A Natural Water Garden
Numerous ways need to go into maintaining, provision of healthy, and balanced pond enjoyment. Of key note is that natural needs to be key. Natural features that already exist around your pond promote ideal situations and remain preferable to chemical and mechanical solutions.
Natural solutions like nualgi ponds, beneficial bacteria and barley absorb excess nutrients, promote diatom growth, and starve off algae.
Although effective, products such as ultra violet clarifiers, ion generators, and algaecides, tend to mask problems of excess nutrients instead of solving them.
Ensure there is sufficient water all year round. Water tends to evaporate fast in hot weather. Water quality requires constant checkup. That is the gH and pH. Water acidity pH calls for, regular monitoring especially after a long spell of heavy rainfall.
Debris collection needs to go immediately. Problems associated with algae calls for urgent handling. Since water lilies float on water surface, return these to their baskets at the pond bottom and have them weighted with rocks.
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