Stocking A Water Garden

The selection of plants for a new bed or border which you have created in your garden is up to you. Allowing for the amount of sunshine and soil type that are present you will have an enormous range of plants from which to make your choice, depending on your likes and dislikes. Roses on their own or mixed with other plants. Bedding plants or Bamboo, it's up to you entirely.

Among the basic rules for creating a successful water garden is that stocking is not just up to anyone with a desire to have a lovely pond. Stocking requires bringing together a variety of ingredients, both plant and animal, to ensure that a healthy and stable balance is maintained. It is going to be essential to introduce some uninteresting plants without any ornamental value because they assist to maintain the water clear. You might also have to make sure that a certain quantity of the water surface is covered by foliage, whether you like it or not.

You may soon find out that choosing specimen from the aquatic centre or catalog simply as it looks the most attractive is usually a big mistake. The showiest fish would require a much larger than average pond as well as an ice-free environment during the wintry weather months. Some fairly strict rules, then, for creating the correct choice of stocking material.

In addition there are rules relating to time for stocking the pond. To start with, plants should be introduced through the growing season and you must wait a couple of days after the pond has been filled up with fresh tap water. This allows the dissolved chlorine to break up. The next rule is that make sure you leave Four weeks between planting before introduction of fish. The main reason for this is that fish tug at submerged plants and nibble at the leaves, so Water Lillies, Marginals, Oxygenators etc should be allowed to establish themselves before being exposed to Goldfish, Shubunkins or some other kind of fish.

You will find 6 groups of pond plants that you ought to consider.
Water Lillies, roots submerged, leaves on the surface and flowers on or above the water surface.
Deep Water Aquatics, roots submerged, leaves on the surface and flowers on or above the surface.
Floaters, roots submerged, leaves and stems free-floating on or just below the surface and the flowers, if any, on or above the surface.
Bog Plants, roots in moist soil but not permanently submerged in water, leaves and flowers clearly above the surface.
Oxygenators, roots and stems submerged, leaves nearly always submerged as well as flowers, if any, on or above the surface.
Finally, industrial mega flow systems. we have the Marginals, roots submerged, leaves and flowers clearly above the surface.

There are far too many types of every group to cover in a single article but I will write in more detail a greater description of every group the moment I can. The principle thing to remember when stocking your pond is to have a good look at the plants on offer and try to know the purpose of each group of plants. This is vital towards survival of your ponds life.