Making A Water Garden Design

 

A water garden can add a great deal of interest to an otherwise plain yard, especially if you also add a water feature. Designing your water garden need not be too difficult. Basically you have two choices you can create your own water garden design or hire a professional landscape architect to do this for you. Other than this the only two other things to consider are, firstly, the amount of space available and, secondly, the prevailing climate of your local area.

Getting Started

Once you have decided upon the location of your water garden you need to get stuck in digging a hole. Obviously the shape of your hole determines the shape, but also the various depths, of your water feature, pool or pond. The depth of the water will have a powerful bearing upon the types of plants you will be able to use so try to gain an understanding of the specific requirements of your plants of choice. The surrounding ground will determine which plants you should grow in the immediate vicinity.

To increase interest you will want to have a variety of water plants and surrounding plants and it is often a great idea to incorporate a small bog garden into your water garden design, especially if you are intending to create a natural look and feel. When creating your design remember to include at least one shelf area at the edge of the water for marginal plants. If going for a natural look remember that it will look far better if your plantings flow into each other rather than having clearly defined, and separate, plantings.

The depth of the shelf should be about 12 inches with the rest of the pond having depths ranging from around 18-24 inches. However, if you plan to have fish in the pond it is important that you also include an area slightly deeper than this if you want your fish to survive through winter. Remember the greater the variations in depths the more diverse choice you will have in water plants.

Choosing Your Plants

The choice of plants available to you to use in your water garden design it truly immense (far too great a choice to include them all here, at a later date we hope to feature some of the more popular plants). The most important factors which effect your choice are the already mentioned factor of water depth and your local climate. Unfortunately the advice given here has to be broad as there are readers from all over the planet with vastly different climates and, if you know that the USA is split into 10 specific climate regions (depending on when the last chance of frost has passed), you will realize the difficulties. Luckily there are a few general points which are applicable to all regions.

Let's look at the obvious first, if you live in a hot area such as southern California you should make sure that you use plants which are labeled "tropical" (also applies to the edge of Florida and Texas). Sadly this type of plant will struggle to survive elsewhere in the US and if you do use them you must be prepared to lose them in the colder months.

For other areas you should use plants which are labeled as "hardy". Hardy plants can survive pretty cold weather but if you live in an area which experiences extremely cold weather, such as Alaska, then it is highly possible that even those plants labeled as hardy will survive your winters.

Tips About Your Water Garden Plants

Always allow plenty of room,in your water garden design, for plants to grow, especially those with a spreading habit, it is simply too much hassle removing plants as they become overcrowded so it is best to plan in advance.

DO NOT plant your plants in fabric containers! I have seen other sites advise that you use fabric pots but there is a rather obvious problem with them - they can fall apart, rot and foul the water. Only use tough pots designed for the purpose. The pot should be of a mesh type to allow plenty of water to flow through it to keep your plant roots healthy. If your plants are supplied in such containers simply transplant them.

Always make sure that the pots are rock steady so that they stand no chance of falling into deeper water where they will struggle to survive.

Cover the tops of pots with gravel to keep the soil in place and protect it from any fish or other creatures.

 

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