How to build and fill a pond or install a preformed pond? Follow our advice to successfully install your pond: whether it is a liner or a shell. Provide aeration and filtration for your pond to keep the water clear. Add shoreline and water plants, and fish if you wish!
Contents
Filling your pond with plants
Aquatic plants play an important role in balancing the pond. They absorb the nitrates that pollute the water, disturb it and promote the development of algae, the bane of small ponds. Some aquatic plants are said to oxygenate, providing other plants and fish with precious oxygen. These are floating plants such as lettuce or water hyacinth.
Moreover, the plants provide shade in certain areas of the pond, preventing the water from heating up or evaporating too quickly.
Planting is done between April and June. The ideal for small ponds is to plant them in baskets, so that they can be stored under cover during the winter.
Combine aquatic plants with shoreline plants, a refuge for pond wildlife.
Choosing plants for your pond
Shoreline plants
They like humid soils, not permanently submerged. Among the smallest, we appreciate the astilbe, with its light foliage and its large flower panicles; the candelabra primrose with its flowers of various colors, the marsh marigold or water marigold.
Some shoreline plants are very large and spectacular. This is the case of the gunnera or the ornamental rhubarb with its enormous leaves. Other plants can only tolerate a small amount of permanent immersion and are well suited to the edge of ponds. Among them, acore, flowering rush, Japanese iris, horsetail.
Plants for small ponds
They should not be immersed by more than 10 inches and are well suited for small ponds. They prefer a sunny exposure. The water hyacinth and the water iris have beautiful mauve flowers, the aquatic forget-me-not is splendid thanks to its very light blue flowers. We also like the water clover and the false yellow water lily.
Plants for deep ponds
These true aquatic plants can be planted directly in soil at the bottom of the pond or in special pots with side holes filled with substrate that will then be submerged. The most famous of these is the water lily, which blooms all summer and produces floating leaves, as does the lotus (Nelumbo).
There is also the water pess (Hippuris vulgaris), the Pontederia cordata with its large spikes of blue flowers in summer or the sagittaria (Sagittaria sagittifolia) with aerial and floating leaves in the shape of a spearhead.
Where to plant aquatic plants?
At the water’s edge, on the banks or in the water (more or less submerged plants)
When to plant aquatic plants ?
The best time to plant aquatic plants in your pond is between April and June. Be careful with the type of plant you plan to put in your pond, always respect the culture sheet of the plants first!
How to plant your aquatic plants ?
– Provide a layer of substrate (clay soil + peat + potting soil) at least 8 inches deep.
– Install the plants by respecting the immersion heights.
– For water lilies, lay the rhizome flat and cover it with 2 inches of substrate, leaving the terminal bud protruding.
