Marginal and Shallow Growers!

Marginal and Shallow Growers
Copyright 2003 - Kelly Billing
Maryland Aquatic Nurseries
All rights reserved

When selecting plants for the pond it is important to know the types of plants, their growth habits and how they can be incorporated into the landscape most effectively.

All too often plants of considerable value are passed up because they don’t provide colorful flowers. Some of the most outstanding landscapes in the world contain very little color. Making the right plant choices for the best overall effect will enable you to create the most natural and beautiful environment.

Start by creating adequate planting areas for shallow water plants.

The standard, but ill-advised, recommendation has been to create a shelf 12” to 15” wide and 10” to 12” deep all around the pond.

This approach is appropriate only in the smallest ponds and creates what we call the “necklace effect” – a circle of undersized planting containers each holding an individual variety. It not only looks weedy but leads to several complications:

1. The pots holding tall plants are usually too small to create adequate ballast. This means that every time the wind blows so do your plants.
2. The rot system is very restricted in a small pot and penetrating it to add fertilizer is extremely difficult. Also, due to insufficient amounts of soil, the plants will require regular feedings.
3. An increase in plant maintenance since small containers on narrow shelves will become root bound. That means dividing and repotting all of your plants every year or two.

For medium ponds (10” x 15”) incorporate a 2-foot wide shallow water area (shelf). For larger ponds, consider a 3’ or 4’ width. Depth in these areas should be 10” to 12” at the very minimum.

You can always raise a planting container on bricks but you can’t make your shelf deeper. Narrow shelves in the front of the pond are sufficient for low growing foreground plantings.

Smaller ponds can be built without shelves to keep water volume at a maximum. Upside down plastic milk crates (available at office supply stores) can be used to support large plantings. These crates sometimes do double duty as I’ve heard them referred to as “goldfish jungle gyms”.

The same rules that apply to traditional landscape are rarely implemented when it comes to the water garden but they should be.

Create masses and combine plants that compliment each other. Allow plants to intermix for foliage contrast and texture that will highlight flowering varieties. Give depth to the landscape through varied height.

Look at what Mother Nature has provided for insight. A grove of maples flushed with the red blossoms of spring! A burst of wild flowers lay between the road and the forest. The May apples and daylilies blanket the forest floor. The single, old, white oak in the middle of a grass field is a rare find, as with any single in a variety.

Wouldn’t three Iris laevigata (Showdrift) in a 16” x 7” plastic planting container or five of them in a 23” x 10” container put on an awesome display of flowers and foliage?

Then imagine, planted beneath them in the same container, a blanket of Myosotis scirpoides (Water Forget-me-Not) in full bloom with the delicate cloverleaves of Marsilea drummondii (Four Leaf Water Clover) peaking through the blue flowers. Than imagine two more containers, all three nestled together. Lovely!

Use the tall dense upright foliage of Iris as a background to summer flowering plants.

Using a 16” x 7” container, combine one Iris, one Pontederia cordata (Pickerel) and one Mentha aquatica (Water Mint). Presto, that bare Iris is now the perfect compliment to the other plants in a simple, beautiful arrangement.

The erect foliage of the Iris creates a nice background for the shiny leaves and lavender blue flowers of the pickerel. When the mint fills in, you have a striking combination of foliage, flowers and texture for season-long color.

Keep the soil level at least 2” below the top edge of the pot and dress with pea gravel. By leaving the soil level low, the handles on the container will remain accessible.

Beneficial insects such as dragonflies, water boatmen and surface skimmers will all have a better environment to live in. Baby fish will also have a place to escape to until they are large enough to compete.

One last thing – Be sure to take into consideration the plants outside the perimeter of the pond as they are of the equal value to the overall design and aesthetic properties of your water garden and landscape.

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