Water Garden Guide

A water garden can be a beautiful feature of your garden’s design – or if you are particularly into water and water-features, it can be your whole garden! You may like a small, cool, section at the back of the garden – divided by an ivy covered trellis – which can be a safe haven for the Sunday crossword.

Lily Ponds

A lily pond is the perfect place to relax next to in summer – once lilies are in full bloom there is little competition in the water for their beauty. Water lilies may be beautiful but they are in no way delicate – they are hardy plants which can take most of what the weather throws at them
A great accompaniment for lilies is the iris. Isis’ do not seem to be the kind of plant you’d usually find in a pond, but many species of iris thrive in them. The thin, tall stems and delicate flowers compliment the wide flat exuberance of the lilies.

Planning your pond is the hard part – you obviously want a pond of reasonable size. Take into consideration the size of the garden and how much of it you are willing to lose. A small pond may not look particular impressive so planning ahead is a must. Use a length of rope to plan out shapes and sizes in the garden – this allows you to visualise the area.

Budgeting for a lily pond is also required, spare about £300 at the beginning. Depending on size, the pond will cost slightly different amounts in materials used. A high quality lining is required to reduce seepage. Remember that you want your pond to be about a metre and a half deep – for cool water temperature regulation.

The next most important thing is the pump. Choose a good, high quality one to keep your fish and plants happy. Once you’re ready you only need to get digging!

Other Water Garden Designs

A water garden need not be completely focused on the plants and fish in the pond. A series of fountains or waterfalls can be a great way to bring some high-design into your garden. This is of course, a little more than having a pump and a lined hole in the ground – this becomes something closer to architecture.

Creating a fake hill can do the trick in these cases, with flowers in the terraces around the main waterfall. You can design something with clean lines and modern design or create something slightly more old-fashioned.

Lighting becomes an option once you have a feature like a pond or artificial stream. Light through moving water can turn a garden into something really special.

If you want a “waterfall effect,” but not the effort of building an artificial one, then simply placing the pump so that the water appears to trickle over two rocks. If you have a higher powered pump having it arch from an unseen point to splash onto a feature rock can be a great way to have fun with your water garden design.

Things to Remember About Water Gardens

Get a pump which is the correct pressure for your pond size – you need not have an industrial strength pump in a 2 metre square pond!

Try not to grow too many plants in a pond. It becomes messy, a great deal of work to keep under control and can be bad for the plants themselves. This is also true for fish – too many fish means unhappy fish!

If you do have fish, and you expect there to be a particular cold winter you may have to move them inside, away from the frozen ponds – this can also apply to flowers such as lilies.

With all this in mind you should be ready to jot down some ideas for your new water garden.