You need to ensure optimum planting conditions when planting your brand new water garden. Proper plants, proper soil and proper location – these are three things to keep track of when planting a water garden. But there are special considerations for water gardens that are different from traditional types of gardens.
Aside from those mentioned above, you have to figure in the water’s temperature, the depth of the water and the safety of the plants and animals in the winter months. As for the soil, a heavy and loamy soil would be perfect for growing aquatic plants.
In order to preserve the nutrient content that keeps your plant growing, you cannot settle on the usual potting mix with light soil. Make sure you are using damp soil when planting. Fill up the container 2/3 full with damp soil for your plants to grow properly.
There are also special considerations when growing water lilies – place the rhizomes with the growing tip pointed semi-angular towards the center. The growing tip usually has eyes, a bit like a potato. This way, it can grow across the center of the container.
Cover the tip with soil after placing the rhizome properly – make sure the tip rises just above the soil’s level. The exception is tropical water lilies, which are planted in the center of the container.
Likewise, lotuses are planted in the center, but you need to exercise care when handling their rhizomes, which can be quite fragile. The process would be different when planting submerged plants and emergent – start by placing a generous amount of soil in your pot, centering the plant, then filling the pot with even more soil, putting them over the roots.
The next step would be to cover the soil with half an inch of gravel after the potting process. This prevents the soil from erosion, as well as from murking up the pond water. Submerge your plants to the recommended depth after potting.
If submerging the plants is difficult, you can use bricks and place them below the containers. Check the planting instructions for each plant to see what level the plants should be submerged to. For example, water lilies would be best grown about a foot or a foot and a half above the container.
The pot could be placed at a shallower depth at first, and lowered later as the plant grows. It’s important to give the pond enough sun, because the container can be placed deeper with more sunlight. Tropical water lilies need to be at 12 inches depth if possible, but they can grow in only 6 to 8 inches if they have to.
Lotus plants only need about 4 to 6 inches of water over the top, and emergent plants generally only need a couple of inches of water over them. You can adjust the height of the various plants by placing bricks or inverted pots underneath.
Don’t overfertilize your water garden or you may encounter some unpleasant issues. This can lead to an algae problem. You can use slow release tablets or some sort of granular fertilizer. For specific fertilizer types, these would include 5-10-5, 20-10-5, 12-8-8, and 10-6-4.
Fertilize your plants every month from April to August. Tablet fertilizer is generally the easiest to use. All you have to do is place the tablets underneath the soil. Most aquatic plants won’t do very well in cold weather, so they need to be over-wintered.
This means you’ll need to take some precautions to ensure your plants aren’t killed by ice and freezing temperatures. For very shallow ponds, this will mean the plants need to be brought indoors for the winter.
Keep the plants above freezing temperature but no more than 50 degrees to preserve their dormancy. Make sure the plants’ roots remain moist until spring begins. You can also remove rhizomes from their containers and store the plants in moist sphagnum moss inside plastic bags. There is a special process for tropical water lilies – keep them in an aquarium tank at around 70 degrees and keep the tank well-lighted.
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