How to Select Aquatic Plants for a Pond
HOW TO SELECT AQUATIC PLANTS FOR A POND - The first question to ask is, "How does my pond look?". Is it lacking plants that float ontop of the water? Does it have murky water or is the water clear? Does the edge of the pond look good? To begin you must get a clear idea of what you would like your pond to look like.
Start with the perimeter of your pond, work on choosing what shelf plants you're going to put around the perimeter. Leave room for growth. Do you want tall perimeter plants such as cattails, rushes, and reeds? If you have a smaller pond, tall plants will give your pond a larger look. Maybe you want to get away from the grass-like look, then choose some flowering or low growing plants to give you more color. Most pond enthusiasts love having the iris plants in their water garden. They provide a good combination of the two.
Next you'll want to look at how clear your water is. Getting it tested at a local pond shop will tell you your pH level (which is essential to keep stablized for plant and fish health), ammonia level (which is raised by fish waste), and other levels like salt and nitrite levels (these are less important to know). Fighting algae or murky water can be a challange, if you currently have "bad" water there are a couple steps you can take to solving this "bad" water problem. If it's algae you're fighting, whether it be string algae or green water, you can fight this problem the natural way, or the chemical way. The natural way takes longer but it more reliable in the long run.
