Garden Pond Plants

Garden Pond Plants Role Is An Important One!

Garden pond plants are real workers, they are not just there for show and if there is a type of pond plant that is an absolute must in a pond it is oxygenators.

During daylight oxygenators take carbon dioxide out of the water and put oxygen in, at night or after dark they start to produce carbon dioxide.

This rapid growth helps keep nutrients down as they feed off these. The fact that many underwater oxygenators
are rapid growers, once established they need to be kept under control to maintain a healthy balance.

This balance is especially important to those who wish to create a large natural pond as its the overall planting both above and below the waterline that establishes the desired effect in a natural pond and its in this size of pond that it could prove difficult to remove any that has become rampant.

Remember that autumn is the least disruptive time to wildlife for clearing out the garden pond and what we do take out leave at the side of the pond for a while so that any wildlife can get back in the pond.

For the smaller garden pond it's much easier to keep garden pond plants under control.

The Four Basic Types Of Pond Plant

There are four basic types of garden pond plants:

Floating, Marginal, Deep Water and Oxygenators.

What garden pond plants we choose to use is a matter
of personal choice as amongst these there are many to choose from to create a simple wildlife garden pond that appeals to ourselves and the local wildlife.

Native plants are far the best to use if at all possible,
but this will take a bit of research.

A Few UK Native Pond Plants

Floaters - Water Soldiers (oxygenator), Rigid Hornwort (oxygenator) and Frogbit.

Deep Water - Water Starworts (oxygenator), Common Water Crowfoot and Spiked Water Milfoil.

Marginal - Lesser Water Plantain, Lesser Spearwort (invasive?), Greater Spearwort (invasive), Water For-get-me-not, Flowering Rush, Bogbean and Marsh Marigold.

This is by no means a definitive list and with some more research a fuller list of native wildlife garden pond plants can be achieved, but it's a start.

A few more pond marginals to consider:

Brooklime*, Devils Bit Scabious*, Fleabane*, Greater Birs foot trefoil*, Hemlock Water-Dropwort, Marsh Marigold*, Pedulous Sedge*, Purple Loosestrife*, Greater Tussock Sedge, Water Figwort , Water Forget-Me-Not, Water Mint*, Yellow Flag Iris*.

Each pond plant that is asterisked can also be used in a bog garden.

Garden Pond Plants