Pond Planting Advice

Traditional aquatic baskets come in a wide range of sizes and shapes to suit every water feature and pond. There are two main types available: one with an open, wide mesh and ones with a fine, louvre-type mesh. The former have to be lined with material such as hessian or a woven polypropylene, these are permeable materials that will allow water and gases to move in and out but will prevent the compost escaping into the water. The louvre-type need no lining as the way the mesh is designed contains the compost.
In addition to these traditional containers there are also non-rigid, bag type ones which have floats, these can be used for marginals where shelves are not built into the pond. Also available are cubes of rockwool, in which the plant is already growing, these can simply be dropped straight into the pond.

Compost

Although many composts state that they are 'multi-purpose', compost used for terrestrial plants is not suitable for aquatic planting. As the compost will be completely saturated, there is no need for water retention ingredients such as peat, or drainage materials like sharp sand which are added to multi-purpose composts.
Aquatic compost consists of loam which is the primary need of aquatic plants and proprietary brands are simply that. You may have this already in your garden if you have for example, stripped turf and left it to rot for a few months. Good top soil can also be used if it is a heavy loam, but you must be sure that it has not had any chemicals applied to it in the last six months as obviously this would have a detrimental effect on your pond and it's inhabitants.

Terrestrial plants such as shrubs and herbaceous plants are usually planted when they are dormant, either in the winter or early spring. Aquatic plants, on the other hand, need to be in full growth when they are planted, the ideal time being late spring or early summer. Planting in late summer will mean that the young plants will not have had enough time to begin growing before they become dormant again and the fish within the pond will gladly uproot the newly planted plants before they have had any real time to gain a firm solid hold within their container.

The depth at which plants should be placed is usually indicated on the information label that comes with them. If there is no label check our information pages for the required type of plant, the plant may be located there, along with the relevant details.
Remember that the recommended depth indicated refers to the amount of water above the crown, or growing point of the plant, not the base of the planting container.

If you are unsure on the planting depth for the type of plant then contact us or try our site search for the name of the plant.

Having chosen your container,and lined it if necessary, fill it to the brim with good loamy soil and then firm it down thoroughly, so that there is a gap of 2.5-5cm (1-2") between the firmed soil and the top of the container. Using a dibber make a hole of about 8cm (3") deep for each plant, usually one in each corner, or four around the edge and one in the middle. Plant the bunches of oxygenators, so that the clasp holding the bunch together is beneath the soil. Firm the soil around the bunches then top dress with a layer of pea shingle to a depth of 2.5cm (1"), this will stop the particles of dry soil/compost floating to the surface of the pond when the basket is lowered into the water, and also stops fish from digging around the plant roots. Alternatively if the basket has been lined with hessian before filling with aquatic compost, the hessian can then be folded over and covered with the thick layer of gravel. Place the container into the water slowly so as to disturb the soil and shingle as little as possible and lower to the bottom of the pond.
For sinks and barrels use small aquatic pots and plant one oxygenator as this will be sufficient for a small water feature.

Floating plants such as Lemna spp. (duckweed) or Azolla filiculoides (fairymoss) have small leaves and can be put straight into the pond. If larger plants like Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) have been bagged up for some time they may have lost some buoyancy. In this case place them gently into a shallow, sheltered area of the pond where they will not be blown about until they grow upright again.
It doesn't really matter where floating plants are placed in the pool as due to their nature they will be blown about on the surface by the wind surface disturbance etc.

Floating plants are not such a good addition to a pond that uses a surface skimmer as the skimmer will inevitably be clogged up within hours.