Water Features

You don’t want the daily work of fish? Ok. Plants are nice and they don’t need to eat every day. You could make a splash with a water garden built exclusively for plants. A healthy water garden, even without fish, needs flowing water. From a waterfall? With a stream? Or a natural filtration area or a bog? We can help you decide.

Although typically smaller and not as deep as a koi pond, a water garden still requires a healthy and balanced ecosystem to keep it from becoming a problem. That’s where plants come in. Aquatic plants are nature’s best pond filters as they keep water clean, add oxygen and outcompete algae.

Some water gardens can accommodate a few goldfish happy to eat any annoying mosquitoes attracted by the water. But the real stars are the plants. Marginals are planted in containers on shallow shelves at the pond edge. Others, such as lilies requiring greater depth, sit on a deeper pond shelf. And what choices with lilies? Grow the hardy perennials for blooms and large floating lily pads that return every year. Or for annual splurge, a tropical lily delivers a single season of shades of yellows, pinks, reds and pastels with even bigger pads and flowers. If you add a natural wetland filtration area to your water garden, there are many bog plants to choose from including the perennial water iris that reliably produces yellow, purple or blue flowers.

Designed for plants, a healthy water garden is something that grows on you.