With their sparkling blooms and beautiful shades of greens and other colors, aquatic plants make a water garden complete! There are certain things to consider when designing your dream water garden, so here are our top five tips:
Play with Colors
Start with colors you like then take into account the type of lighting your water garden gets during the day. Experiment by mixing warm colors with cool ones Yellow, orange, and white help brighten shady areas, while cool blue and violet tone down the intensity of the sun’s rays. Yellow waterlilies look fabulous against a backdrop of blue water iris. Likewise, a purple waterlily such as Nymphaea ‘Violicious’ looks amazing in front of an orange canna lily.
Know Your Plant Size
One of the biggest mistakes we have seen new pond owners make is to plant things that grow way too big. . Be sure to take height and width of the mature plant into consideration and allow enough space for future growth. If your plants do become crowded and overgrown, you can always divide them or thin them out just like your land perennials. Give extras to a friend or consider planting some in a container water garden to grace another area of your yard.
Just like with people, shorties up front!
This might seem like a no-brainer, but always put shorter plants in front of taller ones. Most likely, you’ll spend most of your time viewing your water garden from a deck or patio, so keep that sight line in mind when planting your pond. You’ll create more visual interest when you have a mix of tall and short plants.
Group Plants Together
Interior decorators tell you to group like objects together when decorating your home, to create visual impact. Use this same principle when planting your pond. Plant a row of marsh marigolds along a stretch of the ponds edge, as opposed to dotting them here and there in single locations.
Combine Hardy and Tropical Pond Plants
Mix it up a bit with an interesting mix of aquatic plant types for your water garden. Plant a few marginals at the pond’s edge, include colorful water lilies or even a lotus, add floating plants like water lettuce, and include submerged plants to help add oxygen to your pond. Variety is the spice of gardening life, so don’t be afraid to experiment
Regardless of what you choose get planting and then enjoy your water feature. Only you can decide what you like best-play around and have some fun. And need some help with the plantings or other pond needs, give us a call!