Plant selection

The Pond at Hillside

Plant Selection

The planting is an essential element of any pond, and so the next step is to decide what kind of plants you're going to use. I'll guide you through this, along with how to create a naturalistic pond that blends in with the landscape, and how to create the right conditions for planting and ecology.

Native Versus Non-native

Using native species allows your pond to harmonise with the wider landscape

There's always a native versus non-native debate in gardens. Here, because we're in the heart of the countryside and surrounded by native vegetation, I don't want to do anything that feels at all alien.

• I'm therefore using probably 95% native plants from the UK and northern Europe.
• We've got some amazing native plants, so I don't feel like I'm short-changing the pond at all.

You can enrich your native planting with a handful of well-behaved non-natives

I've also included a small number of non-natives to heighten the atmosphere slightly.

• One such plant is the white skunk cabbage (Lysichiton camtschatcensis) from Japan, but unlike the banned yellow skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus), it will stay where I've put it and won't get into natural water courses, so is safe to introduce in this countryside environment.

Urban ponds bring greater freedom of choice

If your pond is in a more urban or domestic setting with less risk of plants spreading into the countryside, you can use more exotic plants to heighten the atmosphere and provide more flower power.

• E.g. waterlilies (Nymphaea) or blue irises (Iris kaempferi), from Japan and the Americas.

Finding a balance

I always try to use native plant communities as the base for my planting, and then bump that up with a sliding scale of non-natives if I want a more exotic feel.

Visit the Habitats You're Aiming to Recreate

Discover your local plant community

Wherever you live, one of the best ways to find out what grows in your area is to go and look at a natural local wetland to see what grows there.

• Many of the plants I'm using have native ranges covering huge swathes of the world, such as reeds and marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). So some plants bridge many different areas.

Favour natives and avoid invasive species

Whether you're planting a pond or in the wider garden, it's always good to work with your local plant community, because these are the go-to plants for the insects that have evolved to live with them.

That doesn't mean you can't work with exotic plants, but it's crucial to make sure that any non-native plants you use aren't invasive. I'm only using native plants that I know won't take off and spread.

Creating the Right Conditions for Planting

There are several key considerations to keep in mind when planting up a pond:

1. The pond should be in a light and open position, with plenty of sunshine.
2. Shading inhibits the growth of pond plants and can lead to an accumulation of leaf litter, resulting in unbalanced ecosystems.
3. Where we want plants actually growing in the water, we need to make a shallow marginal shelf.
4. Where we don't want marginal plants so we can see into the water, we need a steeper slope.
5. This needs to slant steeply enough to prevent growth, but also needs to be at a sustainable angle that won't risk the bank falling away.
6. The pond needs to reach a depth of at least 75 cm (2½ ft).
7. Deep water helps to keep a pond cool in the summer. This reduces the growth of algae.
8. There needs to be a range of planting opportunities, from banks to marginal shelves to deep water. These need to be catered for with different sets of plants.
9. If you can make all those conditions come together, you will get a richness of planting and a natural transition from the landscape around the pond down into the water.

Finishing the Edge of the Pond and Seeding the Border

If you're making a smaller pond, you can simply fold the turf back, dig the hole, line it if you need a liner, then fold the turf back over the edge. This is a neat way of hiding the liner.

Here, where we're working on a bigger scale, we needed to re-landform once we'd put the liner in. We included a layer of soil about a foot deep that rolls over the edge, with its main role being to protect the liner from the sun, us walking on it, or anything spiking it.

• I oversowed that margin with a wetland wildflower mix, which was predominantly grasses but also contained many of the species I'm going to be planting, such as flag iris and water avens.

So our top planting layer is the bank, which we sowed to protect the soil, bind it and stabilise the edge. Moisture will be wicked up through those banks to give a moister zone than that beyond the pond margins.

• This creates an interesting environment where we can grow plants that like to have damp feet – species that can live on dry land but have a feeling of pond life about them as well.

Planting the Banks and Marginal Shelves

One of the plants I'm using is Eupatorium cannabinum – a tall perennial with dirty pink flowers that are wonderful for butterflies and insects.

• This is a late-blooming plant, so it'll take the seasonality of the pond right the way through.
• It will sit on dry land, but make use of that wicked water coming onto the banks.

Then I'll look at plants that will sit alongside this. Flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) is a good choice as it grows both in damp ground and in water, so it's great for bridging the zone that can be exposed when the water levels drop.

• I'll be planting this into the damp banks, but also down into the muddy shelf, where they can properly get their feet into the water.

These will be combined with Ranunculus lingua (greater spearwort), a tall buttercup growing to 2–3 ft.

• This definitely needs its feet on the waterline, so I'll be taking those down a bit deeper.

As we go into the water, there'll be other plants, such as Caltha palustris (marsh marigold), which, like the iris, travel down from those damp margins to just below the water.

• Caltha palustris blooms at the other end of the spectrum from the Eupatorium, at the beginning of spring – it'll be one of the first things to enliven this whole space.
• These can go right round the pond, and they don't mind shade at all. If they're shaded out in summer by taller plants, it's not a problem – they'll all work with each other.

Think Carefully About Where to Put Things Before You Start Planting

Once marginal plants are in, it's hard to make changes, so think carefully about where you want them.

• I'm putting the taller plants where I want to have slightly screened views of the water.
• I'm putting the shorter plants where the banks are steeper and I want to look into the water.
• I'll make sure to put plants that like shade on the shady side of the taller reeds, and plants that like sun on the sunny side.

The lesser reed mace (Typha angustifolia) is going on the marginal shelf. This is a smaller and less dominant bulrush than our native Typha latifolia.

• You don't want Typha latifolia in a pond because it can spread by about 6 ft a year and will take over the pond.
• It can arrive on ducks' feet, so I'll be watching for that and pull it out immediately if I see it.

Using Oxygenating Plants

Finally, in the water itself, we've got oxygenating plants that grow under the surface and pump oxygen into the water to keep the pond's ecology healthy.

If you can get all of these layers working with each other, you can create a pond that:

1. Won't need a pump to keep the water moving.
2. Will be self-cleaning with water that stays pure, clean and clear.
3. Will also be good for wildlife.

Many oxygenating weeds are available, but you need to be very careful not to get any that are invasive.

• Canadian water weed (Elodea canadensis), for example, is a highly invasive species that I would never introduce into a pond. I only use native oxygenating plants that won't cause harm if they escape into other water courses.

Waterlilies

The practical benefits of waterlilies

Though I'm not including them here at the moment, waterlilies can be a useful addition to a pond:

1. They provide colour and ornamental value.
2. They create natural shade and cover for fish.
3. They help to keep the temperature down in the pond.

I've chosen not to have fish here, but I'm not worried about temperature rises because I have enough depth. In a shallower pond, lilies can be very useful, because they can avoid high water temperatures, which could otherwise encourage algal blooms and pondweeds. These blooms aren't actually harmful to wildlife, but they can spoil the look of your pond.

• A little bit of shade in the pond (not on the pond) is therefore useful, and this is where waterlilies have a definite function.

Choose a waterlily to match your pond

Our native waterlily needs very deep water. It's a beautiful plant, but also very invasive and it would take over this pond. If you don't have deep enough water for strong-growing waterlilies, they can rise up out of the surface and start mounding, and then you lose that lovely floating feeling.

• So you need to match your waterlilies to the depth of your pond.
• There are specific lilies for different depths of water.

I also chose not to use an ornamental waterlily, because I want this pond to feel natural. I may decide in the future that waterlilies are a layer I'm missing. With a project like this, you can watch it evolve and make changes over time as necessary.

Colour

Colour can be introduced using waterlilies and irises

Waterlilies are a great way of introducing colour into ponds. You can also use ornamental irises, such as Iris x robusta, a blue-flowered version of our native yellow flag (Iris pseudocorus).

Consider colour use that is appropriate to your setting

I'm using 95% native plants, so everything sits well in the context of the landscape and nothing jars. With waterlilies for instance:

• I might use a white one, because our native waterlily (Nymphaea alba) is white.
• Our native yellow waterlily, Nuphar lutea, is too vigorous, but I could use a different yellow waterlily, which would still feel part of the landscape and be in tune in with the buttercups.
• I wouldn't use a red one, as that wouldn't feel natural here.

If you're in a more domestic setting where your pond is contained by garden rather than landscape, you can be much more liberal about the colours you introduce, and that colour can be a good thing.

Naturalistic Design by Grouping Plants

I didn't have a formal planting plan for this pond because it was planted naturalistically, but I was guided by some fundamental principles:

1. Group your plants according to which part of the pond they'll inhabit

We've got several different habitats within the pond, and I've got a selection of plants for each of these.

• Before planting, I roughly group these plants together into those habitat collections. This helps me decide where things go.

2. You can then pull plants quite randomly from within each group to achieve a naturalistic look

Once I've grouped the plants, I can pull from those and plant quite randomly within each group.

• The nature of pond plants is that they all grow into each other, so I don't want to be too strict about where I'm putting things.

3. Choose a prominent location for any particularly eye-catching plants

One plant I'm going to place carefully are the skunk cabbages, with their big white flower spathes in spring. I've chosen a prominent spot near where the spring emerges and falls onto the splash stone.

Plant Directory

• Lysichiton camtschatcensis
• Iris kaempferi
• Geum rivale
• Eupatorium cannabinum
• Iris pseudacorus
• Ranunculus lingua
• Caltha palustris
• Typha angustifolia
• Iris pseudocorus
• Nymphaea alba

Assignment

Locate a wetland or wild pond local to your garden. Spend some time there and observe the flora and fauna that you can see. Use the space below to note down any plants that you can identify in, around and near to the pond to inspire your own planting choices.

Plant | Where is it growing?

(Banks, marginal shallows, submerged, etc.)