Water Gardening & Fishing: What Great Combination!

Pondering a Pond? Just Dig In!

“It happened the very first morning after we finished our garden pond, two beautiful morning doves splashing around at the waterfall pool! We looked at each other, smiled simultaneously, and said, This is GREAT!” Doreen and her husband, from Blue Bell, planned out a 10 x 8 pond with a 30 foot stream for their backyard last summer and completed the installation process during the fall.

Wayne and his family, from Lansdale, all dug in last summer. Within the first few days, frogs came to inspect their hard efforts. He believes “The best part of having our pond is when we sit down for 10 minutes and it turns into an hour. ”

You can experience all the joys of a natural looking waterscape in your yard, too. It doesn’t have to be expensive or hard to do. There are water gardens that fit everyone’s budget and gardening space.

The simplest is a half whiskey barrel with a liner holding a dwarf water lily, some bog plants and a small fountain ornament. This container water garden is inexpensive, mobile, and can be as simple or as flamboyant as your imagination allows. Preformed rigid plastic ponds come in varied shapes and sizes, from 80-400 gallons. The preformed pond allows you to enjoy aquatic plants, fish, and a fountain ornament or waterfall. This small-scale ecosystem is manageable enough for an ambitious homeowner to dig right in. Complete kits can be purchased that supply all the essentials including the pond, pump, filter, plants and fish.

Medium to large garden ponds as well as garden streams are best constructed using fish grade flexible liner. This allows you more creativity with forming its shape and doesn’t require digging a matching hole or back filling to complete the job. You can use flexible liner to create stunning backyard streams with marginal grasses, gurgling rapids, cascading waterfalls and a water pool to dip your feet in.

These ponds can support beautiful water lilies, lush marginal plants, goldfish, koi, as well tadpoles and frogs. Specially designed flexible liner ponds can be completely “rocked in” creating an illusion of being there forever and looking like a natural pond.

Not only are there many typed of ponds to choose from, there’s huge variety of plants, animals and accessories you can add to it. Water lilies, both hardy and tropicals, have dark hued floating pads and stunningly beautiful flowers that float or rise out of the water. Many are fragrant with some even providing a night show of open blossoms to welcome home those owners who work during the day. Water lilies are also a haven for fish and frogs that relish the shade and protection of the broad pads.

If you crave large explosive flowers, than the lotus plant is for you. An ancient plant, the lotus has been cultivated for thousands of years as a source of food and beauty, as well as a religious symbol. The lotus starts off with huge dark green leaves that lift out of the water 4-5 feet. In midsummer they bloom, with some varieties yielding flowers 8-12 inches wide. When the blooming ends, the petals drop to reveal a large honeycomb pod frequently used in dried flower arrangements.

To give contrast to the lilies and lotuses, there are numerous varieties of marginal/bog plants.

Grasses, irises, variegated flags, reeds, and rushes are just a few. They grow in the shallow areas of the pond supplying habitat for your pond critters and helping to blend the pond edges into your surrounding landscape

Pond animals live in harmony with the pond plants and complete your mini backyard ecosystem. The most playful and active critters are the pond fish. They include the many varieties of goldfish ranging from the familiar orange to those sporting fancy fins or multicolored bodies. Koi are another type of pond fish. Koi, related to the common carp, come in a wide range of color patterns. Tadpoles, frogs, snails and dragonflies are just a few of the other visitors that may frequent your pond.

What’s the next step?

Check out a water garden book or purchase a water gardening magazine to read more. Join in on a local pond tour to see what others have done. Visit your local water gardening center to see their displays. Stop pondering & just “dig in!”

For further information, contact us:

Center Point Pond

610-222-9060

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1814 Valley Forge Rd, Worcester Twp, PA 19490
Phone: 610-222-9060

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