Mine were always planted around the edge of the pond in dampish soil but as it flopped over, it would spread across the pond surface and produce it's own roots. Rather like Watercress I suppose. Could always be worth trying in a pot in your pond to see how it does ?
Creeping jenny is fine with its roots in water so can be grown out of the water. All my suggestions were plants that can have their feet wet as I thought that was what you were after (imagining the box pond as a traditional window box without any surrounding soil). If you have dry soil to be planted around the edge of it then you can grow plenty of other species dependent on the amount of space. I've seen anything from Ajuga to thyme used for this job and there are plenty of small grasses. I know thyme likes really dry conditions but it seemed to work for the person as they had really free draining soil around the pond and they planted on a mound. I think there was a water feature recently on gardeners world that was surrounded by lavender (might have been heather), not my thing as I like natural planting but it did a job.
Will do. Next job is getting the brambles out. They're mostly younguns so hopefully not too much effort involved. Spanish bluebell bulbs in the crater. How on earth do they get so far down? A question for another thread perhaps.
Nothing to stop you putting a bit of soil in the bottom of your pond but silt will usually build up over a couple of years. Depends what you have nearby which will drop into the pond come Autumn - even if netted to stop leaves, little bits of this and that will gradually add to the pond base.
Ajuga likes to get its feet wet, and will happily root some shoots in a pond - very pretty and fast growing too!
I made a pond about 5 x 6ft with a liner, and I didn't realise that you're not supposed to get plants out of natural pools, so I got a couple of bags and my wellies on.. but it was always crystal clear, I didn't put any soil in, just what came with the plants, which I didn't pot, I put a few large-ish pebbles round the roots. Water snails emerged quite soon too, and ate all the algae off the liner.
I was thinking of water fgmn and water mint for me windowbox pond. Plus chucking in some supermarket watercress to see what happens.
I'm hoping blanket weed doesn't turn up with the water plants from the aquatic company. A bit like mildew, once blanket weed starts I have found it almost impossible to get rid of. In my round micro pond at the back the only thing that keeps it under control is an aeration pump. (Yes, the surface is covered in plants and I tried pond dye and lots of blanket weed treatment but neither worked).
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I made a pond about 5 x 6ft with a liner, and I didn't realise that you're not supposed to get plants out of natural pools, so I got a couple of bags and my wellies on.. but it was always crystal clear, I didn't put any soil in, just what came with the plants, which I didn't pot, I put a few large-ish pebbles round the roots. Water snails emerged quite soon too, and ate all the algae off the liner.