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PLANTING IDEA AROUND A POND
This is my first post, so a hello to all you members.
i have just sunk this pond into my newly created raised beds. I am looking for planting suggestions to get the best out of the feature (in the soil, not in the pond)
I am looking for plants that will generally hold form all year round and not leave the area looking baron through the colder months of the year.
any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Roy
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Posts
Does your pond have some sort of soak away or will the excess water spill over into the surrounding bed? If the latter then you can consider planting bog plants.This has some good suggestions. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/Profile?pid=807
If the area is dry then a selection of perennial grasses, not too tall, will give you year round interest and act as a foil for annuals and other flowering plants.
Any amphibians who take up residence in your pond will need shelter from the sun when they leave the water.
Evergreen ferns - Hart's Tongue - is a useful plant especially beside ponds. Most of the Carexes are evergreen and will happily cope with varying degrees of shade and moisture. I'd have a few taller grasses as well even if they're not evergreen, as well as the bog plants that Ceres is talking about. You can create a boggy area anyway next to the pond - using some liner with a few holes punched in it so that it retains moisture all the time. Primulas of all types are useful in the shadier damp areas, and Caltha (Marsh marigold) is virtually evergreen and would grow alongside those. Don't forget you can add some spring bulbs for early cover along with plants like hardy Geraniums which start into growth early.
There are obvious evergreens but not all of them look right beside ponds so it pays to take a bit of time before buying. It also depends on the type of 'look' you want for your pond and how it will fit with the other areas you have in the rest of the space you have.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hart's tongue really are lovely. Also Equisetum hyemale. Eucheras for colour. Iris and snowflakes (Leucojum). Meadowsweet. Arum lilies.
These are all excellent pond-side plants tolerant of varying levels of humidity.
If the ground is just average and dry however, with no overflow from the pond, just plant it as any other border. The Equisetum strong vertical lines are exquisite around the water, though, because of the reflections.
Lovely pond project Roy, I have some Iris', granny's bonnet (the odd chive that self seeded from the herb bed) and have just popped in some hens and chicks for a fun element, although they are on a mound above the level of the pond. Then there's a rather large Cordyline that seems to love being at the edge of the pond.
Would love to see a pic when you've decided and planted it all up!
Have you set up the pond so wildlife that gets in can get out and not drown? I have a preformed pond and I have stones set up as steps at one end for just that purpose.
Hello Steve the gardening vet, what sort of wildlife are you thinking of? I have a bank for wildlife on one side but have seen young (and old) frogs jump up the other end onto the side of the pond with no trouble at all.
Sarracenia's in pots work well in garden ponds, I grow several in a large bog garden.
I have several in pots at the moment that are in flower, loads of hybrids so you can get so all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. plus they love eating fly's and wasps.
and some can take down to minus 10 (but you have to take them out of the pond, they don't like solid frozen roots) I treat all my potted ones like the arum lily I have, take them out in November and put in the greenhouse till the end of February.
I would recommend S. flava or its hybrids with S purpurea.
Wow! Gorgeous!