When designing and planting a water garden, you are going to have to keep a few things in mind such as: do you want to have to work with your plant a lot, do you want your area to look natural or planned and orderly, and how much do you want to spend on the plants in your water garden? While answering these questions, we have a few other ideas and tips that are going to help you ‘figure out’ exactly how you want your water garden to look and how much your investment is going to cost you.
First let’s talk about how much time you want to spend in the water garden and around the water garden working with your plants. If you think that you want to use plants that will need divided often or that you are going to use plant that are going to grow in containers more often, you will need a pair of boots that go to your knees or higher. The best type of boots to use when you are going to be working in the water garden often is actually fishing boots, hip waders. While you might find them expensive, they are well worth the investment so you are not soaking wet and you can spend as much time in the water or around the water as you like without getting your other gardening shoes too wet.
So talking about how you want your water garden to ‘look’, what you need to do is think about all the water gardens that you have seen, look more up on the internet, find pictures here, and then decide which style you like the best. In the natural looking water garden or pond, the plants are going to be rooted in the soil under the water. You will not see container plants in the natural water garden, what you need to think about is the water garden that has been living in the middle of a field or in the woods for the last fifty years and what this water garden looks like.
The natural flowers, the grasses, and the softness of the soil around the water garden is what you will find with the natural looking water garden. The orderly water garden that uses containers is an extension of your gardens that are more symmetrical. The natural water garden doesn’t have a square look to it but the natural water garden is more round or oval looking overall. You can always try to create the effect of a mixture of the two gardens, where you are using the oval effect, with container and planted flowers so that your garden takes on an entire new look that doesn’t fit entirely in either category!
How much money do you want to spend on your water garden? If you don’t have a budget when you start out with building and constructing your water garden, you will find that it is very easy to go ‘overboard’. The trick is to set your mind on what you really want, you don’t want to have to do it twice because setting up a water garden is a lot of work – but the end result is really worth it! So, now that you have set your mind on what you want, the size, the shape and where you are going to put your water garden you can look at costs. If you don’t have enough in your budget for this year, buy some of the supplies, but wait until next year when you can purchase the remaining supplies to actually construct the water garden you will be glad that you waited and build the ultimate water garden of your dreams!
Plants for the water garden are not as difficult as you might think of to get for a very low cost or even free. As you start telling your friends, family and others about building a water garden you will discover that others have plants that they are willing to give you at no cost!
Another great place that you can get samples, or small starts of plants is through your local agricultural or farming office. During certain spring seasons, the local agricultural office will have classes free, and they will give seeds, starters or leads on where to get plants cheap.
Most all seed catalogs do offer a range of water gardening plants, and if you watch them carefully you will find you can get your favorites on sale during different times of the year. Keep on the look out for sales at your local home centers as well, so you can stock your water garden while keeping on budget.
One thing that is important to remember, you don’t have to plant them all in one year. You can add a few new things every year to keep your budget in line and to balance your water garden at the same time.
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