Water Gardens

Traditional water garden ponds are used for growing aquatic plants and keeping ornamental fish such as Koi. In order to provide for the needs of your pond's inhabitants, a pond should have steep sides and flat bottoms, often with a shelf around the perimeter for containers of plants that need to grow in standing water. When building a water garden, you can choose between a prefabricated ponds, or build your own using PVC liner material.

Water Gardening with Wildlife in Mind

If one of your goals is to attract local wildlife to your water garden, then be sure that it allows an animal access to water without the danger of slipping or falling into deep water and drowning. Think of your pond as a large birdbath. Birds feel secure because they can hop and splash safely. A wildlife-friendly water garden should have a similar shape but, of course, on a larger scale.

Of course, if you do intend to attract wildlife, and your pond or water garden is also the home of your favorite Koi, or other fish, then you must be sure to build in some "hidey holes" to keep your fish safe when raccoons or predatory birds arrive.

Most people prefer to use a PVC liner and design their own water garden's shape. A liner let's you use a rope, or garden hose, to layout the pond's shape. It also gives you maximum flexibility over slope and pond depth.

If you plan to have your pond do double duty, as both a Water Garden, and a Koi Pond, then here are some things you should keep in mind:

KOI POND

A Koi pond is different from a water garden because keeping Koi naturally limits the amount of plant that your pond can have. Why? Koi eat some plants! A Koi pond should also be larger that a traditional water garden because Koi tend to get quite large. A good Koi pond should be no less than 1000 gallons in volume, although the bigger the better. It also needs to have at least one area of the pond that is at least 3 feet deep, and 4 - 5 feet, if possible..

WATER GARDEN

Water gardens typically contains both goldfish and aquatic plants. If your water garden is in moderate climate zone, then plan for your pond to be at least 2 feet deep. In colder climates you will need to provide for least 12" to 16" of water below the freeze zone.