Photo - Linda Ross
You don’t need a big space to have your own water feature: a sunny spot on a balcony or in a courtyard will do. You can use any container, as long as it hasn’t had chemicals in it that would kill the fish. Isla made her water feature in a half wine barrel. Here’s how:
What you need:
Wine barrel or container without holes
Barrel liner or PVC/Butyl liner (optional)
Bricks or pots
Gravel
Aquatic plants
Fish
This is what to do:
1.Place the barrel or pot in an open sunny position, as it will be too heavy to move once its full. A wine barrel will leak so you need to remember to
regularly top up the water, or use a barrel liner.
2. Fill the barrel or pot with water and let it stand for a few days to remove the chlorine from the water. If you are going add fish use a pond water
treatment and conditioner to ensure the water is safe.
3. Choose a few aquatic plants, mixing deep-water aquatics, marginals and oxygenators. The mix of plants means the water will stay clean without a pump.
Cover the surface of the plant pots with gravel to stop the potting mix turning the water murky.
4. Add fish to eat the mosquito larvae. The best types to choose are goldfish, comets and paradise fish. You might want to also add some rams horn snails
to eat algae and help keep the pond clean.
5. If there are young children in the family cover the water with wire mesh supported by bricks beneath the surface to prevent drowning accidents (Bonus:
the birds won’t catch your fish!)
Plants to choose
Deep-water aquatics
These plants have floating leaves and submerged roots. Place them on bricks so their leaves reach the surface.
Dwarf water lily (Nymphaeasp.)
Water fringe (Nymphoides peltata
Water snowflake (Nymphoides indica)
Marginals
These plants live in shallow water; put the pots on bricks or upturned pots so that they are just under the surface.
Dwarf papyrus (Cyperus papyrus ‘nana’)
Japanese and Louisiana water Iris
Sweet Flag (Acorus graminus)
Oxgenators (Submerged)
These plants live under the water.
Water milfoil (Myriophyllum sp.)
Eelgrass (Vallisneria spiralis)
Text: Isla Barlow
We hope you have enjoyed this article so far.
One of the many benefits of Garden Clinic membership is full access to our website. Members please log in to view the complete articles.
If you are not a Garden Clinic member and wish to access our website as well as enjoy the many benefits of membership, including access to our Helpline 7 days a week, please visit the link below to join us.