Water gardening is not difficult, only thing requires is your undivided attention. A love of aquatic plants makes your garden more fruitful as you will give more attention it. There are lots of things you need to take care of, such as freshwater plants, containers, soil, fertilizers, lighting and filtration medium.
It is a common misconception that creating a water garden is a tough and lots of hard work. Well, there are certain aspects of technicalities about water garden where you need to be fully knowledgeable about water plants in Melbourne, lighting, water changing, water filtration etc. but things are quite enjoyable if you find an interest in it. For a beginner, you can start with a minimalistic approach to create your water garden following certain simple rules.
Main Ingredients for Water Garden
Whether you are creating a pond, small water feature for your patio or water tanks in Melbourne, there are certain basic elements that you require to create your garden. For a natural looking water garden you need water plants, fish, snails, probably a few shrimps and moss for ecological balance.
Other ingredients you need are pumps, filtration, air stone, and lights. Even if keep that water garden under the full sunlight, you need some underwater lighting to create an exquisite ambiance in the night. If you want to create a water feature for your patio, then use an old half-barrel or a big pot with plugged drainage.
Selecting Plants
For a minimalistic approach, use plants that can thrive in low-tech requirements. Plants are principally categorised into four parts: root plants, stem plants, rhizome plants and floating plants. Low tech root plants like amazon swords, Anacharis and Cabomba are great plants for low level maintenance. Similarly, you can use Anubias, Water lettuce and other plants to decorate your pond.
Do not use hi-tech plants because those plants are hard to keep, require CO2 and heavy lighting.
Two Types of Water Gardens
You can create a static water garden with no noise and disturbance, or you can create an active garden by adding fountains and splash to give significant disturbance. Disturbance is needed for some plants to grow; also it helps fish and other creatures to present a natural ambiance. Some aquatic plants, especially floating plants prefer calm water and thrive best with good light and less disturbance. It depends on your preference what type of water garden you want to create.
Planting in a Water Garden
Plants play a significant role in water features in Melbourne. Planting in a water garden requires lots of attention and certainly deep love for plants. You can find freshwater aquatic plants in your local store or online store.
Container: Most freshwater aquatic plants grow well in shallow container that you submerge in the pond. You can use plastic nursery cans or cheap plastic washtubs for your plants. It must be at least 18 inches wide and 10 inches deep with shorter root system plants. Runners can’t grow in containers, so if you want to plant it, you need to directly plant it in the soil.
Soil: You can buy aquarium soil from local stores or organic potting mix without pesticide or insecticides. It is not recommended to use garden mix as it contains alkali, microorganisms and insecticides that make the soil acidic and poisonous for fish and other living creatures. However, many people use garden soil after baked it at 120 degree C for 20-30 minutes.
Fertilizers: After two or three weeks of planting, use some aquatic liquid fertilizers to give appropriate nutrients.
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You need to give appropriate light to your plants if you don’t put it under direct sunlight. Also, filtration and water change, both are quite necessary for healthy growth of plants and fish.
About the Author: Brayden Duigan is a Melbourne based aquarist who preserves the hobby aquarium for last 12 years. At the age of 12 he first bought water plants in Melbourne and then hooked to it. He has studied extensively about aquatic life and created his own water tanks in Melbourne and help people to do it yourself.
