Introduction the essential ingredients and types of plants that live in pond water

There are a several sorts of ingredients or types of plant that are happiest at different levels inside the pool. A representative selection of plants from each type needs to be present to help with the balancing act in the pool, and as each type of plant takes up its role in the new environment they will provide a welcome home for any fish you subsequently add to your pool.

The most essential ingredient is the Oxygenating plants: Laragasiphon major syn. Elodea crispa" . These are underwater plants that will provide oxygen during the day for the fish and other animals in the pool, but also for the bacteria at the bottom of the pool. These are integral to the whole ecology of the pool and without them the pool would just fill up with dead plant material and fish muck very quickly. They need to be given oxygen 24 hours a day, in return digesting waste organic matter and dead algae. They convert them into simple compounds like nitrates that all the plants in the pool, including the oxygenators, can take up for their own nutrition and growth.

Laragasiphon major or Elodea crispa (curly pond weed) is the best oxygenating weed.)

Most oxygenators have insignificant flowers, usually sent to rest on the surface, but the water violet, Hottonia palustris sends up above the surface a pale raceme of lilac flowers.

The best and most efficient oxygenator is without doubt Laragasiphon major, otherwise known as Elodea crispa or Curly Pond weed. Some folks claim that it is too rampant, but it only grows if there is the sustenance being created by the pool. It is easily kept under control, with a bit of judicious harvesting.

Most oxygenators are generally sold in bunches of five cuttings. Just push these into a small container of gravel to keep them in place then sink them to a level of roughly half a metre. Allow one bunch per 0.2 sq m (2 sqft) of pool surface. The cuttings will produce roots for anchorage as soon as they begin to grow whilst nutrients will be absorbed all over the surface of the plant. In hard water (water with a high pH), a dusty sediment precipitates itself onto the leaves. This should be gently brushed off to allow the leaves to function uninhibited.

Avoid certain plants, in particular Hydrocotyle vulgaris (Marsh Penny Wort), Myriophyllum proserpinacoides (Parrots Feather):Myriophyllum proserpinacoides" , Elodea Canadensis (Canadian Pond weed) they are permanent problems in ponds and water ways particularly in the south of the country.

The marsh pennywort, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, the first on the unwanted list of oxygenators. Avoid it.

Myriophyllum proserpinacoides or parrots feather is often sold as a marginal for its tinted foliage in autumn but it also has submerged foliage that helps oxygenation. Either way it is a pest especially in Cornwall.

Elodea Canadensis has many names like water thyme, water pest, ditchmoss and Babingtons curse. It is the legendary plant introduced in Victorian times that spread the length and breadth of the country at lightening speed along the waterways. I use it to smother surface of marginal plant baskets.