Step 4

Finish

4. Add flora. Your water-garden supplier can make suggestions about how many plants and animals you need to support the size of your pond. Consider oxygenating grasses, water lilies, hornwort, and water hyacinths. Plant one bunch of oxygenating grasses per 2 square feet of pond surface; these grasses grow in containers sitting on the pond bottom. The water hyacinths float on the surface. The other plants are potted in pea gravel, but no soil, and are submerged in the pond. Lilies grow best in pots 6-10 inches below the pond surface.

Step 5

5. Add fauna. Add tadpoles, goldfish, a catfish, and/or snails. The tadpoles clean up after the fish, the fish eat bugs, the catfish eats algae off the bottom, and the snails clean up the rest. If the balance is right, maintenance is simple. Experts suggest you add one snail and one fish per square foot of water surface.

6. Keep it growing.

• Daily care: To add water, fill a bucket with water, treat the water with dechlorinator, and add to the pond after the water in the bucket becomes the temperature of the pond water. Each day remove debris, spent blooms, and yellow leaves.
• Intermittent care: Fertilize plants monthly, April through August.
• Seasonal care: After the first frost, cut back winter-hardy container plants to 2-3 inches and place on pool bottom. Keep tropical and less-hardy plants, fish, and snails indoors during the winter.