Gardens with Ponds

The reflection of clouds rolling by, the lazy hovering of a dragonfly on gossamer wings, and the chorus of frogs create a unique ambiance in a pondside garden. If you are lucky enough to have a pond, or have the ambition and budget to build one, you will marvel at the diversity of beautiful plants that thrive in its company, their colors and textures accentuated with remarkable clarity in close proximity to water.

When choosing plants for the area around a pond or other water feature, such as a creek, keep in mind that you are really creating two scenes. One is a garden scene as seen from land, which features containers and garden plants, and the other scene is a garden vignette in reverse, as seen reflected in the water. The latter changes during the day as the sun moves across the sky, resulting in a revolving scene as mirrored by the water.

Adding Container Plants

As you landscape around your water feature, leave a few unplanted places that are big enough to accommodate large containers that can be filled with flowering annuals. Colorful annuals grown in containers near the water's edge could include any of these: coleus, dusty miller, fan flower, licorice plant, moss verbena, pansy, petunia, Swan River daisy, sweet alyssum, and sweet potato vine. Experiment with color all you like, but feature plants that have fine leaf texture or a cascading habit. These traits make plants especially handsome when they are positioned near water. Perennials with interesting textures can also make fine container subjects for sunny ponds. For example, low containers planted with species of short, waving ornamental grasses or a flock of succulent hens and chicks offers riveting contrasts and reflections when placed near the water.

Back and Front

Water features are irresistibly attractive to people and also to small wildlife, so if you are building your own, it's wise to situate it in a place where the feature can be viewed from many directions. At the same time, a pond or stream will appear more natural, and will reflect more than one dramatic scene, if it has a back and a front. Think tall when choosing plants for the back, or far side of a water feature. Imagining these plantings as a backdrop for the water and shorter plantings. In a very sunny site, tall ornamental grasses and tall perennials like Joe Pye weed, are good choices for background plants, especially if you are also planting shrubs. During the first years, while the shrubs are growing, the ornamental grasses and perennials can help fill the vacant space.

Be careful when choosing trees to grow near a water feature. Leaves, twigs, or fruits that fall into a pond must eventually be removed by hand, especially if fish live in the pond. But if tree litter is limited to autumn only, you can temporarily cover a small pond with bird netting to capture debris before it fouls the water. Keep scale in mind when choosing pond-side trees. If you have a small pond, choose a tree with small stature, such as a flowering cherry like 'Okame', which does not set fruit, a Japanese maple, or star magnolia.

Dressing the Edges

The lowest bank of a pond where water is likely to overflow after heavy rains, is a prime spot for growing plants that tolerate temporary flooding. Some good choices include groundcover bugleweed and flowering perennials like bee balm. Cannas and some iris species can grow in nearly boglike conditions, and their upright stature is beautiful when mirrored on the water's surface.

Along the high banks of streams or ponds, which remain dry when the lower banks overflow, consider creating a gravel beach. Tuck clumps of low-growing, gray-green foliaged dianthus, or ground-hugging, fragrant creeping thyme into planting pockets between the stone. Add a swaying clump of ornamental grass or succulent, flowering sedums. Indeed, because man-made ponds are most often edged in stone, you have an excellent opportunity to grow plants there that like nothing better than to nestle in between the sun-warmed stones. Prime plant possibilities for a pond-side rock garden include candytuft, hens and chickens, moss phlox, and sun rose. Mulching these plants with small pebbles creates a clean, natural look that is especially attractive in close company with water.