Utilizing Water Garden Containers to Build an Urban Sanctuary
For city residents, yard space is at a premium. With apartment houses built right on the streets and a small amount of communal land in the back, there’s no way to grow a garden or cultivate a lot of flowers. You can, however, think on a much smaller scale. If you have a balcony or a deck, or even a fire escape, you can create a water garden in containers which will give you the semblance of an in-ground water feature. You’ll be able to enjoy sounds of the water gurgling and watch tiny fish swimming, grow water plants, and appreciate the serenity only a water garden can offer. Water garden containers give you the starting place for developing a watery microcosm in very little space.
Finding water garden containers isn’t as confusing as choosing exactly what you want. A recommended capacity for a container is 15-25 gallons, and any type of container in that size range will be okay. You will also have to have containers to plant your water plants in, because plants need to be grown in separate pots and then put into the water-filled container. It’s best to choose a container with a dark interior, because the dark color will give your pond the idea of depth. Dark interiors are also more environmentally-friendly in that they won’t provide an attraction for algae and yet they’ll hide the presence of any algae that starts growing.
Your water garden should be located in a place where it will get at minimum six hours of sun each day. Many water plants don’t thrive and flower well without at least that much sunshine, but some bog plants will grow with less sun. The plants you select for your garden should be varied for the prettiest effect. Choose some that float, a few that grow under water, and emergent species when selecting the plants you would like to incorporate into your garden. Plants serve the function of shading the water which, once again, decreases the growth of algae. When you build a new water garden, however, you can expect your water to get cloudy after a couple of weeks. Just stick it out, though, and the plants and fish will eventually start controlling the algae population, and the water will clear up.
In addition to fish, you should stick a few snails in your water garden containers. Snails are instrumental in eating algae, fish waste products, and decaying organic matter. Really small fish, such as guppies, are recommended for containers that are 20 gallons or smaller; larger than that you can add a couple of goldfish. Guppies and similar fish are perfect choices, because they adapt to changes in temperature well, and they gobble up those pesky mosquitoes.