Container Water Gardening - Rick Osbourne

Water gardening is the hottest part of the green (landscaping) industry these days. But if you decided to go on one of the many pond tours that are being held around the nation this summer, you’d be taking a suburban, not an urban tour. You see city dwellers in high rise apartments, condos, and town homes usually lack the space required for water gardening.

Small and Simplified
So, what if you are a city dweller who has a hankerin’ to get back to nature and you’d love to have a water garden? One quick solution is to check into a phenomena known as container water gardening. You can think of it as a small, and simplified pond that generally requires less space, less time, and less maintenance than conventional ponds with their circulation systems, filtration systems, and water quality challenges.

Little to No Circulation
In fact not all, but a high percentage of container water gardens have no circulation at all. They don’t require circulation because they’re stuffed so full of aquatic plants (aquatic plants just love water) along with their Herculean abilities to soak up small forms of debris that’s been transformed into nutrition by the ever present aerobic bacteria, …which is why aquatic plats grow so strong and so fast.

One Big Biological Filter
In other words, where conventional ponds often experience water quality problems such as mountains of algae (weeds to a pond owner), container water gardens provide algae so little nutrition that it’s effectively starved out of existence. And if there is circulation in a container garden at all, it’s a slow trickling of water produced by a small pump, instead of a large, and gushing waterfall produced by a big pump. You could think of the container garden as one big biological filter with great water quality.

Nonconformist in Comparison
Another difference between the conventionalist’s pond, and the container water garden is that to a large degree a pond has to conform to its geographical surroundings in terms of indigenous plants and critters. That is to say, you won’t see an overabundance of tropical plants in Chicago, Minneapolis/St Paul, or Cleveland based ponds. Tropical critters will not be attracted to these containers either. Ponds in the north-country are generally built around perennial plants that return year after year, with a sprinkling of annuals that need to be replaced year after year, and they attract only indigenous species.

Dominated by Color…
On the other hand, the container water gardening enthusiast enters the game thinking in temporary and seasonal terms, instead of perennial terms. So in the container water gardening world, you’ll see loads of colorful tropical plants dominating in a way that you won’t see in the conventional pond world. Flamboyant, over the top, and flashy pzazz could be code words for the container enthusiasts.

And Then There’s The Cost Factor
And then there’s the cost factor which is generally considerably lower in the container world. That is to say, instead of excavating the back yard, filling it with liner and underlayment, surrounding it with skimmers, filtration units, related circulation plumbing, and topping it off with a 2500 to 3000 gph pump designed to duplicate Niagara, you use the old claw foot tub or the galvanized bucket that’s been sitting in the basement or the garage for the past quarter century.
At worst you go out and buy a classic whiskey barrel along with the preformed liner to make sure it doesn’t leak all over the patio. You fill that with water and beautiful aquatic plats and enjoy the remainder of the season with your feet up on the coffee table and your hands clutching a cold beverage.

Simplicity Is The Key Factor
And at the end of the season you generally toss the formerly colorful plants, dump the water out of the container, put the entire affair away for the winter months, and start the engines all over again when spring dances into the New Year. In all reality, if you have a liking for simplicity, relaxation, colorful plants, and good times, a container water garden may be worth considering whether you’re a city dweller or a suburbanite. One way or the other, don’t be limited by your lack of space. If you really want a water garden, there are many different ways to skin that cat.

Rick Osbourne is the former Managing Editor of pond Guy Publications (publishing arm of Aquascape Designs, Inc.) who since leaving ADI in December of 2005 has developed a freelance writing enterprise and has written regularly for a number of green industry magazines. Along with his writing, Osbourne is co-owner of an e-commerce web site called Deep Discount Pond Supply (www.deepdiscountpondsupply.com and www.deepdiscountpondsupplies.com) located in suburban Chicago. He also currently serves as the CEO of the International Landscape Alliance (www.ILA411.com), a new volume buying group that’s organizing independent owner operators around the country into a volume buying entity in order to secure better selection and better pricing on pond supplies, landscaping supplies, and various other products that ILA members require.

Philosophically speaking Rick a naturalist that finds it hard to argue with the age old adage that warns “Don’t mess around with Mother Nature.” If you live life in harmony with Ma Nature, your burdens will be manageable, and your joys will be numerous.