Make a splash with a water garden

Patio with water garden
Large, emphatic leaf shapes create exciting reflections
© Steven Wooster

If your outdoor space is lacking a little lushness, why not create a water garden? Great in small spaces and easy to maintain, a water garden will add instant vitality and enchantment to a barren landscape. This snippet from Andi Clevely's book 'Water in the garden' has all the advice you'll need to get started.

Creating your water garden

Leave a wall between the two cavities 5cm (2in) lower than the rest of the pond margin. Line the bog site with a flexible liner, tucked under the pond’s liner where they meet. Use a knife to perforate the sides of the liner at 90cm (3ft) intervals (except the side next to the pond), and then spread a 5cm (2in) layer of grit or gravel over the bottom before filling with good garden soil, free from all perennial weed roots.

The same method can be adapted for a free–standing bog garden. Leave the liner unpunctured and bury a perforated irrigation pipe in the layer of gravel at the bottom. Stop the pipe at one end, connect a hosepipe coupling to the other, and then spread a sheet of woven plastic matting on top to keep the soil from infiltrating the grit and pipework.

A wall around your pond will help to keep it clean
© Steven Wooster

After planting keep the bed heavily mulched with garden compost or shredded bark to discourage evaporation and maintain evenly moist conditions.

Preparing a new bog garden

Weeds are often difficult to remove from wet ground, where they may be lush and tenacious, so clear the soil of weed roots as meticulously as you can before planting. To help retain moisture, fork in plenty of organic material, adding up to one–third by volume of garden compost or well–rotted manure. Treading on the prepared soil during planting can cause compaction and airlessness: avoid this by standing on a board to help spread your weight.

Water plants thoroughly before and after planting. Common perennials that revel in bog gardens include astilbes, cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), day lilies (Hemerocallis), eupatoriums, globe flower (Trollius), goat’s beard (Aruncus), gunnera, hostas, kingcups (Caltha), ligularias, loosestrife (Lythrum), mimulus, primulas and rodgersias.

Although most bulbs and bulb–like plants prefer good drainage, a few species have adapted to survival in damp or wet marginal ground and look very handsome near water, where their emphatic leaf shapes and sometimes arching flower stems produce exciting reflections.

Plants to try include arum lilies (Zantedeschia), angel’s fishing rods (Dierama), snake’s–head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris), snowflakes (Leucojum), hoop–petticoat daffodils (Narcissus bulbocodium) and many irises, especially Iris ensata and I. sibirica.

This is an extract from 'Water in the garden' by Andi Clevely.