We have had a mini pond in the garden since 2016, which has since grown into a small wetland biotope. Based on my experience over the last few years, I am going to write down my tips for the mini pond in the garden today.
Even if it’s just a small pond, I find it a great eye-catcher in the garden with the many plants.
Table of Contents
Pond basin or pond liner?
Since we received the small pond as a gift, we never asked ourselves whether we should design the pond with a pond liner. I think this is more suitable for larger ponds where you want to achieve a look that is as natural as possible. The bowl turned out to be perfect for our pond because we dug the hole relatively quickly and the bowl already has individual zones on which the plants can be planted.
Here you can see that you can really find a place for the small pond with a diameter of only 120 cm anywhere. Our pool is about the size of this one.
Design of the pond with plants and stones -mini pond
To give the pond a natural look and to hide the edge of the pool, I placed river pebbles of different sizes around the pond. I also used pebbles to fix the plants in the pond. Plant baskets are normally used to place the plants in the pond, but this was not necessary with the small pool. In the small area at the edge of the pool for plants, I was able to work very well with pebbles.
Pond plants for a partially shaded to a shaded location
We chose a semi-shady location for our mini pond (rather shady in summer) and have never had problems with algae formation. By the way, we don’t have a pond pump! The tank would be too small for me anyway, and the fact that the plants feel very comfortable shows me that the water quality is good :).
At the time, I had no idea which plants would thrive in that location, so I initially bought an unbelievable number of plants from the pond section in the garden center. Over the years I have learned which plants spread and thus crowd out others, what comes back very well the next year and what does not grow at the location.
Here are my favorites for pond planting, because they feel super comfortable in the location and reliably come back every year!
plants in the water
- fern
- bulrush
- pike weed
- water lily
- mint
- watercress
- water lettuce
plants on the shore
- Muehlenbeckia
- hosts
- Seal of Solomon
- different grasses
- iris
Here are a few more plants in detail so that you can assign them:
(Pike weed on the front, hostas on the back)
(Solomon’s Seal: simply beautiful with the flowers on the curved panicles)
(Mühlenbeckia: small leaves, spreads luxuriantly as ground cover, reliably comes back every year)
(Water lettuce: multiplies splendidly, but is annual. In the middle you can see the blossom of our water lily).
At first that was all I could think of about our pond! If you have any questions just bring them on :)!
All the best! Catherine
