The Benefits of a Koi Water Garden
Feeling a little landlocked in your gardening? Don’t stop the landscaping in your backyard – bring it to the pond! Koi water gardens are a fantastic way to test your green thumb and branch out. Not only are they a beautiful addition to any koi pond, but a water garden is beneficial too! The flowers and greenery will be a welcome addition in your koi’s home.
The shade provided by pond plants not only helps your koi, but it also supports healthy water too.
Adding Some Greenery
Updating your backyard koi pond can turn it into a plant paradise. While the end result may look completely organic, much planning actually goes into the water garden. Use caution when selecting plants – koi enjoy indulging and snacking on the roots, leaves, and everything in-between.
Because koi munch away at water gardens, strategically place them in the pond. Heavy and large potted plants can be edged around the pond. Use an underwater shelf or ledge to partially submerge the pot, and barricade the koi off with rocks.
Heavy and large plants can be placed around the edge of the pond to overlook the water.
Smaller and lighter plants can be suspended in the pond using floating rings and wire baskets on the underside. These prevent koi from getting at the fragile roots, but still provide a shady cover.
The Benefits of a Water Garden
While a water garden may be aesthetically pleasing, it has many practical benefits to your pond as well. Water gardens can protect your koi from the sun’s rays. When exposed to strong and direct sunlight for extended periods of time, a koi’s scales can succumb to sunburn. By supplying a variety of greenery and floating plants, koi can take cover in the shade. Shady areas of the pond also help keep temperatures from rising, especially in the summertime.
Besides providing shade, water gardens also can improve the water quality in your pond. Plants can help filter water naturally by feeding on your pond’s abundance of koi waste. They also reduce the amount of nitrites in the water and starve off algae. And certain plants can naturally add oxygen to the pond water. To read more on specific plants, check out our post on pond plants.
Greenery makes any koi pond come alive.
A koi water garden is not just a home to your fish. Snails, crustaceans, and insects will also enjoy the aquatic habitat. Your koi fish can help alleviate those pesky mosquitoes as well – they love to eat the larvae off of pond plants. And when faced with predators, a water garden will provide protection to your koi fish.
Have you created a koi water garden? Send us photos, tips, and ideas via the contact form!