Are you still having some trouble deciding whether or not to add a garden pond to your yard? Well, I am going to try to convince you that you should most definitely have a garden pond.

Here are some of the many benefits and pros to having a garden pond:

Visual Beauty. There is something about the sight of water that is absolutely mesmerizing. Add a waterfall or water fountain to your garden pond, and you will be hypnotized for days.

Auditory Beauty. After a stressful day of work, there are few things more soothing than the sound of water gurgling, cascading, or even dripping. Again, a waterfall or water fountain will increase the auditory beauty, just as they will increase the visual beauty.

Pets. If you add koi to your pond, you are not simply adding a piece of garden decoration, you are adding a pet. It can be very fun and quite intriguing to take care of koi. And if you do get koi for your pond, expect that you will, indeed, have to take care of them as pets. You will need to make sure that they are fed and that the aquatic environment is optimal.

Gardening. Most garden ponds do not simply consist of a hole filled with water and fish. They also have many aquatic plants and plants surrounding the pond. You can really have fun with gardening and landscaping around the pond.

Easy installation. You can create a basic garden pond in a day. More complicated ones, with cascading waterfalls, etc. can take much longer. But a basic garden pond is very easy to install. You can just dig a hole and line it with pond liner, or get a set pond hard shell. With a little bit of digging and some water and a few plants you have got yourself a pond!

Easy to run. These days, you can get solar pond lights, solar filters, solar pumps, etc., making your pond very easy to run. And since solar power is free, you will have no running costs!

Interest. There are few things more boring than a backyard that is simply a huge expanse of grass. If you want a grassy field, go to a park! In your own backyard, you have the power to create any sort of environment that you want. Why not make your landscape interesting?

Getaway. Adding a garden pond to your yard is the first step to creating your own getaway. Once you beautify your yard, you are going to want to spend more and more time in it. It will become the perfect place to go when you want to escape from the rest of the world.

Guests. Although you should build a garden pond for yourself, it is nice to know that your guests are sure to love it, too. Your garden pond can be the center of many outdoor barbecues and get-togethers. Add a few floating candles to your pond, and you are set to go!

If you missed the springtime window of opportunity to divide your hardy water lilies, don’t worry, it’s not too late. Although springtime is the best time, you’ve actually got the entire normal growing season to get it done.

The reason for dividing your water lilies is that they eventually run out of room in their existing pots and need more room for the roots to spread out so the plant can flourish. Not only is this relatively easy to do, but you end up with more plants as a bonus!

Step 1

Remove the plant from the pot and gently rinse the dirt from the root system.

Step 2

Cut the older growth from one end of the tuber, and the newer growth from the other. If there are new eyes along the tuber you can snip them off and pot them if you wish.

Step 3

Take a sharp knife and cut the tuber back on the ‘growing’ part. On small plants you can safely cut the tuber down to 2-3 inches. Keep it at around 5-6 inches for larger plants.

You should also cut off new buds and any older leaves so the plant can stay focused on growing a new root system.

Step 4

Plant the tuber in good quality garden soil that has been poured into a pot that is suitable for water gardening. Potting soil is not the best choice so make sure that the package says ‘garden soil’.

Insert the tuber into the soil placing it next to the wall of the pot rather than in the center of the pot.

Insert a couple of aquatic plant food tabs about halfway into the soil and then pack the soil around the tuber so it will stay in place when the pot is submerged.

Finally, pour a layer of pea gravel over the soil to keep it from washing away. This also discourages your fish from digging in the pot. Make sure that you do not cover the crown of the tuber with gravel.

Step 5

Slowly submerge the pot into your garden pond. Don’t be alarmed if some dirt residue mixes in with the water. This is normal and it will soon settle to the bottom and the water will clear.

Keep your new plants in water that is no deeper that 12 until you notice at least five or six new leaves. Once the plant is established you can place it in deeper water if you wish.

There, you’re done. Now your old plants will have more room to grow and you’ll have new plants to keep or share with friends. Wasn’t that easy?

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Brett Fogle is the owner of MacArthur Water Gardens and several
other pond-related websites including MacArthurWatergardens.com
and Pond-Filters-Online.com. He also publishes a free monthly
newsletter called PondStuff! with a reader circulation of over
9,000. To sign up for the free newsletter and receive our FREE
‘New Pond Owners Guide’ visit MacArthur Water Gardens today!
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