The Golden Rule of Water Gardening

The Golden Rule of Water Gardening

If somebody pushed me into a corner and demanded to know the single most important thing to know about water gardening to assure a successful experience, here’s what I’d say.
First and foremost, beyond anything else, the golden rule of water gardening is don’t contradict or fiddle with Mother Nature!

The primary strategy to follow, in a successful water gardening plunge is to do everything possible to work in harmony with Mother Nature because she’s been in the business for a long time, and no matter what you do, she’ll come out the winner. So why not play on the winning team?
If Ma Nature does it, then you should be doing it too. If she doesn’t do it, then you should avoid it at all costs.

The bottom line here is that if you and Mother Nature are playing on the same team, she does almost all the heavy lifting when it comes to the maintenance of your pond. On the other hand if she’s on the other team, then you do all the heavy lifting and you’ll regret the day you ever heard the word water gardening.

In order to maintain the natural balance of your pond it is absolutely necessary for you to understand the aquatic circle of life.
Here’s how it goes:
· The fish eat the plants and produce waste which in turn drops to the bottom of the pond along with other debris such as leaves, sticks, anything that’s blowing in the wind and landing in your pond.
· The aerobic bacteria making their home on the rocks and gravel on the bottom of your pond look at that debris as nutrition. They effectively do whatever they do to cause it to biodegrade, and the bi-product becomes nutrition for your plants.
· Your plants, including the algae that’s in every pond from one degree to another, then grow as the result of having access to this newly available nutrition.
· The fish then eat the plants and the whole thing continues over and over again.
· That’s the aquatic circle of life and if you have an understanding of that, you’re out in front of the pack.

Now if you take the fish out of the pond, the plants would grow without hindrance and eventually dominate your pond. On the other hand take the plants out and the fish have nothing to eat. Or take the bacteria out of the pond and there’s nothing to cause the debris to biodegrade and to create nutrition for your plants.
The other factor is to make sure that each one of these elements is proportionally present. That is to say, if you have too many fish it’ll throw your pond out of balance.
If you have too few or too many plants, that’ll create an imbalance. And don’t forget that bacteria are an absolutely essential ingredient too.
You also need a good biological and mechanical filtration system, and a good circulatory (pumps and connectors) system, and you will have all the really important bases covered satisfactorily.

The primary benefit of having a balanced aquatic ecosystem then is that Mother Nature does most of the maintenance work for you, which allows you time to relax and kick back, instead of doing more work when you get home.
The naturally balanced pond allows you to avoid all the headaches, frustrations, and extra costs of an imbalanced pond.
You don’t want Mother Nature to go on strike, so golden rule number one is, don’t ever fiddle with Mother Nature if you want to be on the winning team.

Joe Higginbotham - The Florida Pondguy
Waterwood Gardens, LLC

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