5 Understand The Planting And Maintenance Of A Garden Pool

Question 1

Name 2 aquatic floating plants

Answer 1

Stratiotes aloides
Lemna trisulca

Question 2

Name 2 aquatic deep water plants

Answer 2

Nymphaea ‘Marliacea Chromatella’
Orontium aquaticum

Question 3

Name 2 aquatic marginal plants

Answer 3

Caltha palustris
Mentha aquatica

Question 4

Name 2 aquatic bog plants

Answer 4

Gunnera manicata
Lobelia cardinalis

Question 5

Describe the planting and establishment of aquatic plants in a garden pool

Answer 5

Selection of plants for suitable vigour - right plant for the size of the garden pool. Clump forming bog and marginal plants may need lifting and dividing in spring.
Containers - deep water plants should be planted in containers for easier maintenance and roots wont pierce the liner. Line baskets with hessian and fill with aquatic compost, plant up, and top dress with pea shingle or gravel. Use rope to tie around container and lower into position so the leaves are floating. If they have no leaves yet, leave in a shallower position until they have leaves. Marginal plants should have pots filled with aquatic compost and placed on a planting shelf created for them. Place stones or coarse gravel on surface to stop compost washing away. Floating plants can be placed into the water.
Growing medium - aquatic compost.
Nutrition - compost provides nutrition.
Planting techniques - bog garden - dig adequate hole for plant roots, incorporate aquatic compost to bottom of the hole, place roots in hole and fill back in with soil and compost mixture. Firm in and water.
Differentiate between deep water aquatics, floating, marginal plants in containers and also bog plants (bog garden in the soil)

Question 6

Describe the annual maintenance of a garden pool including possible controls for algae a including blanket weed

Answer 6

Water/vegetation balance - remove dead and dying vegetation in autumn to keep water sweet.
Role of oxygenator plants - thin if they have become dominant and cover the surface of the pool. Pull out handfuls or use a rake. Thin plants gradually over a month or so in order to keep balance of the pool.
Maintenance of water levels in summer - add water during periods of drought, if water level is dropping.
Control of vigorous growth and invasive pond weeds - remove any weeds growing in pots. Remove blanket weed in spring and summer regularly. Use a stick to wind the weed up.
Division of plants - lift and divide plants in spring. Check containers. Thin out any woody roots of marginal plants.
Netting against leaves in autumn.
Management of ice formation - use a warm bowl on the top of the ice to break it, or have a ball floating on the water and remove when ice forms.
Controls of algae to include pond balance, use of barley straw or other additive and manual methods of removal - floating leaves of plants should keep the area of the pool covered but there may be a boom of algae in spring. Remove with a stick or gently rubbing liner with a sponge and add more oxygenating plants. Algae should disappear once deep water plants and oxygenators begin to grow. Add lime to pool if there is a bad problem, in small amounts, until water is neutral, and algae should die back. Algaecide can also be used.