For city dwellers, yard space is at a premium. With apartment houses built right on the streets and a minimal amount of communal land in back of the buildings, there’s no way to grow a garden or cultivate a lot of flowers. You can, however, think on a much smaller scale. If you have a balcony or a deck, or even a fire escape, you can build a water garden in containers which will give you the aura of an in-ground water feature. You’ll be able to hear the water running and watch tiny fish swimming, grow water plants, and take advantage of the serenity nothing but a water garden can give you. Water garden containers give you the basis for building a watery oasis in very limited space.
Locating water garden containers isn’t as hard as deciding exactly what you’d like. A recommended size for a container is 15-25 gallons, and any sort of container in that size range will work. You will also require containers to produce your water plants in, because plants need to be grown in separate pots and then transplanted into the water-filled container. It’s best to pick a container with a darker interior, because the dark color will give your pond the idea of depth. Dark interiors are also more practical in that they won’t provide an attraction for algae and yet they’ll mask the presence of any algae that starts growing.
Your water garden needs to be located where it will get at minimum six hours of sun each day. Most water plants don’t grow and flower well without at least that much sunlight, although some bog plants will grow with less sun. The plants you pick for your garden need to be varied for the best effect. Choose some with floating properties, a few that grow under water, and emergent species when selecting the plants you would like to include in your water garden. Plants serve the function of shading the water which, once again, discourages the growth of algae. When you start a new water garden, however, you should expect your water to get cloudy-looking after a couple of weeks. Just hang on, though, and the plants and fish will slowly but surely start controlling the algae growth, and the water will start clearing up.
In addition to fish, you should stick a few snails in your water garden containers. Snails are important in eating algae, fish waste matter, and decaying organic matter. Tiny fish, such as guppies, are recommended for containers that are 20 gallons or smaller; larger than that you can try a couple of goldfish. Guppies and other types of fish like that are excellent choices, because they adapt to changes in temperature well, and they eat those pesky mosquitoes.