GARDEN POND PLANTS

Click here for the 'Seeds of Eaden' seed shop

Plants around and in your pond help to visually soften its outline and provides a suitable habitat for many insects and invertebrates.  

Aquatic planting is essential to providing a healthy pond. As well as enhancing the appearance and provide a much more natural environment, they provide shelter and security for pond animals.  Plants produce oxygen and absorb the carbon dioxide and ammonia,  and so the improve the water quality. Because they compete with algae for nutrients, they can help to reduce algae growth.

There are a variety of water plants available that will greatly improve the pond.  They can be either submerged, floating or emergent. In addition, adjacent planting around the outside of the pond is also important.

Submerged
Submerged plants provide habitats for pond animals under the surface of the water.
Calitriche stagnalis (Water starwort)
Elodia canadensis (Canadian Pondweed)
Myriophyllum spicatum (Water Milfoil)

Floating
Floating plants provide protection from predators and the sun.  They help to keep algae levels down by covering the surface area.
Nymphiodes pelata (Fringed waterlily)

Emergent
Emergent plants are a half way house for many pond animals, providing shelter and breeding places. They allow dragonfly nymphs to climb out of the water
Alisma plantago-aquatica (water plantain)
Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush)
Caltha palustris (Marsh marigold)
Myosotsis scorpiodes (Water Forget-me-not)
Polygonium amphibium (Amphibious bistort)

Adjacent
A marshy area adjacent to the pool will provide good cover for amphibians and provide good insect cover.
Eupatorium cannabinum (Hemp agrimony)
Filipendula ulmaria (Meadowsweet)
Lythrum salicaria (Purple loosestrife)

Avoid introducing aggressive species such as Typha (reedmace) and Lemna spp (Duckweed).

Garden pond plants
Plants for seaside areas

BAT BOXES

Click here for the 'Seeds of Eaden' seed shop

With a decline in suitable roof spaces and other habitats, it is increasingly important to provide additional habitat for bats by putting up bat boxes on site. Bats may inhabit boxes for summer roosts or for winter hibernation.

Bat boxes differ in construction for bird boxes and are readily available to buy.  The entrance to the box should comprise of a slit measuring 2 cm and be located on the bottom, at the back. The rear interior should have rough grooves cut into it to allow the bats to hang easily.

You can easily make them yourselves with sawn timber.  Use untreated, rough sawn timber more than 15 mm thick by 1 metre long to construct. The thicker the wood the better as this provides better insulation from too much cold and heat inside the box. 

Position the bat boxes high off the ground, up to 5 m in height. Remove any crowding vegetation to allow  bats a clear flight path in and out.  Use multiple boxes to allow the bats to move from one box to another as the temperature changes.  Clustering three boxes together around a single tree trunk, all facing different directions, can be very successful but they can be placed under eaves and on walls of buildings.

Bat boxes
British Bats: Common Pipistrelle
How to make an insect house
Hummingbird hawk moth