For planting shallow pond shelves - use marginal shelf pond plants:
- For a guide to planting the shallow pond shelves we have taken into account the depth of the basket we send each plant in.
- So we know how deep the crown of the plant at the top of the basket plant will be below water.
- The plant label sent in the basket is the depth of water over the top of the basket.
- Relevant when you are kneeling beside the pond to place it in the water.
Water depth is vital to marginal shelf pond plants:
- Too deep and some varieties will not thrive
- Too shallow and some varieties could be caught in frost/ice and not have enough protection.
- Some plants can cope with a wide variety of shelf depths.
Planting on pond shelves is easier if you built your pond with the right depth shelves:
- Build a shelf at 5-6"/13-15cm to hold plants showing
- Another shelf at 6-9"/15-22cm to hold plants showing
- Possibly (if space) a shelf at 10-17"/23-44cm to hold plants showing
- And a base of 2'6"/75cm to hold plants showing
- Most shelf areas should be shelf and shelf .
- We recommend a minimum of 3 x 1 litre marginal aquatic baskets per metre length for planting pond shelves.
- Plant more if the shelf is wider than 30cm(12") or if you want it to look full quickly.
What do I do if my pond planting shelf is too deep?
- Raise the planted basket by using blue engineering bricks.
- Part fill a larger basket with gravel to stand the smaller basket in to lodge it with gravel surrounding it
- Replant into a taller basket so that the top of the basket (& crown of the plant) is at the correct depth
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- Contour baskets on the different Marginal Pond Plant Shelves
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- Shelf Pond Plants on the Marginal Shelves
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Plants that grow at ground level and roots in wet mud: Marked :
:- Plants that grow in wet mud in a sloping beach area of a pond, in a muddy bog garden alongside or on a wet, muddy stream edge
- These are the same plants that sit on planting pond shelf 5-6" depth
- They are plants that can survive with their planted crown exposed to frost or ice
- Their roots can live in permanently wet soil.
Shallowest Shelf Pond Plants: Marked :
:- Plants that can be placed with their roots/baskets in water but with little or up to 2"/5cm water over their crown on a shallow 5-6" depth shelf.
- Shelf pond plants can be divided into 2 types -
- Horizontal spreaders across the water - rafting plants
- Vertically up and out of the water - emergent plants
- Your pond should contain a mix of both to create different wildlife habitats.
- Container pond planting collections are normally planting shelf plants as the plant support grid sits in position with approximately 2cm(1") of water over the top of an 11cm basket.
- For a pond with no shelves in its construction - use floating planting islands that float the crown of the plants on/near the water surface using plants Marked .
Plants for deeper shelf: Marked :
:- Plants that are placed with up to 13cm(5") of water over the top of the basket. So on 6-9"/15-22cm shelf.
Plants for a deeper shelf still: Marked :
:- Marginal shelf plants placed with over 13cm(5") of water over the top of the basket. So on a shelf lower than 22cm(9").
- There are not many varieties for this depth.
- Robust plants that thrive on a deeper shelf places the crown of the plant in deeper water below a risk of ice at that depth.
- The miniature and dwarf waterlilies can be placed onto a pond planting shelf or at the base of our patio container pond on planting shelf .
- Or just into the shallow end of shelf depth but at a maximum shelf depth of 25cm/10" deep
For deeper pond areas see the page Deeper depth pond plants: Shelf 