Planting pond shelves with marginal shelf pond plants:
We have taken into account the depth of the basket we send each plant in to calculate how deep the plant will be in the water when placed on a particular depth shelf.
| Symbol | Shelf depth in cm | Shelf depth in inches |
 | wet mud | wet mud |
 | 13 -15 | 5 - 6 |
 | 15 -22 | 6 - 9 |
 | 23 - 44 | 10 - 17 |
 | 45 + | 18 + |
Water depth is vital to marginal shelf pond plants:
- Too deep and some varieties will not thrive
- Too shallow and some varieties will not receive frost/ice protection over their crowns.
- Some plants can cope with a wide variety of shelf depths.
If you have a shelf too deep for a particular plant species:
- replant into a taller basket so that the top of the basket (& crown of the plant) is at the correct depth
- or raise the planted basket up by using blue engineering bricks.
- or part fill a larger basket with gravel to stand the smaller basket on.
To easily do planting on pond shelves build your pond with the right depth shelves into your construction:
- Build a shelf at 5-6" 13-15cm) to hold plants showing
- Another shelf at 6-9" (15-22cm) to hold plants showing
- Possibly a shelf at 10-17" (23-44cm) to hold plants showing
- And a base of 2'6"(75cm) to hold plants showing
- Most shelf area 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 a full look is required quickly.
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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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Wet mud : Plants with their crowns at ground level but roots in wet mud:
- 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 are the same plants that sit on planting pond shelf .
Pond Planting Shelf : Plants that sit with their crowns at/near water level:
: Plants that sit with their crowns at/near water level:- Plants that are placed with their roots/baskets in water but with a little or no water over their crowns.
- 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.
- 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 listed .
Planting Shelf : Plants that want more water over the top of the basket:
: Plants that want more water over the top of the basket:- Plants that are placed with up to 13cm(5") of water over the top of the basket.
Planting Pond Shelf : Plants for a deeper shelf:
: Plants for a deeper shelf:- Robust plants that enjoy a deeper shelf that places the crown of the plant in water without risk of ice penetrating the pond to that depth.
- The miniature and dwarf waterlilies can be placed onto a pond planting shelf or at the base of our patio container pond at planting shelf or on the shallow end of shelf depth.
