What it involves

You set aquatic plants in mesh baskets of heavy soil, lower each one to the depth it likes, and let the leaves spread until they shade most of the surface. After planting day the work is light: about ten minutes a week in summer to top up evaporated water, pinch off yellow leaves and push a fertilizer tablet into the lily's pot once a month. Most of the hobby happens between April and October. Plants go dormant in winter, and what you do then depends on how hard your water freezes.

A small backyard pond edged with rushes and flowering plants, seen from a wooden deck — A backyard pond with rushes at the edge

Plant your first tub

What you can grow in your first month

Patio lily tub

One dwarf hardy water lily and two marginal plants in a 20-gallon container. This is the base kit, planted in an afternoon.

Marginal pot

A single rush or pickerel plant in a basket, stood in a few inches of water in the corner of the tub. It is the easiest aquatic plant to keep alive.

Container bog

A drainless tub of wet peat planted with moisture lovers, using the Bog gardening add-on.

Bubbler

The small pump and a foot of tubing set upright in a second watertight container, so water wells up and spills back. It needs the Fountain building add-on and an outdoor outlet.

Water lilies

Rooted in a pot on the bottom, leaves floating on top. Hardy types survive winter and suit beginners. Dwarf varieties spread 2 to 3 feet, which is what a tub can hold.

Marginals

Plants that stand in shallow water at the edge, with 0 to 6 inches over the soil. Rushes, sweet flag, pickerel plant and native irises belong here.

Floaters

Plants that drift with roots hanging free. They shade the water fast, but several popular ones are banned in parts of the US, so check before you buy.

Submerged oxygenators

Underwater stems such as hornwort that take up the nutrients algae would otherwise use. One bunch per 2 square feet of surface is plenty.

Three ways to take it further

Pond buildingDigging an in-ground pond and lining it with flexible rubber sheet. A pond gives lilies the 18 to 24 inches of depth they prefer and room for shelves of marginals. It is a weekend of digging, not an afternoon.

Start here

Mark the outline with a garden hose where you can see it from the house, then request a free utility locate before you lift any turf. While you wait for the flags, ask your building department what depth triggers a fence or permit.

Call 811 before you dig

Bog gardeningA lined bed or drainless container of permanently wet, acidic soil for plants that want wet roots but no standing water. It needs no pump and holds no open water.

Start here

Pick the spot in your yard that already stays soggy after rain, or a second tub with no drain holes. Line it, fill it with wet peat, and soak it with rainwater for a week before planting.

Fountain buildingA small pump recirculating water inside a container, so it wells up and spills back. It adds sound and keeps water moving. Keep it away from lilies, which sulk when their leaves are splashed.

Start here

Measure the height from where the pump will sit to where the water should come out. Choose a pump whose maximum lift is at least double that number, then test it in a bucket before you build anything around it.

Open a direction for its first step. The button at the bottom adds that direction's gear to the kit list, and pressing it again takes the gear back out.

A low jet of water rising from a round stone-rimmed pool set in a lawn — A low jet in a round pool

Safety and the law

Children

A toddler can drown in a few inches of water, and a tub counts. Never leave a child under 5 alone near any water garden, and put a tub or pond where you can fence it or fit a rigid metal grate just under the surface.

Depth and fencing rules

Many towns apply swimming pool barrier rules to any pond deeper than a set limit, often 18 or 24 inches, and some require a permit. Call your building department before you dig, and tell your home insurer.

Call 811

US law requires a utility locate before any digging, including a shallow pond or a bog bed. The service is free. Request it 2 to 3 business days ahead and dig only after the lines are flagged.

Electricity

Plug pumps only into a GFCI-protected outdoor outlet with a weatherproof cover. If yours is not protected, have an electrician fix that first. Use pumps rated for submersible outdoor use, never an indoor extension cord, and unplug before your hands go in the water.

Restricted plants

Water hyacinth, water lettuce, parrot feather and yellow flag iris are illegal to buy or own in some states. Check your state's noxious weed list, and be wary of online sellers who ship anywhere.

Never release anything

Do not put pond plants, snails, fish or pond water into a lake, stream, ditch or storm drain. Dry unwanted plants on pavement, then bag them for the trash.

Wildlife

Give every pond one sloped edge or a ramp of stones so animals that fall in can climb out.

Before you dig, and before you buy plants

What trips beginners up

Green water

Every new water garden turns pea green for a couple of weeks. Draining and refilling adds fresh nutrients and starts the cycle over.

Too little sun

A lily in 4 hours of sun makes leaves and no flowers. Move the tub before you blame the plant.

Ordinary potting mix

It floats out of the basket and clouds the water. Aquatic plants need heavy clay soil or a fired clay planting media.

Planting too deep

A new lily dropped straight to 18 inches often stalls. Start it shallow on bricks and lower it as the leaves reach the surface.

Overplanting

A tub that looks sparse in May is crowded by July. Three or four plants fill a 20-gallon container.

Fertilizer in the water

Liquid or granular plant food feeds algae. Use tablets pushed deep into the pot.

Small tubs in hot weather

Under 15 gallons, water overheats and evaporates in days. Go bigger or give it afternoon shade.

White water lilies in flower among scattered pads on deep blue water — White lilies in flower among their pads

Spring

Lift the baskets, divide any lily that has filled its pot, replant in fresh aquatic soil and start monthly feeding once the water reaches 60°F.

Summer

Top up little and often with tap water, since replacing more than a fifth at once shocks plants and feeds algae. Twist off spent flowers and yellow leaves at the base.

Fall

Stop feeding in September, cut back brown foliage and net out fallen leaves before they rot on the bottom.

Winter

A hardy lily survives if its rhizome does not freeze solid. In a pond, sink the pot to the deepest point. In a tub, drain it, move the pot to an unheated garage and keep the soil damp.

Where to learn more

Local aquatic nursery

The staff know which plants are legal and hardy in your area, and most will pot a lily for you while you watch.

Your state extension service

Search its site for water garden or backyard pond guides written for your climate.

International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society

Free articles on lilies and lotus, and a list of local societies that hold plant swaps and pond tours.

A society worth knowing

International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society Free articles on lilies and lotus, plus a list of affiliated local societies

A round stone-edged pool covered in lily pads, with orange fish under the surface — A raised pool covered in lily pads

How the kit is put together

The base kit is a container water garden with no pump and no electricity: a tub, baskets, soil, fertilizer, mosquito control and a net. Plants are the one thing to buy in person, and they are the largest cost after the tub. Each add-on carries only the extra gear for that direction. A pond adds liner, underlayment and a pump. A bog adds a small liner and peat. A fountain adds a pump and tubing. Buy liner by the formula (length plus twice the depth plus 2 feet, and the same for width), because a liner that comes up short cannot be patched longer.

The first line is the plants, which you buy at a nursery, not online. For everything else, compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the kit list. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. Pond, bog and fountain gear stays out of the total until you switch that add-on on.

Aquatic plants from a local nursery

Essential · Plants

The plants are the garden. A local aquatic nursery sells only what is legal and hardy where you live, which a mail-order seller cannot promise.

Not sold on Amazon · buy from a local aquatic nursery

Not sold on Amazon. Look for a garden center with a pond department or a specialist aquatic nursery. Ask for one dwarf hardy water lily, two native marginals and a bunch of oxygenating stems. Expect $25 to $50 for the lily and $8 to $15 for each marginal.

Patio pond container

Essential · Core equipment

It holds the whole garden. It needs to be watertight, at least 15 gallons and 12 inches deep so a dwarf lily has room over its crown.

budget

Heissner Preformed Square Water Garden - Black - 58x58x30cm - 70 litres

4.2(346)

$63.17

Water Gardening

What it involves

Plant your first tub

The four kinds of pond plants

Three ways to take it further

Safety and the law

What trips beginners up

Care through the year

Where to learn more

How the kit is put together

Fill the tub

Aquatic plants from a local nursery

Patio pond container

Aquatic planting baskets

Aquatic planting soil

Mosquito larvicide

Aquatic fertilizer tablets

Pond skimmer net

Flexible pond liner

Pond liner underlayment

Submersible pond pump

Small liner for a bog bed

Sphagnum peat moss

Small fountain pump

Clear vinyl fountain tubing