DIY Network

Gardening Tips Find out how easy water gardening can be, how to build a garden path and much more about making your garden beautiful. From "Today Show Tips" episode DTST-114

Water Gardens

One of the hottest trends in gardening is water features. They range from small lakes with waterfalls to fountains in a corner of the patio. You don't need to dig up your back yard to enjoy a water feature though. Here are some tips to get the feeling without the work.

• Water gardening is easy. All you need is a container that can hold water. Fill it up, and you can ignore it for several days. If you go out of town, you don't have to get someone to water it.

• There are different kinds of plants for water gardens: floating plants, such as water lettuce, and marginal plants, such as the lotus, which like to have their roots in soil under water even though the plant is above water.

  With floating plants, all you have to do is fill a container with water and let it sit for a few days. Then drop the plant onto the water's surface, and you're done!

  Water lettuce is one example of floating water plants. It needs no soil at all.

  Lotus plants want to have their roots in soil underwater.

  
  

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  Rice plants create a modern, graphic look in this horizontal container. The stones just under the water's surface keep the dirt in place.

• If you choose plants such as lotus or rice that need dirt around their roots, place the plant in an empty container and fill around the roots with potting soil. Put a layer of stones over the soil; that will keep it in place. Then fill the container with water — enough to cover the stones.

• If you're worried about mosquitoes breeding in your water garden, there are two things you can do. If the water garden consists of floating plants, just add a few goldfish to the container, and they'll swim around and eat the mosquito larvae. Or you can add what's called "a mosquito dunk," which is a biological control that takes care of the mosquito larvae naturally.

• Carnivorous plants, such as the Venus flytrap, are fun to use in water gardens. Plant them in peat moss, add the stones, and fill the container with water.

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