Water Gardening: Shaded pond, 1 by crimsontsavo

crimsontsavo wrote:
If you keep your plants potted andkeep your eye on them they should be fine.
For such a small pond I would occassionally pull the plants out and trim the roots and vegetation.
About 1/3 of the surface should ideally be covered with vegetation (azolla,etc.) too keep algae down and shade the fish.
Having it in shade will help keep algae and the temperature down as well.
Submerged plants help with oxygen and to clean the ater of ammonia and other nasties, but I see you have a fountain so you should be good for oxygen.
I would probably add some native bladderwort and some ludwigia repens in the pond. The fish will help eat that down. It is easy to remove and toss on your yard plants for fertz when it grows too much.

As far as t he lily blooming, Ive only ever had one bloom and that was last year. It is in full sun planted diretcly in my pond (no pot) and I fed the bad boy some Jobes Plant Sticks. There's some mulm (dead leaves/sedentation in the bottom of the pond for the plants/fish to feed on)

Around a small pond you can't go wrong with sedum! They are small and look really nice spilling between rocks. I also tuck native ferns in between my rocks. Don't forget mosses!

Maybe try widening the border around the pond.

Well, I was bored so I drew up a quick thing in PS. LOL