Plantings for a Fountain

Hi all,
DG is such a great resource, so I thought I'd ask you all a question about adding marginals to a fountain basin.

A few years back, I found a concrete urn planter that I thought would make a great cascading fountain. I also bought a 48" prefabbed molded plastic circular in-ground basin at HD that had 3 shelves around the edge to put marginals (SIMILAR to the attached picture I found online). The 3 shelves are about 12" long and only 6".I had my father in law build a stand so the urn would sit at the water line in the middle of the basin and houses the pump. It's turned out fantastic. When I can find my camera, I'll try to add a pic of my fountain to the thread.

So I'd like to soften & cover some of the edges of the black basin using marginals on the shelves. However, I'm completely new to growing plants in water. A few of my local nurseries carry marginals. However, I'm unsure how to "plant" them. The containers they come in are too tall and would stick up above the water line.

Here are my questions: Are there special low height containers that I should use? Do I just cut the containers down? Should I find some other type of container to keep the soil in, since the water in the basin is fairly turbulent when the pump is running? If I have clay soil, can I use it, or is the clay that's included in the pots at nursery a special type of clay? Do marginals need any type of fertilizer? Anything else I need to know before plunging plants in the water?

Thanks for all of your input.

Hi! I'd refer you to this thread...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/739652/

and this one

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/694936/

and to buy marginal plants, this one...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/738146/

Have fun!

Brenda

B,
Thanks for the reply. However, I don't think the links really answer my questions. The 1st and 3rd links are for certain plants. I have a local nursery where I can get the plants I want. The 2nd link kind of addresses the medium in which to plant (kitty litter). Any other ideas or info would be helpful.

Thanks.

Well, I'm kinda new to pond gardening too, but I'll share what I've learned. At Home Depot, in the pond and fountain section, you can usually find plant baskets, which are an open weave that allows water to run through them. They come in different sizes, you should be able to find one that works. I've also used regular black plastic pots, and they work fine too. If necessary, you can cut them down so they remain below the surface. I know lots of people use their own clay soil. As for fertilizer, you can get "aquatic plant tabs" (we got ours at the local pond store, but you can also get them at the co-op for cheap, or maybe your local nursery has them). I put rocks on top of all of mine to keep them stable. Hope that helps.

As far as planting containers go, since you will not need to be concerned about drainage holes try looking in the home office or housewares dept. of Wal-Mart. They have a lot of short but wide containers there and maybe some of them will be just what you need. The squatty wide containers tend to be more stable. I see that you have read about the kitty litter. Another post that I read said to use tomatoe fertilizer sticks or the water soluble fertizer for the water plants. Seems it has just about the same amount of nutrition for a lot less cost. I chose to get the water soluble. What I did was pulled up the pots, put a scoop of fertilizer in a square of paper towel which I then folded over to make a packet and pushed into the kitty litter clay. I put a couple of those packets in each pot and put them back in the pond. I have covered the clay in the pots with some flat pebbles to keep the fish from rooting in the clay and clouding the water. It seems to work well.

here is a pic of the fountain, as promised

needs to be cleaned with all the sun we've had lately

expanded view. Planted Irish moss around the base