5 Essential Plants For YOUR WILDLIFE POND

In this video we look at my top 5 plants for a wildlife pond.
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[Jacksonknox]

Joel I've just put some of these in my wildlife pond, some of my others are just beginning to bud, I spend hours just looking into the water fascinating little creatures, I'm no expert at it, and everything I've done from making the pond to planting it is all down to watching your content, I really look forward to watching your videos, even the family are now taking intrest and we are all learning together, spending time in the garden watching the wildlife as a family to me is the best medicine, Thank you

[nautilus]

I think there's another pond plant that's just as important, but very underrated: Potamogeton lucens.
It's an oxygenating plant just like hornwort, but it spreads a lot less aggressively so it's suited for all ponds. Its leaves are used as cases for newt eggs too.
Personally I think this is the plant with the most beautiful submerged foliage of all.

[robinr]

We put our pond in at the beginning of the pandemic. It has brought us so much joy. The plants are really filling in and the wildlife loves it. We are in the high desert of NM so the fresh water is important to many types of animals.

[neenneen]

Just wanted to say thankyou so much for all the information, I’m a newbie to pond life but now have the pond of my dreams & I’m enjoying the learning..so again thank you 😊

[archiediggins]

I absolutely love the window box, beautiful.

[markhunter]

Super list of plants, but I was expecting Marsh Marigold to be included🐝

[malcolmbell]

Another great video Joel. Looking forward to having all these in and around the pond, Also like the idea of water soldiers as well

[kevinking]

Couldn’t agree more
I just finished digging my 8x10 pond used some old heavy duty carpet for the bottom already have 2 layers of fleece and the liner waiting to go
My next job is ensuring its level as the ground here slopes
Today I have been given some plants from an existing pond
Iris bogbean and some spearwort etc
I have several other mini ponds full of hornwort so it’s all looking good over the next few weeks
Keep up the good work
I left a small donation
Kind regards Kev 🙏👍🙏

[MarkyBigSmoke]

Enjoyed watching this one Joel! This was where I was around 14 months ago. Thanks to you and the amazing team I have all of those natives and more.

[matthewgardiner]

Hello Joel greetings from NZ..was looking forward to this video, I don’t have water/ pond in my garden but I have on the farm here a natural stream which runs through the home field, it’s naturally planted but I have free sown other wild species along its edges..the wildlife is wonderful throughout the year, the stream widens and pools in parts so I may plant some Juncus I’m trying to keep it as natural as possible, I have a lovely stand of Manuka along it’s edge which brings hundreds of bees, …and the tiny native bird “Grey Warbler” nests here..I look forward to 5.30am Monday mornings to receive your latest videos, great way to start the week! Thankyou always so informative

[giennefarcais]

I set up a small whiskey barrel (not wood, synthetic) last summer and it did well for a long time. We had a bad freeze in December and half the plants died. This year the hornwort completely took over, no matter how many times I removed it, it was just a complete slimy mess. I'm officially giving up and giving away the remaining plants and will plant flowers in it instead. On the bright side, I was visited by a red darter dragonfly, which I read is good luck, and the squirrels and birds enjoyed it as a drinking source. Some things just work, others don't. It was interesting to learn about all of it.

[SisterDogmata]

Hey Joel! I'm certainly going to take your advice when I make over my pond. There's a lot to be done but all the help is much appreciated. Your garden is looking lovely everything is growing so quick and looking amazing. Have a great bank hol weekend, hope you get some time to unwind. Best wishes.

[AmirsAllotment]

Great video Joel for a beginner like me, I am planning to add to my tiny pond in my garden. But also I have been thinking of creating a wildlife pond on my allotment plot. 👍🌱

[lynnrushton]

Woohoo! I’m so excited! Mr R finally dug the hole for my wildlife pond……it’s only taken 2 years! 🙈😂 we’ve had a digger on hire, for another job, so made the most of using it. Got a few other big jobs to do before creating the pond, but at least the hole is ready!
Thank you for all of your advice Joel, I wouldn’t have a clue otherwise.
Will be visiting your online shop when the time comes……can’t wait‼️😁

[PaulOutdoors]

A marvellous top 5 Joel. I have a particular soft spot for Purple Loosestrife with its beautiful pollinator attracting spikes of pink/purple flowers. 🙏😊👍❤️

[pvaldes]

My favourite pond plant for Europe could be probably the perennial Filipendula ulmaria. Looks very humble when seen among other pot plants; but adopt it and after a while will reward you with a lot of charming and elegant details. Low maintenance, wildlife friendly... The fantastic Crataegus-like fragrance is just the cherry on top. A must.

Is more a bog plant than a pond one, but will fit easily in the perimeter of any pond. I would replace Lythrum with this if the pond is small

[brownfamily]

Hi Joel. My pond is doing well this year and a lot more of the plants have flowered. The marsh marigold was looking lovely earlier in the season and the bog bean and brook lime are now in flower. I'm hoping the blanket weed problem is starting to come to an end. I have been removing it by hand and it doesn't seem to be returning although there is still quite a lot of it. There didn't appear to be any hornwort left but now I've moved the blanket weed it has started to appear. While I've been pulling out the blanket weed I've been finding dragonfly and damselfly larva. Today I had a female broad-bodied chaser and a coupled pair of red damselflies hovering over the pond. I love your bug hotel. Have you done a video on how you made it?

[slashingbison]

Just built a small garden pond next to my meadow so this info was great!

[bluemato]

Hornwort is not allowed to be sold in shops Norway even though it’s native. It is even very threatened in the wild and rare. There are some sold among aquarium owners (legally I think) but I wouldn’t know if it’s the real species or if there would be aquarium lifeforms travelling with it.

I hoped to find out I had chosen right for my container but oh well 😅 I might have put in too many, but the water have started to grow brownish algae on the sides. I got frogbit, flowering rush, marestail and water forgetmenot. And I couldn’t have gotten these in Oslo, by chance I found through a neighbour and a 30 min drive from the cottage a little pet shop with pondplants.

Both frogbit and flowering rush is very endangered and rare in the wild so I’m happy about that. One of the pots has a mystery yellow flower seeded in beside the other plant, I have no idea what it is but it is sunken down right now.

For the pond minimeadow I did get three purple loosestrifes, one in a big pot and two in medium pots. I planted plugs among them of red campion, arnica montana, oxeye daisies, ragged robin, Solidago virgaurea, harebell (our bluebells, they are called bluebells in Norwegian) and a Cota tinctoria which had seeded itself in the big loosestrifepot.

[Tofog]

Hornwort! I was looking for oxygenator plants, I will give this a try.