The water garden supports not only the submerged and floating plants in the pool, but also a great variety of land plants which thrive around the border. Iris alone presents the pool owner with a choice of many varied colors and forms.

Many tall sedges and rushes (as described in Chapter 12) arc spreaders, but need not be ruled out as a means of beautifying a farm pond. Indeed, it would be a pity to overlook some of the spectacular effects they can provide. Some of these will spread only along the edge of the pond, where they can easily be controlled by cutting. Others will move only into the very shallow water along the shore. All can be kept under close control, if you wish, by planting in containers.

If you are to have a productive pond for fish or plants or both, you must use fertilizer. Fertilizer, in addition to feeding major plants, also supports the growth of algae and other suspended growths. These, in turn, support a variety of minute animal life, on which fish feed.

A commercial mineral fertilizer is much to be preferred to manure, blood meal, or other organic fertilizer, which encourage the development of unsightly scum. For the best fertilizer for your pond, seek advice from your local Soil Conservation representative. It will depend on what you want to grow, what section of the country you live in, and various other factors.

At Three Springs Fisheries, we satisfactorily support both plant and fish in our ponds with a 10 (nitrogen)-10 (superphosphate)-l0 (potash) mixture, using 1,000 pounds to the acre. When we have drained a pond for cleaning or repair, we broadcast this fertilizer directly on the pond floor and then work it into the soil before refilling the pond.

Fertilizer can also be broadcast on the surface of the water from a rowboat. This is best done, of course, at a time when the runoff is not heavy enough to carry away most of the nourishment you have scattered.

If you want to add goldfish to a farm pond for decorative effect, you must stock heavily so there will be enough of them to see, also enough to reproduce fast enough to replace the hundreds of small fish lost through the spillways after every rainstorm heavy enough to cause a runoff.

Goldfish, in the freedom of large, seminatural ponds, often grow to the length of a foot or more. They can be attracted close enough to the shore line to be seen and enjoyed by establishing a few of the prettier spots as feeding locations.

The pond owner will have to make up his mind, however, whether he wants goldfish or game fish, for the goldfish are soon devoured if the two are put in together.