Planting The Garden Pond
Controlling Growth
Fertilizers
Compost
When to Plant
Planting the Tropicals
>Planting in Shallow Water
Some water gardeners who plant in shallow water make sure of setting out roots in just the right position, and with a good supply of food for the start by binding each root with its earth ball inside a section of sad. First trim the grass close. Then cut the sad 6 to 8 inches wide, twice that long, and 5 or 6 inches thick. Make a sandwich with the two pieces of sod placed grass side out and the lily root between like a hot dog. The growing point should be barely exposed at the top. Use cloth tape to bind the sods, for string or wire quickly cuts through turf.
Wade to the planting site with the bundles of sod and roots, hold the bundles under water until they are water soaked, then set them in place and leave.
For such free and natural planting as this, use only the Marliac-type water-lilies. Forms of odorata and tuberosa turned loose on their own would soon take over the whole pond. Tropicals, of course, can be planted freely anywhere since they will not live over the winter in most places. If they do survive, then growth will not get out of hand, except, of course, in the tropics. It happens now and then in the Canal Zone and the West Indies.