Planting Marginal Plants

Marginal plants like to be in shallow water. Different plants will thrive at different depths and for each plant a range of depths might be suitable. Check the label before you buy as these usually have a guide to planting depths. These depths are a guide only and don’t need to be followed absolutely; you can often plant at a shallower depth than the recommended but planting deeper tends to causes problems.

Plants that like water more than 2’ deep are not called marginals but are either floating plants or deep water plants.

If you have a 12” deep shelf and want a plant that likes 18” of water just try it, it should do fine. If you want a plant that only likes 6” of water on the same shelf then use a bigger planting basket that has more height. This will bring the top of the basket (and the base of the plant) closer to the surface of the pond and its ideal depth. Alternatively you could just raise the pot on a brick or rock or even upend an empty basket and wire it to the bottom of your planting basket for the same effect.

Plants should be chosen based on the depth at which they will be planted and the height that they will eventually achieve. You should consider putting tall plants at the far edge of the pond as these will make an effective backdrop but without hiding your newly created pond from view.

For the front edge of the pond, choose plants that won’t grow too tall but will stand the planting depth of your first shelf. If you want to use a plant that needs shallower water than you have then just plant it into a taller basket.

Check out our pond planting section for everything you'll need to get started.

Now that you know about marginal plants, why not have a look at one of our other guides:
General Planting
Deep Water Plants
Floating Plants
Oxygenating Plants
Invasive Species

Or click here to see the full list of guides