A Pond in a Pot? Why Not?

Water features are always a great, fun asset to the outdoors.  They add to a natural setting, attract birds & frogs and provide a cool respite for both you and your garden visitors.  Add a small fountain and you can also enjoy the sound of moving water.

Features can range from great productions with pond liner, and 'cultured stone' to the simple 'pond in a pot'--an endeavor anyone can undertake, and that can adorn the apartment porch to an accent on a large deck.  They can be placed in sun or in shade alike.  They can house koi or common goldfish.  The sky really is the limit.

The container:
Your imagination has no limits.  Ceramic pots should be carefully selected for their ability to withstand the range of temperatures an outdoor, water-bearing container can experience; but your local home improvement; home & garden stores should have a variety of pots to suit your need.  Ceramic pots have drainage holes, which can be easily plugged with silicone (or even melted wax, someone has told me).  You can also find fiberglass and plastic pots which are very attractive, and they usually come with a plug already installed on the bottom (the one pictured below is a fiberglass pot). I've seen people use the large livestock drinking tubs (where there's plenty of space for koi), and even a used toilet.

The plants:
Floating water lettuce and water hyacinth are pretty common, as well as parrot's feather and water lilies. You can find some water-cannas, and dwarf papyrus plants as well as some gorgeous lotus plants.  You're best option is to find a local garden or pond shop--the big box stores don't usually have a very large selection--but always look--you would be surprised sometimes.  Some plants grow at various depths, so you want to make sure that when you're setting up your pot, you keep the depths of the plants in mind, and use bricks or other materials to stage them properly.

Free-floating oxygenators, like Hyacinth and parrot's feather will grow like crazy, so you'll have to 'cull' them occasionally.  Lettuce will also multiply but it's a lot slower about it--and the leaves can look trashy when they go brown. Some plants you buy might bring you a duckweed problem, but that can be easily managed with an occasional scooping out.  The advantage of having dense surface floating plants is that they will not only oxygenate the water, but they also prevent algae from growing by blocking sunlight.

The occupants:
Stagnant water can attract undesirable creatures--namely our friend the mosquito.  You can populate your pond, depending on its size, with koi or goldfish to help remedy this problem.  Koi are expensive, and grow to a fairly large size, so be sure that if you're going to have Koi, that they have space to grow.  Goldfish will grow to to the size of the pot as well; it is recommended that you house 1 fish per 10 gallons of water, but you can stretch that a bit with little goldfish as long as you're willing to supplement their diet of bugs with food flakes occasionally.  At your local petco, the standard feeder goldfish goes for a whopping 12¢ -- so be kind and rescue one or two and give them a good, happy life. They will weather your cold days and survive surface freezings; as long as you break the ice so gases can be realeased from the water.  They (Koi or goldfish alike) will do much better in aerated water, so if you don't want a fountain in your pond-in-a-pot, we do recommend you add an air stone at the bottom just to keep your fish happy and healthy.  Oxygenating floating plants are also useful for this purpose.

We do not recommend snails for your pond in a pot. Snails multiply incredibly fast, eat your plants if the container is too small to sustain the population, and will pollute the pot very quickly--they are better suited for larger 'ecosystems'.  If you have an algae problem, you can obtain algaecides that are safe for your fish at your local pond stores or on various websites (and ebay... hello).  You can also prevent algaes from growing by putting lots of surface floating plants in your feature to block the sunlight that causes algae to grow.

If you don't want fish at all, then just get a Mosquito "dunk" to fend off the buzzing menace from breeding in your pot.

The embellishments: 
You can obtain a small water pump for about $14-$18. You can get them on ebay, find them at pond-shops or even your local Pet-Smart has pumps in the pond section (yes, they have a pond section).  These are low gpm (60-100 gmp) pumps that don't move tons of water, but just enough to make your water feature trickle pleasantly.  In a small container, you don't want splashy, noisy, heavy pumps.  They can be retrofitted to make a fountain out of many things.  Use a wall-plaque of a gargoyle or something to 'spit' water into the pot--an old water-pump--a faucet setup, whatever you want!

If you're enterprising and efficient, you can integrate your pump into the pot before you fill it up--making discreet holes for your power cord, etc--using silicone to be avoid leakage.  It's a short project and doesn't have to be super complicated.  In the picture below, it was only a matter of drilling a hole in a store-bought tea-pot, and then running a flexible hose from the small 75gpm pump to the pot, sealing the connection with silicone.  The pot is hung from a wall-hook and the papyrus plant hides the flexible tube.  You can be more elaborate and add copper or brass fittings that will develop a lovely patina-- you can make it as sophisticated as you like.  There are also a number of really simple but very cool bamboo spout kits you can make or buy; including the 'deer chaser', that uses water to make 'mechanical' movements and noises.

Pond fountains will also discourage mosquitos from breeding in the water--they don't like moving water very much.

The assembly:
Place your pot where you want it, assemble, fill with water--it's as simple as that.  You can use bricks to stage your plants, or if you want more room for your fish to swim, you can create a shelf from a wire rack or plastic basket upon which you can lay rocks and other natural items to disguise it; be sure to leave spaces for the fish to get down into the little cave below. 

The maintenance:
You need only top-off the pot occasionally when evaporation takes hold.  Some plants might need some fertilizing; read the directions on your water-plants carefully when 'planting'.  Every few months, it is recommended that you change out a quarter of the water with fresh, and at least once a year, give the pot a thorough 100% cleaning and scrubbing (no detergents).  Algae can be controlled with critters (fish; plants, etc) or with over-the-counter solutions.. it's entirely your choice.  Other than that, your pond requires little maintenance.  It's the perfect, delicate accent to any garden, large or small.

You will be very proud of the end-product--and I'm certain you will enjoy it for a long time.  If you're anything like me, you'll probably name your 12¢ fish; and spend a lot of time fussing with it because it's so alive, soothing and beautiful.  You'll get a lot of satisfaction just watching your water-lilies put out leaf after leaf, and then bloom so magnificently.