Advice for a half-barrel water garden ?

[clownbaby]

Hey! I have finally convinced my parents to allow me to have a water garden to grow my favorite native plants. It will be an outdoor water garden, under a cover to prevent the Pacific Northwest rain from flooding it for 9 months.

It will be a half-barrel, like this:

It holds about 25 gallons of water. I've gone around with aquarium silicone on all the cracks and seams, and I've covered the inside with a pond liner. It will have a small bubbler fountain, as I do want it to also serve as a partial bird bath, and birds love moving water. That being said it does not make a lot of water movement, but a very small itty bitty ripple. 

It will not have fish in it. 

Here are the plants I plan on:

• Eleocharis acicularis 
• Fontinalis antipyretica (water moss)
• Ranunculus aquatilis (water crowfoot)
• Caltha palustris (yellow marsh marigold)
• Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys (tall white bog-orchid)
• Galium trifidum (bedstraw)

I've never done something like this before... if you have any advice or tips, I would really appreciate it! Please help this poor newbie! I don't know what I am doing!!!!!!!

[mynameisnobody]

Sounds good as long as it gets some fertilizer. 

[macdaddy36]

With very little water movement like you say I would be concerned it would be a mosquito breeding convention.

You could 1. Add more surface agitation 2. Add a few fish in the summer. A good option I was thinking of could be a paradise fish or two since they wouldn’t breed out of control.
 

Depending on what plants you choose they might not be able to survive the winter because I assume the pond will be above ground meaning that it will be more exposed to cold.

Sounds like a great project!

Edited April 26 by macdaddy36

[mynameisnobody]

@macdaddy36 I live in Florida and I forgot about mosquitoes. This is an excellent point. 

[clownbaby]

On 4/25/2024 at 6:52 PM, macdaddy36 said:

With very little water movement like you say I would be concerned it would be a mosquito breeding convention.

You could 1. Add more surface agitation 2. Add a few fish in the summer. A good option I was thinking of could be a paradise fish or two since they wouldn’t breed out of control.
 

Depending on what plants you choose they might not be able to survive the winter because I assume the pond will be above ground meaning that it will be more exposed to cold.

Sounds like a great project!

I am not worried about winters here, all the plants I chose are perennials and hardy / native to my zone. Mosquitoes sound like they will be a problem - literally behind my house is a wetland I already have to deal with those suckers a lot, I do not want any more! I think I will increase surface agitation... I really do not want to add any stocking because summers are dangerously hot here (and winters dangerously freezing), meaning they'd mostly be in an aquarium... which I do not have (nor do I have the time / money to have two aquariums). Surface agitation shall do, thank you for the tip! This is a pretty easy fix, just gotta tighten some stuff with the motor of the pump. And I think this will make it more appealing to birds as well!

[Matt B]

You could put a couple of mosquito fish, Gambusia species in the pond. They are tuff little fish. No more mosquito larvae..

A basic air stone with a simple pump can get you started with water movement. What I have have found with wine barrel ponds, is that they are always evolving.  I'm constantly changing and trying new things.