If you want to create a garden pond, you should plan well in advance. Because the better the prior knowledge, the greater and longer-lasting the subsequent enjoyment of your own water point. A very important thing for a functioning pond biology are the different pond zones.
In the garden pond, there are different pond zones that are planted differently
Why pond zones?
For a classic garden pond, you don't just haphazardly dig a hollow and fill it with water. After all, it is a standing body of water that should decorate the garden and also enrich it in terms of biodiversity - so it is important to prevent it from turning into a lifeless and dirty pond in good time.
A pond with different depth zones offers more plants and animals a suitable habitat and ideally automatically creates a balanced, healthy water environment. In addition, you can cultivate appropriate plants in the defined zones and thus get a versatile, decorative overall picture.
The classic pond zones are as follows:
1. Shore zone
2. swamp zone
3. Shallow water zone
4. Deep water zone
riparian zone
The riparian zone is the edge zone of the pond that is not permanently covered with water but is nevertheless moist. It frames the pond and also forms the access zone to the water. Robust grasses such as Chinese reed, bamboo or pampas grass are particularly suitable for planting in the riparian zone. On the one hand, they set an attractive optical frame accent and, on the other hand, they also serve as a natural attachment. They also provide shelter for small animals.
swamp zone
This means the outermost ring of the body of water, which is no deeper than 20 cm. When digging, you should make sure that the swamp zone does not take up more than a third of the total surface of the pond. In the swamp zone, swamp plants such as sweet flag, floating pondweed or frog's spoon feel at home. The floating fern is also a decorative representative for this zone.
shallow water zone
The next inner pond zone is the shallow water zone, the depth of which should be between 20 and 60 cm. The shallow water zone is very important both for the later optical appearance of the pond and for the water biology. Many pond plants can grow here, which have a cleaning effect by absorbing nutrients from the soil and water. They take away the nutritional basis of algae and at the same time enrich the soil and water with oxygen, which also prevents rot.
Water mint or fir fronds are ideal shallow water plants.
deep water zone
The deepest middle zone, which is also relevant for fish, can be about 60 to 120 cm deep. Here you can, for example, plant water lilies.