Koi and Garden Ponds

Koi are a natural addition to your garden pond, adding color and movement as well as being like pets. They will learn to eat from your hand, and follow your movement around the pond when you are near. I found our koi ponds to be incredibly peaceful and relaxing to be around - there's something about the sound of water in motion that soothes the soul!

There are several things that I learned that might be helpful if you are planning on building your own water feature and/or koi pond. First of all, koi need shade, especially in warmer climates. One common solution is water lilies; however, it's not always mentioned that your water lilies need a "cage" to protect them from the koi! Water lilies are usually placed in a container with soil or growing medium, and medium-sized gravel is placed on top of the growing medium. However, koi as small as 10" will root around in the gravel to get at new growing tips to nibble on, knocking gravel out of the pot and disturbing the soil underneath. Most suppliers of water gardening products will offer a plastic mesh that can easily be wrapped around your water lily and extend up near the surface of your pond to keep the koi from browsing on their shade. One caution here - if you have smaller fish in the pond (6" or so), they may find their way inside the mesh. They aren't likely to cause any damage to the plant, but may have trouble getting back out, and you might need to help!

Here's another solution that I found - add a pergola! These are very attractive garden structures that can have vines climbing on them, and offer broken shade - while still allowing enough sunlight to support the growth of your water lilies and other bog and water plants. They can be constructed across one end of your pond - or over the entire pond if size permits - and extend to cover a seating area where you can relax and enjoy the sound of running water, the fish in your pond, and have a bit of broken shade too!

I'll have more tips and advice in the coming days - I did just come across this resource with instructions for building your own pergola. There's a photo so you can see what a pergola actually is!
Pergola Building Plans