Wildlife Pond Plants London: Boost Biodiversity in Your Garden

Worried About Planting Your Wildlife Pond? Let's Get it Right!

Ever wondered if you have enough plants to encourage a wealth of wildlife in your pond? Or perhaps you're concerned about having too much and potentially limiting different habitats? In this article, we'll briefly explore the basics of planting a wildlife pond that will attract as many different forms of life to your London garden as possible.

The 3 Essential Plant Types for a Biodiverse Outdoor Pond

When setting up a wildlife pond, including these three types of planting will maximise biodiversity:

• Marginal Plants:These are your classic bog dwellers, happy either partially or fully submerged. Often placed on shelves around the pond, their stems sit above the water, or they grow from outside directly into it. They're fantastic for shelter.
• Floating Plants: Think water lettuce – these plants sit right on the surface, drawing nutrients from the water with their long roots and usually multiplying readily. While water hyacinths were popular, they're no longer available in the UK. Be aware that duckweed, while a floater, can become a bit of a takeover artist if you're not careful!
• Submerged Plants: For simplicity, we're grouping anything that grows fully underwater towards the surface here. This includes beautiful water lilies, elegant aponogetons, and various types of "pond weed." They all typically root in the soil or substrate. While "pond weeds" could be their own thing, "submerged" gives a good initial picture of their role beneath the surface.

Which Plants Should You Choose for Your London Wildlife Pond?

Ideally, no matter the size of your wildlife pond, you want a mix of all three. Submerged plants create vital hiding spots for creatures like tadpoles. This could be the broad leaves of a lily if your pond gets plenty of light, or a "pond weed" like elodea densa if it's shadier. Personally, for smaller wildlife ponds, I love pygmy lilies – they're beautiful and their pads can help keep algae at bay (Perry's Baby Red is a favourite!). For larger ponds aiming for a native British feel, allowing Aponogetonton spread with its stunning white, jasmine-scented flowers can be incredible. All pond weeds offer benefits, as long as you keep them in check. Choosing slower-growing types like ranunculus can help reduce the risk of them outcompeting other plants.

Floating plants are brilliant for reducing nitrates in the water – most grow fast and are excellent at absorbing nutrients. However, things like duckweed  can become a real pain if you don't regularly scoop it out, so maybe avoid introducing it if you prefer a more hands-off approach to your London pond. Stick to plants like water lettuce, which are slower-growing and seasonal, to fulfil this planting need. They offer many species a safe haven from birds and other predators during the summer months. Just remember they'll die off in winter and need to be removed before they sink and potentially cause pollution.

Marginal plants should really make up the bulk of your planting. In my opinion, you can never have "too many" different species as long as you're prepared to trim them back and stop them from growing too far into the pond itself. Marginals aren't just beautiful, coming in a huge range of shapes and colours; they also provide shelter for all sorts of wildlife. In smaller London ponds, you might find frogs hiding amongst things like hottonia, caltha, mimulus, bullrush, or iris patches. Just make sure to stick to non-bullish species like yellow flag iris in smaller ponds, as they can quickly become overgrown, and perhaps choose their smaller cousins like purple or blue iris instead.

Ready to Plant? Come Visit Pond Life Aquatics in Finchley Nurseries Garden Centre, London!

So, where do you start? The best place is to visit your local aquatics center and see what's available. Don't get too caught up trying to find the absolute "perfect" mix of plants – it doesn't exist! Take some measurements of your pond, and the experts at your local center should be able to point you in the right direction. Here at Pond Life Aquatics, located at Finchley Nurseries Garden Centre (NW7 1AS) in London, we always have a fantastic selection of aquatic plants throughout the spring and summer months, perfect for creating a biodiverse wildlife pond in your London garden. We'd love to help you choose the best options and even offer setup advice. 

I hope this article has helped shed some light on which plants can help increase biodiversity in your home wildlife ponds. If you have any questions specific to your wildlife garden pond, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us here at Pond Life Aquatics!

Harris Bard

Company Director

Pond Life Aquatics @ Finchley Nurseries Garden Centre