I'm starting to (preemptively, I still need to finish the waterfall before I refill and start planting!) look around at various plants and pond plant sites. I noticed most also sell fish, snails, and tadpoles.

Once my pond is up and running, I'm trying to figure out what to plant. The deepest part of the pond is probably 2-2 1/2 feet, and then I have a shelf that's about a foot deep for marginals. I was thinking of pickeral weed, dwarf cattail (these are all going to be in containers), some floaters like water hyacinth, a water lily or two...

How much space/surface area do water lilies need? Should I get some underwater plants like anacharis?

And then for critters-- Should I get the trapdoor snails? Are frogs beneficial? Fish-- I was originally thinking of goldfish, but it sounds like they're somewhat destructive to plants? Are there better fish I should think of?

Here's a photo from last fall. I intend to have the water level go into the gravel bog area so it's saturated. The upper pool and waterfall I'm starting to work on hopefully this weekend.

{{gwi:199945}}