For big city inhabitants, yard space is hard to come by. With apartment houses constructed right on the streets and a minimal amount of communal land in back of the buildings, there’s no way to plant a garden or cultivate a lot of flowers. You can, however, think small. If you have a balcony or a deck, or even a fire escape, you can build a water garden in containers which will give you the semblance of an in-ground water feature. You’ll be able to enjoy sounds of the water running and observe tiny fish swimming, grow water plants, and take advantage of the serenity that only a water garden can offer. Water garden containers give you the starting place for constructing a watery microcosm in very little space.

Locating water garden containers isn’t as difficult as selecting exactly what you’d like. A recommended capacity for a container is 15-25 gallons, and any kind of container in that size range will be okay. You will also require containers to grow your water plants in, because plants have to be grown in separate pots and then transplanted into the water-filled container. It’s better to select a container with a dark-colored interior, because the dark color will provide your pond with the look of depth. Dark interiors are also more practical in that they won’t attract algae and yet they’ll camouflage the presence of any algae that starts growing.

Your water garden optimumly will be located in a location where it will get at least six hours of sun every day. The majority of water plants don’t thrive and flower well without at least that much sunshine, even though some bog plants will grow with less sun. The plants you choose for your garden need to be varied for the best effect. Choose some with floating properties, a few submerged, and emergent species when selecting the plants you wish to incorporate into your garden. Plants serve the function of shading the water which, once again, discourages the growth of algae. When you build a new water garden, however, you must expect your water to get cloudy after a couple of weeks. Just hang in there, though, and the plants and fish will slowly but surely begin controlling the algae population, and the water will clear up.

In addition to fish, you should stick a few snails in your water garden containers. Snails are critical in eating algae, fish waste matter, and decaying organic matter. Really small fish, such as guppies, are recommended for containers that are 20 gallons or smaller; larger than that you can add a couple of goldfish. Guppies and other types of fish like that are perfect choices, because they handle changes in temperature well, and they eat those pesky mosquitoes.