Marginals for inside the pond

Ponds and plants go together like a horse and carriage. In fact you cant have one without the other. Unless you put a complete range of plants in a pond, from the oxygenators and the deep water aquatics, up to the marginals and the floating plants, some other unwanted plant-form will fill the gap that is left, it's simple. Not enough plants then algae will fill the gap.

Not only that, if you have a wildlife pond, the wildlife that lives in it and uses it, needs the plant life to function. They have evolved in ponds with plants in. They need plants to lay eggs on, live on, climb up on, pupate on. Ask any dragonfly how important plants are to him or her! That's not just true for dragonflies, there are a miriad of insects, molluscs, amphibians and even small fish that use plants for hiding eggs, hanging onto, or for cover in their early stages of life. On top of that they provide sustenance, oxygen and even remove toxins from the water.

Without plants a pond is acutely in danger of becoming nothing more than stagnant, stinking, foetid water and poisonous to any wildlife that had the misfortune to come across it. In fact in circumstances ponds have come into existence and there are no plants, thank heaven for algae because as they arrrive by air (dessicated in the atmosphere) or washed in from the soil, as little oxygeanting plants that they are , they are often the saving grace of many a potentially stagnant pond. And if you dont like algae and you cant be bothered to keep them away with higher plants, look what you have to spend on biological filtration kits, U/V lamps and protein skimmers etc etc as in the world of koi keepers. AAAARGh!...........A bit of a rant there.

Take a deep breath and appreciate the fact that you've at least got a pond and you can take the personal pleasure of planting it out yourself. You will find a list of what should and should not be there at an article called the Perfect Pond Recipe in the articles section, to save you looking here is the link, which you may have to copy and paste: http://watergardenermagazine.com/node/649.
There is also an article on the basics of a wildlife garden, showing you a simple way to build it: http://watergardenermagazine.com/node/613.
That doesn't look like yours sounds, but that is not the important thing. The important thing is the ingredients. To be completely 'kosha' those ingredients need to be a cross section of indigenous or native plants. Now that can be a probelm in iteslf because (if you are in the UK) indigenous plants have a tendency to be rampant, so there care needs to be taken in choosing plants that are not going to take over in a season OR as the Landscaper rightly said, you are always having to divide them up because they are a nuisance. I have tried to sort out the rampant rogues from the benign pretties in the Directory of plants. At the moment there are only margianls there and not all of them have pics, but soon they will all have pictures and little symbols to 'flag up' the natives and the least rampant..... I will do an article on it soon.

RE Your irises. They may prefer to be partly in the water, depending on the species. Either way they will make their way into or out of the water as their preference takes them over the season. As for being in clay, water lilies dont mind it and indeed irises may cope (depending on the species)and as long as it stays damp.

If you are unhappy with the work the contractor has done for you, there will be some benefit in the long run in contacting APL in respect to your disatisfaction. It may not get YOU any redress, since these professional associations tend to be a bit protective of their members. But it will put a black mark against his name for the future and may prompt the executive to be a bit more vigorous in assessing potential members quality of workmanship. When I was a landscaper for 22 years, I was also a member of BALI for at least half that time - a similar association for landscapers. I certainly would not have been able to get away with any shortcomings of that sort with them.