Garden Ponds are a great way to enjoy your California backyard

Stocking The Pond STOCKING THE POND In the course of time Nature will take the pond in hand itself and in doing so will elevate it to a thing of beauty or it will reduce it to an unsightly puddle. The course taken by Dame Nature will depend largely on the way the pond has been designed and stocked in the first instance.

Plants are of the first importance in the scheme of things and there is a great variety from which to choose. They fall naturally into four main groups : floating plants such as the water lilies, frogbit, duckweeds, etc. ; submerged oxygenating plants, to which fall the task of augmenting the oxygen supply and providing shelter for fish fry and other small organisms ; plants that root in the water but have their foliage and flowers standing well above the surface-Reed Mace, Flags, King Cups, Water Mint and so forth ; finally, plants such as several of the Sagittarias and the Water Lobelia, that have their leaves submerged and their flowers standing above the water.

The pond keeper should endeavour to have representatives of all four groups in his pool. A water lily is of paramount importance ; it is highly decorative, has a slight oxygenating value and is extremely useful in providing shade for the fishes. Fishes, it is true, like to bask in the warm rays of the sun, but there comes a time when the glare is too much- it must be remembered that a fish has no eyelids. Moreover, without the protection of the large lily leaves the water may become unduly warm, and thus give rise to a variety of ailments among the fish.

Frogbit and, in particular, duckweed form a valuable tonic addition to the fishes' diet, besides having certain oxygenating qualities. In the ordinary way the surface of the pond will absorb oxygen from the air-for this reason the surface area should be in far greater proportion than the depth; water at the bottom of a deep pool contains a low percentage of oxygen, not at all sufficient for the needs of the fishes. A fish that is doomed to exist in a tiny bowl of water or in a deep, dark water-butt soon absorbs all the available oxygen ; the result is the same as though a number of human beings were confined in an airtight compartment.

A few fishes could live in a pool devoid of vegetation, but the average aquarist usually taxes the capacity to its limit, consequently extra oxygen is required. This may be effected by artificial means-fountains and so forth- or plants may be brought into service.