An outdoor pond is a beautiful feature to add to any garden. It offers a focal point for your garden planning; it drowns out noise pollution, and supplies a tranquil place to relax. However, without proper maintenance, such as controlling algae, a pond can become an unpleasant part of the garden, covered in green slime, foul smelling and a mosquito breeding ground.

Controlling algae growth naturally in a pond requires a balance between plant and animal life that must be established and maintained. If this is not done, the water will become murky, deoxygenated and smelly and any fish living in the pond will sicken and die.

The cause of murky water is algae that are microscopic plants that thrive in sunlight and feed on decaying organic materials, such as leaves, dead plants, twigs and other organic materials that may find their way into the pool. For this reason, it is important to try to keep the pool free of leaves and other foreign organic materials.

It is, of course, impossible to remove all decaying organic materials from a pool since this is a natural process that happens, but adding oxygenating plants to the pool can greatly increase the clarity of the water naturally. Oxygenating plants starve out the algae in the pool by consuming the mineral salts, produced by decaying organics, which the algae thrive on. Oxygenating plants also make shade in the pool, which diminishes sunlight entering the pool that algae need.

Most oxygenating plants, such as Elodea canadensis and Cabomba caroliniana, can be bought in bunches of unrooted clippings since the root stalks of these plants develop quickly. The unrooted clippings can be easily added to pools with soil-covered bottoms by weighting them down with sinkers, such as those used for fishing (try to use ones that are lead-free). Clippings of oxygenating plants may also be planted in soil-filled containers amongst water lilies and other shallow-water plants or the can be placed in containers of their own and submerged into the pool.

Oxygenating plants are essential in any water garden because they maintain the ecological balance of the pond. In addition to replenishing the pool with oxygen, they make shelter and spawning places for fish and, by competing with algae for sunlight and nourishment, they help keep the water clear. Using oxygenating plants is an effective way for controlling algae growth the natural way.