As a homeowner, you should take pride in beautifying your home, both inside and out. One way to add beauty and serenity to your landscape is by installing a water garden. You can choose to have a water garden that only has aquatic plants, one that has fish, or a koi pond. No matter what type of water garden you choose, it will bring you many compliments and much joy.

If you decide that you want to decorate your water garden with aquatic plants, lilies are among the most common. There are two main types of lilies that do well in water gardens, hardy lilies, and tropical lilies. Hardy lilies come in all different colors and sizes. Hardy lilies usually start to bloom sometime in the month of May, and continue to grace your water garden with beautiful color and fragrance until about the end of September. Before purchasing your hardy lilies, it may be a good idea to check with your local garden supply to make certain that your climate can accommodate them nicely.

Like hardy lilies, tropical lilies also come in an array of color and sizes. Tropical lilies only thrive in areas where the average temperature is around seventy degrees, so keep this in consideration when choosing them for your water garden. Some tropical lilies, unlike most flowers, bloom at night instead of early morning, giving them an added interest factor.

Floating plants also make for an appealing water garden. Floating plants seemingly sit on top of the water, their roots hidden well below the water's surface. Due to the extra shade that floating plants provide, they help to greatly reduce algae in your garden pond in the summer. As with all aquatic plants, take your climate into careful consideration before purchasing.

When it comes to adding fish to your water garden, goldfish seem to be the fish of choice. They come in a wide variety of colors and types. Goldfish are also the most economical fish to add to your water garden, as they are fairly inexpensive, and live for a long time, even in colder climates. You need to decide when planning your water garden whether or not you want to include fish, as they require much deeper water to survive than do aquatic plants. It is also important to consider your climate and normal temperature ranges, so that you can purchase the right fish for your garden pond. Fish sometimes can be very fragile, and don't adapt well to sudden drops or increases in temperature or changes in their environment.

For any fish to survive in your water pond, you will need to ensure the water remains at the correct ph level, and that there is no contamination from yard debris, or runoff.

When adding your goldfish to your water garden, let them float in the bag you purchased them in on the ponds surface so that they can adjust to the water temperature. This process usually takes about half an hour. After they have had time to adjust to their surroundings, then carefully release the goldfish into the water garden.

If you have aquatic plants in your water garden along with your goldfish, then there is probably no need to give them additional food. They will live off of the plants, algae, and insects that also inhabit the water garden.

Koi ponds are also popular, but keep in mind, that koi are known to eat many types of aquatic plants, so if put koi in your water garden, you may not have anything else. You need to have a larger space to accommodate koi, because they are quite large. Koi tend to make good pets, as you can actually train them to eat straight from your hand, much as you might with a new puppy. Koi bring a taste of the exotic to any water garden. Unlike goldfish, you do need to feed your koi, as they cannot live solely from the environment. You can purchase automated feeders to install in your water garden, which will take care of your koi for you. Koi are not as fairly priced as goldfish, and can become quite expensive, depending on the particular variety you select.

Regardless of what you decide to put in your water garden, whether it is plant life, goldfish, or koi, it will definitely be a source of enjoyment for you and your family for many years to come. Not to mention that the addition of a water garden to your property greatly increases the value of your home.