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Edible Water Gardens
Edible water gardens are an efficient way of producing food. The water used, can often be less than that required for many vegetable crops.
Edible water gardens are sustainable gardens
We all strive to minimise our impacts on the environment, through the demands that we place on available water, as well as the materials and energy we use in the garden. Even on a small scale, edible water gardens can play an important role in reducing the environmental impacts of large scale commercial food production. If the room in the landscape permits, we can even create environmentally friendly gardens that support the diverse nature around us.
Edible water plants need not only be selected for the food that they produce. Why not create edible water gardens that are beautiful to look at and also produce healthy food?
Easy to grow
If you love growing your own healthy food, but have limited space, aquatic pots are just as easy to maintain as regular edible herbs. Just keep the water topped up. Many edible water plants require flooding for only part of their growth cycle and can then be left to slowly dry out ready for harvest.
Edible water gardens can be made in almost any container that can hold water. A bucket, kept in a sunny position, can produce a kilogram of water chestnuts in one growing season. If you have a little more space, you could consider an old bath tub capable of producing 30-40kg of delicious water chestnuts in a single growing season.
Edible water gardens allow us to observe our environment.
Edible water gardens can enhance your garden, not only visually, but it is a great opportunity for our children to learn. Combining the experience of growing your own healthy food, with how your water garden supports the nature around you. Birds come by to splash and drink, lizards sun themselves near the pond edges, frogs and tadpoles go through their wonderfully changing life cycles, dragonflies and other beneficial insects hover around and native fish dart around in the pond waters.
Tips
- For information on the edible aquatic plants grown at Oz Watergardens. Go to our edible aquatic plants page.