Create an Edible Water Garden: Grow Delicious Aquatic Plants

Transform a simple water feature into a productive kitchen garden with an edible water garden. Many aquatic plants offer tasty leaves, roots, and seeds that enhance Asian cuisines and everyday cooking. Water fern, water spinach, and chameleon plant provide edible greens, though chameleon plant can be bitter. Lotus leaves, tuberous roots, and seeds are staples in Asian dishes. Water celery adds a mild celery flavor to soups, while water mint works like any other mint. Duck potato tubers can be harvested and roasted. Watercress, the most famous edible aquatic, requires moving water and is challenging to grow in containers.

Water chestnuts thrive in any shallow container that holds water. For pond planting, use a container with drainage holes. Harvest the corms for stir-fries or appetizers. Follow our step-by-step guide to build your own small-scale edible water garden.

What You Need

• Plastic pots or tubs
• Garden soil
• Pea gravel or pebbles
• Tubers, corms, or starter plants
• Fish emulsion fertilizer

Hardiness Zones: 4–11
Time Required: About 1 hour

Plant Options

• Chinese water chestnut
• Chameleon plant
• Duck potato
• Lotus
• Pickerel rush
• Water cherry
• Watercress
• Water fern
• Water mint
• Water spinach
• Wild rice

Instructions

1. Plant. Start water chestnuts in spring. Fill an 18-inch container (at least 6 inches deep) with 2–3 inches of soil. Space corms 1–2 inches apart, cover with 1–2 inches of soil, and firm gently. For pond placement, add a layer of pea gravel on top.

2. Water. Fill the container with water, maintaining at least 1 inch of water above the soil line. For pond or bog gardens, submerge the container so 4–6 inches of water cover the rim. Place in full sun. Fertilize every three weeks with fish emulsion.

3. Harvest. Water chestnuts mature in about six months. When foliage turns brown, lift plants, wash off soil, and remove foliage from the corms.

4. Enjoy. Peel chestnuts and use in stir-fries, or wrap in bacon and grill for a crunchy treat. Replant smaller, unpeeled corms in fresh soil for next year's harvest.