water garden

I have an overgrown garden and mini pond and i want to clean it all up and dont know how to go about it. im thinking about pumping all the water out of it and scrubbing the walls of the pond, installing the right filters etc. dumping the water back in and cleaning it. then adding water lillies and fish. is this the right way to do it? and anything i need to know?

I was just given some water lilys and irises. I have no idea how to introduce them to an existing outside water area with decorative fish. Does anyone know if they need to be planted or can they be free floating? I only know that they are lilys and irises. Not the type or anything. The holding area the fish are in is not a pond yet. We are thinking of building one. The fish were left here. I have the plants in a bucket at the moment. Should I dump them in with the fish until I know what to do with them?
May I ask…..what is sharp sand? And if the water area is deep enough and the plants are submerged using the planters will that kill them?

i have a small flower garden in front of my house about 8 feet long and 7 feet wide. i was wondering if i could put a small water garden in it. i have tried reading some things about it on the web but everything reads like a foreign language and between that and my 2 year old bugging me every two seconds, its kind of hard to concentrate on a long article anyway. i just need to know how to get started.

I have a 1200 gal water garden and i have done a 40% water change three times in the last 30 days to rid some of the phosphate…to no avail. The levels are way too high still, no plants will grow and i only have about 15-20 fish in there. 3 largest being about 8 inches, all others are their babies and are about 3 inches long. I can’t put the phos-x media bags in my filter because i have a cannister filter that’s in the ground, no media bag will fit in there…i can’t figure where this is coming from. I have tap water that is treated when put in the garden…..anyone know what i can do or if there is a liquid product i can use to combat this? any help would be appreciated..thanks, April
It’s not possible that it would be lawn fert….don’t use any. Not possible for it to be a problem with neighbors, i live in the country……have done lots of water changes to remove fish waste etc….any other suggestions?

I have been digging a hole in my yard for a water garden that I am going to construct, but the soil is rock hard and in-organic and because of the hole’s location in between two huge trees there are thousands of roots from small grass roots to huge 6" thick or bigger roots from the trees. I’ve been using a hoe to loosen the dirt for shoveling and to cut the roots, but it’s becoming an extreme physically enduring project. Are there any other low-budget methods to get a hole dug? Remember, I need to dig a hole to match my measurements and designs for a water garden, not just a big hole.

Note: A water garden, in my case, is a small man-made pond with fish, aquatic plants, frogs, etc.