Advice on plants in pond with sloping walls and smallish shelves

[anuenlil]

Dear all,
I am a newbie from Belgium whose weekend house in the Hautes Fagnes (outlier of the German Eifel range) came with an unkempt small pond (I walked over the roots first time I visited the garden) which I managed to clear out, reline with suitable foils, and have been trying to get up and running. I attach some recent pictures FYI. As you can notice, it has a small potential filter area which I lined with some soil and lava stones, and where I planted some Calamus my father-in-law donated. The water lillies and oxygenating plants I added also seem to be doing ok. My question, however, concerns the other edges. One shelf is suitable for plant baskets (right hand side), the other two are not (too small, water depth limited to c. 2 inches). I knew nothing of ponds when I relined it and am therefore not inclined to redesign the shelves. As an alternative solution, I bought three Oase Overgrowing Plant Bags in which I planted some ten plants each last week (trying to respect suitable depth/zone instructions for the plants), and which I draped over the edges.

My question is two-fold:
(1) I am a bit afraid that the plant bags are not good long-term solutions and that insufficient water circulation through the mesh will actually make the plant roots rot, especially if I overstuffed the bags with soil. How realistic is this fear?
(2) What would be a good alternative solution to get more plants around the edges of the pond? I have been thinking of making DIY plant socks but there too, I am afraid these wont' allow for the necessary water circulation around the roots?

Any advice you might give would be deeply appreciated. Much to my surprise, I find restoring and starting up a pond extremely satisfying but the learning curve is steep-ish.

Many thanks in advance,
Steven

 

[j.w]

@anuenlil
I don't use plant bags but some do here. I put plants in pots of 100% kitty litter w/no additives. You can set plants in the center area on upside down plastic containers to raise the pots up also. You can also grow plants along the outside edge of your pond that like to creep into your pond and over the side into the water.

Creeping Jenny w/little yellow blooms:

Sedge plants you can tuck between rocks w/roots in water or soil:

Sweet Flag in a pot sitting on the pond shelf or you could set it on the floor of your pond on top of an upside down pot or milk crate. It can get huge tho and if it gets too big you will have to drag it out and divide it or it will break the pot open:

There are also a lot of plants that can either just float around or be stuck in very shallow water in shallow planters that will sprawl across the top of the water:
Parrots Feather planted in a big deep pot, but can be planted in shallow pots or just thrown in the pond freely:
In a large deep pot:

Tucked in between rocks around edge w/root in water:

Water Hawthorne in a shallow pot, it blooms (small white blooms) when it's cool outside and stops when the hot weather comes:

Lots of underwater plants too that you can throw in or plant:
Hornwort, not my photo, taken of the internet:

Anacharis can just be thrown in the pond:

So many others too numerous to mention!
My pond:

Lots of plants to plant in the soil around your pond edge will grow over your rocks and spread around the outside edge also:
Creeping Thyme:

Even Daisies:

Blue Eyed Grass (tiny flowers:

Hen and Chicks:

Pansy's:

Rock Cress:

Sea Thrift:

Sedums:
So many different kinds to choose that are low growing:

Sedum above Creeping Thyme:

Yellow colored, not sure of correct name:

Sorry I went overboard on posting lots of plants!
What it comes down to is you can plant so many types of plants around the outer edge that will grow in sun, shade or whatever your temp zones will allow.