The flowers of some water lilies can be eaten raw.
You can grow aquatic herbs even if you don't have access to a pond or stream. Use a waterproof container that holds at least four gallons of water. This can be an old claw-foot bathtub, a whiskey barrel, a wading pool or a plastic bucket. Several types of herbs can be planted in your garden. Some float on the surface of the water and help reduce algal growth. Some grow underwater where they also help control algae and add oxygen to the water. Which herbs you choose will depend partly on whether you're growing them in a large pond or in a small bucket. Does this Spark an idea?
Cattails
Cattails are tall plants with leaves that look like large blades of grass and brown flowers that form cylinders at the top of the plant. They can be grown in submerged containers, or at the edge of a pond, and are so easy to grow that they can become invasive. Several parts of the cattail are edible, including tender parts of the stalk, the roots, flower heads and even the pollen, which is added to pancake recipes. Pick the shoots when the leaves are three feet or less above the water.
Chocolate Mint
Chocolate mint is a fast-growing herb that produces small purplish flowers and the delicious scent of chocolate when its leaves are rubbed. Replant young chocolate mint sprouts by tucking them into rocks along the edge of your pond or stream. Clipping off the stems of older plants, and placing them in water so that the bottom two inches are submerged, will ensure that they quickly take root.
Watercress
Watercress prefers growing in fast-moving, shallow streams, but it can also be grown next to a small pool or in buckets that contain at least two or three inches of water so the roots remain submerged. Change the water every week. Plants will also root quickly if stem cuttings are placed in rich, wet soil like that found next to a creek. Watercress has a peppery taste that is good in salads. The best flavor occurs before the plant blooms.
Water Lily
Fragrant water lilies are aquatic herbs with round, flat leaves and large white or pink flowers that float on the water. Young flowers can be eaten raw, and the leaves and buds are also edible when cooked. Fragrant water lilies resemble the tuberous water lily, which is poisonous. Tuberous water lilies have thick tuber-like roots and hardly any scent, unlike the fragrant water lily which has an extremely sweet scent.
Other
Grow four-leaf water clovers in a shallow pool or on the edge of your pond. This small herb is used in Thai cooking and has a tart taste. Water spinach can be grown in submerged pots, although the variety known as white stem water spinach is often grown in flooded fields, like rice. Bitter leaf is a fast-growing herb that can be grown in pots that are partially or totally submerged. Bloody dock is an herb that produces small star-shaped flowers with reddish-purple seed heads and edible leaves. It grows well in boggy soil or in rain gardens.
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