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Water Garden Beginnings - 1999
I've always been drawn to fountains, water lilies,
statues, babbling brooks, waterfalls, and anything associated with
water gardens.
Water gardens are wonderful! And now I have one!
They are beautiful, relaxing, soothing, and addictive
and as I later found, a lot of maintenance.
How We Got Started
We just completed our first water garden -- a very
small, free-standing garden that is located on a corner of our backyard
patio.
It all started with a weekend trip to Bay St. Louis
on June 12, 1999. On the way, we passed an interesting looking nursery.
My interest in flower gardening had been rekindled this year, and
I had been working very hard on my yard. So, when I saw this quaint
little nursery along the side of the highway, I wanted to stop and
see what kinds of plants they had. We pulled in for a look-see.
It was a really neat place called "Plants &
Things". It had plants nestled under trees, and I was intrigued by
it. As we walked inside the entrance, I spotted a small water garden.
The lady who owned the nursery came up, and I commented on how pretty
it was. She said, "If you like this one, you should see the ones we
have farther back." Needless to say, once I saw the various water
gardens and all of the beautiful plants, we knew we had to have one.
After talking to them about how easy it was to build one, we left
there with three plants (two for the water garden and one for the
flower garden) and endless excitement and enthusiasm.
I knew basically nothing about how to make a water
garden, and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; however, nothing
could stop my enthusiasm.
From the nursery, we stopped by a building supply
store where the nursery owners said we could we bought a preformed
vinyl tub form (couldn't wait to dig the hole - that will come later)
and a book on water gardens. That night, I looked on the Internet
for information on water gardens and water ponds. There is a world
of information online, as well as many photos and "how-tos". It was
fun to read about how other people constructed their water gardens
and ponds.
We must have made over a half dozen trips to various
stores to pick up things that we found we needed: a pump, a fountain
head, rocks to go around the edge to cover the tub, chlorine treatment,
more water plants, more rocks etc. Our "inexpensive" little garden
turned out to cost more than we expected, but it's worth every penny
in enjoyment.
I was hooked!
Follow the links to see what we've done and what
we've learned:
The temperature at my water garden
is:
Thank you, Dorian, for the foggy for this page.
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