Constructing Our Water Garden, page 2
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It took a few days to gather all of the materials that we needed, including a pump, a fountain head, chlorine treatment, rocks to go around the base, and a few more water plants.
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I then began to place the plants where I had learned they needed to be according to type and water depth. I had located another water garden place, and bought several more plants. Ended up with too many, but some of them will stay in the tub "holding tank" until the larger garden is ready. |
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Nearly-finished water garden. It has a water hyacinth, a yellow water lily, a purple water lily, a pot of umbrella grass and a pot of Nile grass. Around the garden is a Louisiana Purple Iris that has already bloomed, a lavender clematis vine, and several annuals. The fountain in the center is set to just "trickle" and not spray. It sounds like running water and is sooooo relaxing to sit by and listen to. We have to add more rocks and top it with flagstones, and then it will be complete. Then on to our bigger garden. |
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Sitting next to the water garden is the old wash tub which holds the extra water hyacinths. These will go into the larger garden. One thing to note: It took a few days for the plants to become acclimated to the water. The lilies and hyacinths didn't bloom for about three days, and then slowly began to open. I'll add more pictures when it is finished. |
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I have to say that I run out just to look at our water garden many times a day. Even though it is small, it is enchanting! |
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This is a picture of the finished water garden. We got the stones set correctly and placed blue-green slate on top. At the moment, the lilies aren't blooming. I may have to remove the pump since I read that water lilies like calm water. Also, the tub is too small for two lilies. |
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A more close-up view of the water garden. It looks nice, and I love to hear the fountain. I'll miss it. Oh, well... I removed the hyacenths and put them in a holding tub... they had gotten too large for the tub. |
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This is a view from the top of the Water Garden. I've removed the pump to provide calm water for the water lilies. A trip to my favorite water plant place (Plants & Things) confirms my suspicions that I need to add more ferterlizer to encourage more blooms. This garden doesn't get full sun, but our lilies should bloom anyway, he says. |
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Without a fountain to make magical, relaxing sounds, I feel lost. Eventually we will convert this small garden to a trickling fountain and keep only those plants that can handle moving water. We will put the water lilies in another garden when we get it built. Our problem is lack of much of sunshine in the back yard since we live in a heavily wooded area. October 1999 Over the summer, we had some large trees removed. The sudden sunshine on the water garden caused some initial damage, including scorching. The yellow lily never did recover and is barely alive. The purple lily seems to thrive. All of the water hyacenths died. They were really pretty, and I plan to get another one next summe. However, this tub is really too small for them. I set up another fountain that had a leak and almost lost all of the water overnight. Removed the pump and left it behind the water garden tub. A racoon chewed it to pieces one night(!). Below are some photos of how the garden grew over the summer. I've learned that water gardens require fairly constant care. Water levels must be maintained, leaves must be plucked out, and pots with tall plants that have been overturned by racoons or strong winds dump mud into the tub and make big messes. Over-all the pleasures still outweigh the pain! Now, lets see what winter brings. |
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Look at how much the plants have grown! |
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October 1999 View from the top ... compare to the one a few photos up. |
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October 1999 One of the few times I had two purple lilies at one time. After I ferterlized them, they started blooming. Bad news, though, the yellow lilies are almost gone. After I separated the pot, they never did bloom, and one lily died. I have taken the water cabbage out and put it back in. One reason I don't like it is that it makes little white specks of "trash" in the water. |
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July 2005 The entire character of our pond has changed. We enlarged it with a larger tub, and the goldfish are gone due to raccoons. Now we have frogs. The only water lilies to bloom are the yellow ones; the purple ones are now gone. The yellows have bloomed profusely. We had two adult frogs and three tiny babies, and now there is evidence of spawn on the top of the water. Eight inches of rain for two days this week probably made some of the spawn run over onto the patio, because there was just a little right at the spillover low spot. |
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