Water gardeners? Anyone?
Is anyone on the board a water gardener by chance- Anybody have a pond or water garden in their yards? I'm thinking of putting on in next spring in our yard, and want ideas, hints, tips, etc... Pics? 
Karen  |
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I'm about to become one, Karen. My parents have a fish pond and starting today I'm taking care of it while they're on vacation for the month of August. I went by yesterday afternoon to get my instructions. It doesn't seem like it will be too difficult. My dad is very regimental about it and it's pristine right now. I just hope I can keep it that way while they're gone! 
I'll try to take some pictures, too, so you can see what they've done. I'll let you know in a few weeks how it's going! |
My husband & I both really want one. For the area we live in, I could just see it being a nesting spot for mosquitos and water snakes though.  |
I think a water garden in our backyard would make an excellent sheepie pool  |
| Please do keep me updated on how it goeswith your folks pond- I'm interested in how easy (or not) the maintenance is...
MN is bad for mosquitos too- but if you have fish, I don't think it is an issue- Fish looove mosquito larvae (aquarium stores sell them as fish food). There are discs you can put in the water with bacterial cultures that will kill off the larvae too... Don't let them 'skeeters stop ya! Water snakes though... No water snakes in MN... scary!!!!
Saul: I'm not sure the fish would appreciate the sheepie, but that would be funny- I can just see our future oes come wading out of a pond with a lily pad on his/her head!!!!
I'm excited about this idea- as if I don't have enough projects on the new house to keep me out of (or rather get me into more) trouble! Anybody else have outdoor ponds? How about any goldfish or Koi keepers? Bueller? Bueller? Karen |
| Just designing, not living with one as I don't want my dogs to become pond pups. |
| Oh, oh! Designing is good too!!!! Any tips for good plants to go in a MN water garden? How about depths and sizes- I'd like to keep some fish in there too... I want it to be very "old fashioned" looking. I know water gardens were popular in the Victorian era- I'd imagine it'd have to be a geometrical shape to fit in a Victorian garden (the whole man controlling nature bit) What do you think?
Karen |
| Here are a few pics, the first two are of my friends pond... can you spot the oes? LOL (she's waiting for ducks to land, and she was being very very quiet)
Then there are 3 pics of my parents pond. 
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| Oh wow!!! How gorgeous!!! Your folks must be very proud! That's definite inspiration material- thanks so much for posting it!!! I love the stone border- it really gives the area almost a conservatory feel.
Which OES was that doing the duck hunting? Too funny- the kids look so delighted to get shaken on!
Karen |
| That's my friends' dog Kiara. In that pic I think my daughter was 7, and my sons butt in the corner of the pic was 5...lol... |
Yes... well... perhaps almost too much of a conservatory feel... the ducks thought so too..... LOL... and made a home of the pool, which is not far from the pond.
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| Well, no accounting for taste, I guess! Do they have fish in their pond? |
| Yes they have some fish in the pond... they were supposed to just be pond goldfish, but we suspect they are koi, or maybe part koi? They've grown too large.... there were baby fish additions last year, but none this year... not sure why. |
| There is a place up the road we went to years ago
when we designed a Japanese Garden. Its: www.paradisewatergardens.com Great ideas, nice supplier of all the water garden needs... Check on Amazon.com too  |
| Karen,
You have your choice if doing a "Victorian" garden. They were into "grottos" as much as geometrical.....in fact a bit more grotto-y. That's a new word. Victorians were facinated by nature and often tried to recreate nature in their own way. So it boils down to what you want to do. I tend to think of geometrical more with Italian and French gardens. As for plants, goodness, in a state with 10,000 lakes you need help with plant selection.
Now if you want a natural look, make sure the look makes sense. I remember my first garden; I wanted a rock garden but the man who helped me get started in this fascinating life walked all over my yard and said, "you live on the side of a mountain but this area doesn't have the heart of a rock garden." At first it didn't make sense and then I realized, each property has it's own "heart." Some things will make sense, others will not. In my case the land was too flat, no rocks were visible or was a wall needed. To build just to build doesn't make sense. Now as for Victorian: I see arbors, old roses, walks with flower beds, sitting areas......perhaps all laid out around a central feature: bird bath for small gardens, maybe a pond or such for larger. Victorians got rather garish......you don't have to
If you wanted to have that grotto......your garden would lead you down to an out of the way area where a grotto could be found. I wouldn't make it the central feature visible from the family room. |
| http://www.certifiedaquascapecontractor.com/ponds.php
nice place to start. Willowsprite: how long will that Old English Duck Decoy sit in the pond? After seeing that it is almost worth getting the neighbors with their backhoe over to dig out a hole for Simone.......she loves to paddle up and down the garden's irrigation lanes. |
| She'll sit there for a good ten minutes or so... if ducks do land she gets so excited, frozen but wiggling and such an intense look...lol... then pounces and scares them all off. LOL
Most of the time, just sits, then paddles around and promptly shakes out on the nearest person. LOL |
| Love dogs who entertain themselves......they in turn are so entertaining. |
| Hi,
I have two water features in my yard...a fishpond and a small tadpole pond which I never filled with tadpoles after all...apon hearing my friends yard one evening with the croaking noises...would drive me crazy I think. One word of warning....whatever size you decide on...build it bigger!!! LOL Seems everyone that has one wishes they had built theirs bigger. Mine is only made of prefabricated mold so not very big. In fact to have Koi you need one which is at least deeper than a few feet so they don't freeze over the winter. I just have goldfish. My pond looked beautiful for many years and I was suprised Blue never attempted to go in it as he's Blue Heeler/Lab who loves the water. Nope he followed Shaggy's lead as she only would attempt to get her feet a bit wet. Good boy he was...never attempted to get in as she would chase him away. No so with Panda who dove right in....followed by Merlin who was watching...ewww Yucky mess! My once beautiful pond complete with fountain is no more....Fountain is broken from either Merlin or Panda's dives.I purposely leave it murky now as found they won't go in it if they can't see the bottom. Also if you get the tarp kind their long nails may cut the fabric causing leaks which is why I got the prefab ones in the first place. Only thing with the prefab ones is they tend to be small. I ended up covering the pond with ugly looking mesh stuff...both of them...as Merlin would dive in and then dig a nice dirt hole...ewww imagine the mess!!! Sigh I miss my beautiful fountain and clear water where you can watch the fish. Well maybe someday.....  |
| Thanks for the warning, Marianne. I didn't even think about sheepie nails!!! Since we don't have our dog yet- it is so hard to say whether they would be a water dog, or not!
You guys are such a great help! I'm practically bursting with ideas! (doesn't help that I can't get started with anything house related except planning until we close at the end of the month!) Sheepieboss- thanks for the insight into the Victorian gardening mind. I'm really lucky to have some very old fashioned flowers in the beds already- peonies, poppies, lillies, lilacs all there (we're missing roses- never fear, they'll be coming in the spring!). The beds are a little overgrown... The middle of the back yard is just screaming for something- I think a long, rectangular water garden (maybe with that lovely stone edging) with a fountain and some underwater lights would be a lovely addition... Perhaps off of the patio I'm planning to build to replace our dangerous, rotted 70's decking. Time to break out the home/landscape software and make a trip to the library! Thanks for all the help guys!! Karen
I'm not allowed to do anything to the yard except clean up, prune, and plant 2 apple trees this autumn. But oh boy... how I love to plan!!! |
| [quote="Iriskmj"
I'm not allowed to do anything to the yard except clean up, prune, and plant 2 apple trees this autumn. But oh boy... how I love to plan!!![/quote] Make your plan, and add something every year to your garden. Thats how we approached my parents Japanese Garden years ago. They have now scaled it down, but its still beautiful. Check out Victoria magazine for great Victorian garden ideas........ Good luck!! |
| It's not just dog nails that do in the plastic and rubber lined ponds, but also duck feet. Ducks have nails believe it or not.
One material I would avoid is concrete. Ever see concrete that didn't have a crack after awhile? OK, commercial swimming pools, but there the concrete is sprayed on at a high pressure. Lady I started in landscape business had a concrete pond in back and for 20 years she's been fighting that *&%#! thing. You will want fish in your pond to control mosquitoes. Maybe not koi, but perhaps the mosquito eating fish. Also to reduce the chances of getting too much algae, much of the water surface should be covered with plant material. Once the pond balances between fish, plants, sunlight, it is pretty maintenance free. Do read about pond maintenance! Fountain would work better in the "formal" garden. |
Karen . . . . it's GOOD to plant roses in the fall . . . .
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| Bad Jil! Bad!!! As if I needed any encouragement! If hubby finds out, he'll ban me from the board I did see this gorgeous wrought iron gazebo at the garden center that is just begging for some climbing roses... Anyone wanna give me $1800.00 so I can go get it?
Bad, bad, bad! Karen |
| I found the coolest arbors at a local flea/antique market last September. This booth always has great wrought iron/steel stuff and in September they were marked down. I bought two because I couldn't decide and the price was so good (like only $100 each!) that I just bought them both. I installed one and have no idea where to put the one I really really like.
Just a thought . . . . and no, you can't have it!  |
| Flea markets! Excellent point, Jil. Lots of nurserys have big mark downs this time of year, too. Especially the smaller ones as they cannot afford to keep the inventory during the winter, nor do they have the space. Keep looking around, I'll bet you can find one for less than $1800. |
Well- I've been ruminating on my options, and it suddenly dawned on me... I have this lovely 7' long by about 3' deep brick planter on the front of the house. We were going to move it in the spring by carefully disassembling it- because we want to rebuild the front porch. Since I'm rebuilding it anyways- might as well re-christen it as a water garden!!! I'll need to buy the lining and pumps, filters, etc, but I think it'd be a nice size for a starter pond!  Yeah!!!! Maybe if I keep my eyes open, I'll be able to find a kit on sale as the season ends... Maybe that arbor will go down too! No flea markets by me, but gotta love Ebay!
Karen |
| I was over at my parent's yesterday, and Dad showed me that they have baby fish in the pond now! LOL I thought they were so cute....
They also have a beautiful yellow water lily that has bloomed now among all the pink ones. |
| what kind of baby fish? Little goldfish babies? You guys have worse winter weather than we do- do they keep the fish in there during the winter with an aerator or something? Or do they get moved inside?
I can't wait to get started on my garden- too bad I don't have a single garden tool yet |
| Actually, they just leave the fish in the pond, they freeze, and thaw out and start wiggling again in spring. LOL
The first couple of years they brought the fish inside and kept them in a huge tank... but then one year they didn't get to them in time (or maybe just decided not to bother, I don't know), froze too fast, and sure enough almost all of them survived. They were really frozen too, the pond is not deep enough for it to not freeze completely. |
| Fish will live in the unfrozen water at the bottom of the pool providing there's an oxygen hole in the ice. That's why you want a nice deep pool. Never hit a frozen pond with a hammer or mallet, the concussion will will the fish. Ask at the fish shop for more regional information.
sheepieboss |
| Thanks Sheepieboss- that's what I figured. I'll make sure to get some sort of ice warmer or aerator to keep the ice partially open in the winter. NO TAPPING ON THE GLASS....err... ICE!
Karen |
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