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By Ada Mae Lewis
"What"? "Me write about my water garden!" "I don't know anything about the subject really." "I'm in this organization to learn from other people." "I can't tell them anything!" was my reply to a request to write about my pond. I know a lot about plants planted in soil, or I like to think I do, but water, that's another world.
First, it almost didn't happen. About 10 years ago, I had an architect redo my kitchen and one day he said, "You know, you really ought to have a water garden out there." At that time, I did not have a fenced yard and I had a grandchild on the way. No way!
Then, a few years later, I had the yard fenced and I started to think about a pond. Every year I thought a bit more about it. Then, I added a dripper water feature in a small shade garden. I was very fond of it, but not ready for a big water garden, but I kept thinking. Every year I wrestled with it and always decided that, no, I wasn't ready for a water garden. A few years later, I added an above ground tub garden with plants. I have an old swing beside it and it is the best place to sit and read the newspaper and listen to the water. Then, a couple of years later, a woodworking friend gave me a pump water feature she'd made. Last year I decided this was stupid, that I was going to decide to do it or decide to never do it and stop this indecision!
By then I'd decided that I'd never live long enough to learn enough to build my own. I'm one of these organized people who would never think of digging and building as I went along. I want to know down to the last plant and pebble how it will look. So then the only option was to hire someone to design and build it, or forget it completely.
I don't know what really put me over the edge, but I finally decided I'd do it, but small and not too elaborate. So I contacted fellow Master Gardener and water garden designer, Jamie Beyer, and finally committed myself.
We talked about possibilities, and how to deal with my sloping lot, the neighbors overhanging tree, and edging it so it looked like it belonged with the drainage system I had that was disguised as a system of paths. We talked about what I wanted only I didn't know enough to know what I really wanted. So, he walked me through that. Then I decided maybe I did want a waterfall after all. He decided I wanted fish, and later, I knew he'd been right. Then we laid out a garden hose to mark the garden and somehow, it got bigger and bigger. Pretty soon there was a little bog garden attached to it.
By then I was really excited. We spray painted the edge of the garden, dug the sod off, and called all the utilities to come mark their location. We were really lucky because we had the pond just as close as one dares to utilities, but did not have to move a thing.
The big day finally arrived, and it must have been the hottest day of the summer! I was ready to direct where to take the excess soil not claimed by the neighbor to the new bed I was developing. I was taking photos as the work progressed, taking cold drinks to the guys digging, and being very grateful that I was just shoveling soil around in the shade while they dug in the sun. The waterfall took shape and the berm to go behind a bench built by the same woodworking friend who made the pump the year before. The berm is a great back drop for the bench, but it also directs runoff from the high end of my lot around the pond, so it will not flood during downpours.
That evening, my dogs investigated the hole thoroughly and discovered they could no longer take the shortest path after rabbits and squirrels. Although by now, one has learned to navigate the narrow stone path between the end of the pond and the little bog.
The next day holes were poked in the liner for the bog (that's a scary thing to do!), peat, soil and compost mixed to fill the bog, The pad laid in the pond, liner topping that, and rocks added so it looked like they'd been there for years. Gravel was laid on top of landscape fabric for the bench to sit on. And lots of planting pockets developed around the pond. I call them planting opportunities. Finally, something I was comfortable with! Then the breathtaking filling with water and the sound of the waterfall. It was as wonderful as I'd hoped.
Later, we added landscape lighting around one side of the pond and down the path to the arbor and the other direction to another part of the garden and some strategically placed spotlights, like on the waterfall and the boulders at the end of the berm.
I make it sound much easier than it was, but I was content to let the experts do what they know how to do and I didn't have to worry if I'd neglected some essential thing, which I would have for certain. I figure that it was cheaper to pay an expert than to pay for my mistakes. I'm glad that's the way I did it.
It was amazing. I had multiple birdbaths and the other water features, but within a few days, there were dozens of birds all day in the waterfall. Frogs moved in. Raccoon tracks were on the stones, but Jamie had designed the pond so that it was too steep for them to get a fish dinner. I've found out that just like babies and dogs, water gardens attract people. Although well concealed from the front so it does not become an attractive nuisance to children, neighbors came to see the garden. (I added another lock to the gate into the yard, so that anyone who can figure out how to open the gate, is old enough to be around water.)
The pond stayed green for a long time, longer than expected. Again, Jamie diagnosed that an abundant crop of earthworms had gone for a swim and provided an overdose of organic matter in the pond.
I can hear the waterfall at night through my second story bedroom window and it is wonderful. The last thing I do at night is look out at the pond lighted by the low-voltage landscape lighting. The first thing every morning, I look out at my pond. It's great to see the birds singing and bathing in the waterfall.
One morning, with horrible realization I could see the pond was nearly empty. I could hear the pump laboring. I raced outdoors and unplugged the pump and frantically called Jamie. Some hours later, he placed in my hand a small slice of the tubing that ran from the pump to the waterfall with a tiny puncture in it. Moles!! I'd been fighting them all summer and they were everyplace in my yard. They'd dug everyplace they could dig it seemed and finally attacked the tubing. A tiny puncture in the tubing with a pump at the other end, and a pond can be emptied overnight. Again, I was glad I could call Jamie!
My pond has gone through its first winter. All winter, the only thing I could see was the cattails above the snow. The waterfall was covered, the boulders at the end of the berm were covered, but the cattails let me know it was there waiting for spring. Now, the water is open at one end. I am very anxious to be able to get that pump going again to see the birds and frogs out there again, and to start planting the "opportunities" that were too late to plant last year. Stop by and see the pond. I cannot tell you lots of technical things about it, but I can tell you building it was one of the best decisions I ever made.