Gardening in Central Ohio
~ My Pond Page
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Gardening in Central Ohio |
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Welcome to my water gardening page. |
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garden sitemap Beginning Your Pond: Some people use old carpet to underlay the pool and give it some cushion. If I put another small pool in I will try this. One thing I will not do again is be lax about the way the waterfall sits on and overflows into the bottom pool. The space I managed to engineer ( we had to replace the first waterfall -later in the story), has been leaking despite our efforts to plug it. When the adage, "Where there is a will, there is a way" was coined, I think someone was observing water ...somewhere.
water garden sites: |
Here is the story of my own pond. Once the dear husband brought home the kit, which included a formed pool, a small filter with fountain, and a waterfall section, we were excited to begin. The hard part of digging was accomplished by three grown sons along with their dad. I am thankfully unaware of how much work it was. They marked the outline and dug a generally accurate shaped hole. The bottom of the pool area was leveled and the (good) dirt piled for the ajoining waterfall. The bottom was filled with a layer of sand that was leveled, ( a regular carpenters level was used). I'm glad that they all are engineering minded. Landscaping the pondI situated the pond between two smaller gardens, so the frame was already there. The next part was to disguise the plastic. I hate plastic in the garden. I have seen beautiful pictures of formal surrounds of brick and cut stone, but I had access to some limestone rocks from Lake Erie and some limestone flags from a quarry. That suited my style, and with those I built the waterfall surround and retaining levels. The flagstone was used to surround the pond and make a landing place approach. This year, quite by accident, I added a sand level... and really liked the look it gave. A small level free of plants ( for now) ceding into the rocks lining the waterfall. I chose miniature types of plants for in between the rocks so that they would not hide the rock formations. Small thymes, and a miniature dianthus, 'Tiny Rubies'. I had a lovely gaurus, but being nominally hardy, it was lost. I highly recommend trying this plant around the pond, though. It has a light delicate presence that goes well with dragonflies and sparkling water.
Pond Visitors and DenizensThere will be another page for this subject, but for now, a paragraph will do. You will enjoy the peaceful repose of your pond, but soon the surprise of the splash of a frog or the whiz of dragonflies will appear. I added the goldfish and I do not think a small pool should be without them. Snails appeared the first year ( as well as the diminuative white flowers of something) piggybacked on some purchased plants. Cats, dogs, children, birds, and unnamed night visitors are all entranced by garden ponds. It means that carefully arranged rocks will need fishing out and re-arranging and occasionally a tipped plant or two. |
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I will add more to this page as I am able. New pages in this section will be featured in this space. |
One personal design preference I have is to use subtle garden plants in the frame of the pond. The pond, with its water, is the focus and too many gaudy border plants detract from that. I have decided to edit out ( move) some of the parts of my frame that are really not in keeping with the 'little grotto' effect of the waterfall and pool. Some I will keep just because it adds something else of value. The Oriental lily that is in an odd place adds a fragrance to the air in July. It stays. The Annabelle hydrangea is just too, TOO. It is being located elsewhere. Phlox, while bright, is a woodland type of plant, and mixes well with the Siberian iris and ferns that are expected pond edgings.