A Beginner’s Guide to Water Gardens
Table of Contents
Introduction
Growing Plants in Your Water Garden
Siting Your Pool
Formal and Informal Water Gardens
Shallow Pools or Deep Pools?
Different Types of Pools
Concrete Pools
How to Make Your Own Pond
Prefabricated Pools
Miscellaneous Containers
Polythene Sheeting
Stream Gardens
Bog Gardens
Using a Tub as a Water Garden
Planting in Containers
Winter Care of Pools
Planting Your Pools
No Organic Materials!
Growing Water Lilies
Maintenance and Care
Cleaning Your Pond
Planting Aquatic Plants
Planting Oxygenators
Best Planting Time
Livestock in Your Pool
Discolored Water
Suggested Plants for Your Pool
Conclusion
Author Bio
Publisher
Introduction
I was talking about gardening with a friend, who is an avid gardener, when we got onto the topic of water Gardens. Her immediate reaction was “how do you make a water garden in a limited space, especially in congested cities. Water gardens are only for those houses built in really wide-open spaces, and plenty of land where you can go high, wide and free, making a water garden.”
Unfortunately, that is the mindset of a number of people out there, who are under the impression that you need plenty of land in which to make a water garden. That is because the moment you say this word water garden, you visualize a huge pool, in which a number of exotic plant species float.
You may also find some Koi goldfish moving leisurely to and fro, and people appreciating that garden while walking around it leisurely of an evening.
Well, that may be all right for a hotel lobby, where no expenses are spared. However, ordinary water gardens can be made right in your back yard, in the limited space, and with a little bit of creative gardening. I told my friend that a water garden could be made in the amount of space, in which she wanted to erect a water fountain, and she blinked.
What is the fun of a small water garden was her immediate response. I replied, “Just think about it. After all, you are planting some attractive plant species which are growing in water. This is a contrast to the plants growing on land. You do not have any kids, and you do not have any pets which may find them taking a ducking in that water garden. So think about it. ”
She did. And now she has a small water garden in her backyard. It has water lilies and lotuses goldfish and even tadpoles in it. Also a Walt Disney statue of Snow white’s pal Dopey looking at his reflection in his typical dopey fashion.
The idea of water gardening is definitely not a modern concept. Since millenniums, water gardens have been a part of garden layouts. Be they the palaces of Caesar, in Greece, or a castle in Spain, or a manor in Britain or perhaps the palace of Kublai Khan, you could be certain that there would be a water garden built there, and tended carefully and lovingly by all the gardeners.
