Saturday, June 21, 2008

Aquatic gardening

We have been busy putting a pond in the back yard, but now it's all done and it's time to sit back and enjoy the show!


Water gardening is new to me, and it took some getting used to, to wash the soil from the roots and plant the aquatic plants right in the water.


The plants need a bed of gravel for the roots to rest on, then we placed larger rocks around the plants to keep them in place, and gave each plant a fertilizer stick for nutrition.


The reflection in the water is that of the banana tree on the right, and the bamboo tree on the left.


The view from the deck


And from the upper deck off the kitchen


St Anthony stands guard in front of the banana tree, overlooking the pond.


The overall shape of the pond.


It takes about two years for the pond and plants to mature and look natural, but this is a beautiful start! The fish went in today, and if the herons and raccoons don't get them, they will provide an interesting element to the pond. I think it will be a wonderful and peaceful place to pray the rosary.

13 comments:

Tom in Vegas said...

What a GORGEOUS garden!! You did a magnificent job here, PG, and it looks like you put plenty of elbow grease to get it done.

BTW, I love the St. Anthony figure and the fence that surrounds the yard! It goes beautifully with everything else.

Don't forget to invite me over for the first barbeque ;0) LOL!

Michele said...

don't forget to feed the fishies:)

Paul said...

Very nice!

Our neighbors back in the Baltimore area had an aquatic garden that they could almost swim in; it was about three feet deep.

Our current neighbor has a garden of his own, and it occasionally attracts a stray bullfrog.

Shirley said...

Looks beautiful, you'd better give your husband a big hug!

ignorant redneck said...

Is St. Athony preaching to the fish?

Kevin Whiteman said...

You are THE MAN!! Well, not really a man, more of the slang defintion of "the man", but what I mean by that is "the man" really means....

Oh hell. Maybe I should just shut the hell up and say GREAT JOB!!

Michael Leggett said...

Fabulous!

A Contemplative Catholic Garden;

Pax Vobis, Georgia!

Paul Nichols said...

Looks like a great place to do some Heretic Dunking!

Therese said...

Great garden. We have a pond out the front of our house. It isn't as big or fancy as yours but we have got lots of goldfish in it. We bought 5 and they have really multiplied. Steve has also planted some Sturt Dessert Peas. They are a native Australian flower. I will have to take photos and put them on my blog.

paramedicgirl said...

Therese, I would love to see photos of your native Australian flowers!

Therese said...

I will take photos today. It is a bit dark out there at the moment (only just gone 6am here) and put them up tonight. The garden looks great. Everyone comments on it.

Mark said...

Banana tree, in BC?

Nice pond! In my old life I built several; pool sand filters work quite well on a big pond if you want it to stay clear without chemical assistance; looks like maybe you have done something like that?

Adrienne said...

That was no mean feat!! Rocks all the way to the bottom. It is beautiful!

We're so lazy we are agonizing over putting in a $99.00 fountain behind our deck. Plug in and fill with water even seems a bit much......