It is a truth universally acknowledged, among all gardeners who possess water features, that they’re not worth the trouble.
We start with the same desire: the cascade at Villa d’Este on Lake Como, the watery pavements and jets at L’Imaginaire in the Dordogne, the Fountain of the Tritons in the courtyard cafe at the Institute of Art in Chicago.
We end with the same disaster: leaking pond, jammed pump, blocked filter and a shoal of disgruntled fish and some thoroughly irritated frogs.
If you’re thinking of installing a water feature in your garden, I have two suggestions:
- Don’t.
- If you’ve set your heart on one and your life is over until you have it, keep it simple. Small is beautiful.
Here I’ve failed miserably to practise what I preach. We have no less than three ponds: two formal cement ponds with fountains near the house and a larger, informal one further away.
The formal are the easiest to manage, mainly because they were properly built and sealed in the first place.
They are shallow enough to fill or empty easily, and provided they’re kept clear of debris the filters don’t block.
If only I’d left it at that, but unfortunately in a moment of insanity I decided the garden also needed a fountain-free, natural pond as a home for fish.
I then made a fatal error.
Our garden slopes in two directions to the north corner, which is occupied by a weeping willow.
Ideally I should have set the kidney shaped pond in the natural place for run-off water to accumulate, with its curved back to the garden corner, and some way in front of the tree.
Instead, the pond lies in front of the willow but parallel to the north-eastern fence.
It has never looked quite right, though it took me a while to work out why not. I mention this in case you ever face a similar design issue.
My second mistake was to surround the pond completely with plants, large shrubs at the back, low growing irises, cannas and arums in front.
It’s preferable to leave the foreground – lawn, gravel, whatever – clear, so that you see the plants at the back reflected in the water.
The pond is also too near the willow tree and I’m forever removing leaves, twigs and branches from it.
Never put a pond near a tree (or plant a tree near a pond).
I did get a couple of things right.
I bought a proper waterproof liner guaranteed for 10 years, which after 18 years has never leaked, and I built a tiny brick bridge at the bottom as a shelter from birds for the fish.
Recently the pond has been fenced off from our grandchildren.
But the fence has now gone: hurrah, I can correct one of my mistakes: I’m removing the foreground plants and replacing them with grass.
So is it worth the trouble? Not sure.
Save the Date: Melbourne International Flower and Garden show returns to the historic Royal Exhibition Building and beautiful Carlton Gardens on March 27 to 31, 2019.
