March | 2012 | Evie's Gardens

Life is good in the trailer hood!

Archive for March, 2012

Water Features in the Garden!

My daughter’s Mirandy’s last chemo session was yesterday. Three days from now I will be flying back to Oklahoma… to my little homestead in the trailer-hood where it is time to begin working in the endless gardens. Maybe some day we will have time to fish at nearby Lake Eufaula!

Every season has its end and thank God… the dreary season of cancer is behind us, and spring is springing! So are the weeds in Evie’s Gardens!

I am impatient to get my hands dirty, and excited to see how things have evolved since I have been away for over four months. And thinking that thought, I wondered how much my fish in my water garden have grown.

No, this one isn’t mine, although that would be nice. This beautiful Koi pond belongs to The Water Garden, located in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Water Garden's Koi Pond

While we do have plans to build a pond, for now I enjoy my fauna in a smaller, more humble body of water. Okay, it’s a stock tank!

Living in the country I tend to have critters to deal with in all my gardens. I always worry about wild animals like raccoons having my fish for dinner. I go to certain lengths to protect them, like using netting in the following picture.

Adding a water feature is easy to do, and makes for many enjoyable hours of entertainment! You can use a number of things to make your water garden unique such as this:

Old Water Pump Makes Great Addition to Yard!

A small container of plants or a bubbling water fountain can bring a conversational focal point to your yard. It’s fascinating to watch fish play in your water garden while aquatic plants are fun to grow. Here are some plants to grow in the shade in your water garden.

Here’s one that you can plant without a water garden! Although you can make a great glass of mint tea with it!

The crew at The Water Garden has lots of great information and products to help you with your aquatic plant care needs. They will even tell you how to plant and divide them! Check out their website out for products, plans, and advice for your water gardens!

For those of you who know me, you know, I like to eat! Many aquatic plants are used by humans as a food source. Here are some edibles that you might want to grow for your own consumption.

Wild rice
Chinese water chestnut
Indian Lotus
Water spinach
Watercress
Bulrush, reedmace, or cattail
Water-pepper
Wasabi

More on this later. Until then, check out Wikipedia for a large list of edibles that grow in water!

Water features entrance young and old alike. You can begin by simply adding a container with water plants such as these!

It’s amazing to see plants happily thriving in water, when it is so easy to over water your indoor plants. If you are on a tight budget, start small, and build your water garden slowly. Even a small one is fun, and one day, who knows, maybe yours will be the best of all!

More on water gardens later. For now, I am going to enjoy some precious time with my favorite flower in my life’s garden, my rose, Mirandy before I fly away!

Of course, take precautions with children around water, and never leave a child unattended!

Thanks to The Water Garden, Lowe’s, and the Public Domain for sharing such great information and pictures with us!