THE STOCK TANK POND

Wander to the back of my vegetable garden and you'll find a 4X2' stock tank water garden tucked in behind the potting shed wall.

 We added it a few years ago to fill in an empty spot that was an awkward shape. It had become a weeding nightmare and covering that extra area meant less weeding. It did not mean less work! Beautiful as a pond may be it does involve some maintenance but the rewards are high. This week I had 5 of the 'Colorado' water lilies open at the same time. Later the dwarf yellow Nymphaea Pygmaea Helvola ' opened its first bud. This water lily is more hardy and can be wintered over quite easily in freeze areas as long as the water doesn't freeze to the bottom the pond. I remember reading a long time ago that exotic water lilies will be up on stalks and hardy native ones will be floating on the water. I wonder if this is true?

Both these water lilies were divisions from my friend Pam Penick who gardens at Digging and who has an 8' stock tank garden. In the summer the Colorado water lily can quickly cover the surface of the pond. You need that to keep down the algae bloom.
To add a little height I added a couple of native limestone rocks, on which sit a ceramic frog. Today I noticed that a seed from the dwarf papyrus had settled in one of the depressions in the rock.

I have a couple of plants growing in floating islands, A variegated Japanese sedge and a dwarf papyrus. Directions on how I made these floating islands can be found here. Regrettably my lovely fish fountain succumbed to the two nights of 18° temperatures this winter. The water continued to flow which at least kept the ice from completely freezing over but caused the concrete to spall and eventually break apart. So sad to see it go. It has been replaced by a small bubbling fountain.

Those water lilies were down at the bottom of the pond during this freeze period so they survived to bring me joy again this summer. The papyrus and sedge in large buckets in the greenhouse.

DO YOU WANT TO MAKE A FLOATING PLANTER FOR YOUR POND?

Last year, at my local nursery, they had some floating islands in their water garden. What a great idea. They were made out of some kind of dense black material with a hole in the center in which you could put a pot. The price tag was enough to get me thinking about how I could replicate something like this at little or no cost. Scouting around in the garage I came across the perfect materials and in no time I had three of them floating on the water. If you re at all interested directions on how I made them follow.

They are ideally suited to plants which like to be submerged in the water. I have two stock tank ponds, one which enjoys full sun and one in a more shady location. In the smaller of the two tanks I have golden variegated Japanese sweet flag, Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' and Horsetail, Equesetum sp. both in floating planters.

There are several advantages to having these floating islands.They make for a much tidier appearance than plant pots standing on bricks and they provide a perfect resting spot for wildlife. What frog doesn't like to float around the pool on his personal raft.

So what did I use and how did I put it together? Firstly I cut some circles out of this solid insulation foam cutting an inner circle the diameter of the pot I wanted to use.I happened to pick up a sheet of this at a garage sale. I knew it would come in handy one day!

My plan was to cover them with the heavy material used to cover the silt fencing. We happened to have some of that from when we built the house and it was a matter of removing it from the wire. I cut a circle of the material enough to fold right over the foam. I then pinned and stapled it down. It is not a permanent solution but it has held up well and means that if I need to redo the material it is easy enough to pull out.

I cut slits in the material and removed a lot of the excess so that there wasn't too much bulk.

Then slipped the pot into the hole pinning down the material. All ready to plant.

Any lightweight foam would do and there are probably a number of options for cover material. Black seems to work best with the dark water surface.
These plants will never be high and dry if the water level falls.

TAKE A WALK OUTSIDE, PART 1

If you have been to my garden you know that the house is completely surrounded by walls creating smaller gardens within. Outside we have 2 acres of juniper, oaks, persimmons, retama, agarita, growing on dry, dusty thin limestone soils. Around the house itself we have created garden areas which we think tie the land to the house. So I have two vastly different areas in which to garden.

This was the one area we employed someone to move the rocks, which form the dry creek, into position. I then dug down and added river rock to create the wet-weather creek running though this area. I have introduced agaves into the mix, for structure,  and anything that will grow without irrigation. These include the dwarf yaupon, Texas lantana,wax myrtle, rosemary, yucca, copper canyon daisy and Mexican feather grass. It is a sea of bluebonnets out here in the spring.

The dry creek runs all the way across the front directing water from our infrequent, heavy, Texas downpours. Plants seem happy to seed in the area but the soil is poor and dry and few attain any height. That is, all except for the A. weberi which are the most successful along with the zexmenia and the fall flowering Lindheimer senna.

The creek eventually passes in front of the garage where a pipe feeds any water underneath the driveway and into the real wet weather creek at the bottom of the property. There is little color out here during the summer but another explosion of yellow from the Copper canyon daisies, goldeneye and senna during the fall. A. Weberii is prodigious pup maker and the large ones came as young offsets from my neighbor. I now have plenty of my own to share.

Looking back towards the front entrance gate two turquoise pots hold Agave demettiana 'variegata' It is not hardy in our winters but it is worth putting in the garage for the winter. The original plantings of two sago palm are now in the ground. The one in the photo went unprotected this winter and all the leaves turned brown. The other, much smaller plant,  I was about to pull it, thinking it was dead, when I spotted some changes in the center core. It now has a small crown of green leaves. These plants have survived since the age of the dinosaurs which is a testament to their power to live through difficult conditions.

Beyond the garage we have a side entry. In England this would be referred to as the tradesman's entrance. A door by which the milk would be left or if someone was doing a job he would use this door if he wanted to contact the owner of the house. We use it quite differently. We invite our guests who come to visit the garden to enter this way. It is more convenient for a group to meet on the driveway under the large live oak tree before entering. Plus, the flow for a tour of the garden tour begins here and leaves by the front gate to pass around the outside wall into the other enclosed gardens.

Many of my potted cactus and succulents spend the summer here in the shade of the live oak tree.

Looking back from the platform you can see the large stones which David used to create steps down from the driveway. It was not an easy task deciding how to marry the rounded edge of the driveway to the native area. In the end we decided on the ledge stones. They all came out of the ground on our lot. Our personal quarry!

For a while we thought we would make this area into a Japanese garden, but it was never to become one. This summer I have spent a little time working to improve the area. I added this wooden pot found at a garage sale. A new stock tank pond is contained within a raised bed with some home-made floating islands. I am trying to get silver ponyfoot established around the tank. It is a difficult spot being in the shade until the brutal mid-day sun peaks over the roof-top and shines full on the tank. I am thinking I may need to add some plants on the backside to give shade to the tank.

If you enjoyed taking this walk with me then check back for next time when we'll continue a walk around the house to the back and far side.

WEEKEND PROJECT

I'm always coming up with a lot of gardening project ideas. How many get done? Not many. I am much better at dreaming of them than acting upon them. Last week at our local water garden nursery, I saw these floating islands. The one I saw was $30 to buy unplanted and $60 planted with 5 small water plants. It was attractive I have to admit but after discovering that price tag I began to think of how I might do one for myself.

What could I substitute for that thick piece of black foam? I still have some of the blue foam board I used to frame the hypertufa troughs and some black silt fabric from when we built the house. But, like I said, I thought it out but didn't do it. Then when David came back from his fishing trip I told him about it. Guess who got the project started? Today he cut the foam into a circle and made a hole to fit the pot, in the center. I sewed a pocket all around the edge of the circular piece of black silt fabric and threaded some cord though. Placing the fabric over the top of the foam I pulled tight and tied the cord. Then it was a simple matter to cut out some of the fabric from the center hole and add the pot. The plant is Golden Variegated Japanese Sweet Flag, Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' It is floating happily on the new stock-tank pond in the side entry garden and its waiting for some more floating islands to come by. I hope this works because it is so much nicer than piling up bricks on which to stand plants.