It’s the ripple effect
Splash out on a water feature and it will reward you by bringing new life into your garden… whatever its size
OUR gardens are like jigsaw puzzles, with features added piece by piece to complete the picture. Lawns, borders, patios and other essential ingredients are usually the first to be put into place, but, as far as I’m concerned, an outdoor space will never be complete until you’ve slotted in a water feature.
No matter what size of garden, a water feature will make a big difference to its look and feel. Moving water will bring a static space to life, while a still pool will bounce around light. The gentle trickle, gurgle or splash of water makes a soothing background sound and helps to muffle annoying outside noise.
Of course, adding water features gives gardeners the opportunity to grow countless plants that cannot be grown in the ground. Submerged oxygenators, free-floating aquatics and glamorous water lilies, along with both flowering and foliage marginal plants will provide colour and interest all year round.
My own raised pond is home to a dwarf reed mace, corkscrew rush, water lily and Cyperus alternifolius, an exotic-looking plant from Africa with 3ft-tall stems topped with slender green bracts. Several water soldiers (Stratiotes aloides) emerge from below the surface to flower in summer.
As a bonus, water features will turn a humble back garden into a haven for wildlife. Birds will come to bathe and drink, and small mammals often slake their thirst at the water’s edge. Dragonflies like to hunt for insects above ponds, as frogs, toads and newts take refuge beneath the surface. Unless you’ve got a few rolling acres you can forget about canals, lakes and meandering streams. Instead, consider ponds, pools, fountains or maybe a sleek rill. Even pocketsized plots can be enhanced by a container pond, wall-mounted fountain or something as simple as an attractive bowl filled with water.
Ponds are desirable features that are easy to build over a weekend. Pre-formed plastic ponds are widely available from garden centres and come in many shapes and sizes. However, I find using these moulds restrictive and prefer to create my own design within a space using flexible pond-liner.
They can be any shape or size, but ponds look best with an outline of sweeping curves. The centre needs to be between 2ft and 3ft deep, while one third of the perimeter should have shallow shores for wildlife access. The remaining sides should include some wide ‘shelves’ for standing marginal plants in pots.
Mark out its shape with a line of sand and then excavate, starting by forming marginal planting shelves, 6in deep by 9in wide. Dig out the rest of the pond and remove any stones on the bottom. Spread soft sand over flat surfaces, fit with a hard-wearing plastic or rubber liner and fill with water.
Prevent algae from developing by covering a third of the surface with plants. Position arum lilies, Iris laevigata, horsetail and other marginals in the shallow water around the edges. Set water lilies in the centre to allow flowers and leaves to bob on top, and add some free-floating plants and underwater oxygenators.
Among the easiest water features to install are pebble fountains. Battery-, solar- and mains-powered kits are available, consisting of a water reservoir, pump and various fountain nozzles to provide different spray patterns.
All you have to do is sink the unit into the ground and cover with pebbles.
Enhance the feature by surrounding with ornamental grasses, hardy succulents and summer-flowering perennials, such as agapanthus. If set in a shady place, use an array of heucheras, hostas and ferns, such as Dryopteris filix-mas and glossy leaved hart’s-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium).
A compact container pond is the perfect water feature for a minute space, whether it’s a patio, courtyard or even a balcony. Plastic containers, glazed bowls, galvanised buckets, half wooden barrels or anything that holds water can be used – seal any drainage holes with pond-liner, attached with waterproof adhesive.
Fill with diminutive aquatics. Dwarf bulrush, water cannas and dwarf horsetail are ideal for adding vertical interest. Fibre optic plant (Isolepis cernua), Oenanthe javanica ‘Flamingo’ and Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon’ are grown for their foliage.
Add some razzle-dazzle with miniature water lilies.