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Water Features for Gardens

Recently I visited two men who have enjoyed creating water features, Ray Philleson of Cornish and Larry Litten of Hanover, NH. Each explained that putting in a water feature is more work than he had thought it to be. "Water has a mind of its own", said Litten, "The biggest challenge is containing the water . and getting it going where you want it to go."

Philleson, a vigorous octogenarian, is a mechanical engineer, long retired. He decided to enhance his wife Ellie's gardens with a fountain and a stream that spills out of an old round industrial soapstone sink, over rocks, and into a lower pond. The upper pond is 6 feet across and the lower pond is in pre-formed polyethylene shell about the same size, but irregular in shape. He used his tractor to dig out a base for the ponds, shaped the soil with a shovel, and added 6-7 inches of sand to form a stable base.

He ran power from the house, and plugged in a submersible pump to get water from the lower pond to the upper pond. He diverted rain water from the roof to pass through the pond to keep the water fresh. Sounds easy. Hah.

Philleson's project is still new; so far he has put in about 7-10 days of labor into it, and he has not worked out all the problems. He discovered that the water from the upper pool flowed under and alongside his flat rocks, not over them. But, as he noted, "If you stop working, you go downhill." This project will keep him working, I predict, well into his ninety's.

Larry Litten started his project in 2003, and it still keeps him busy - even though he is now retired. He has two small pools, a 25-foot naturalistic stream and a lovely waterfall. He read books, visited websites and called water garden sales people before he ever set spade to soil. The first year he spent 31 days working on it before it got too cold for comfort. Another 7 days of labor the next spring and he had it up and running. But he continues to deal with leaks, repairs and re-designs. At one point his wife, Kay, started referring to herself as "a pond widow." But they are both tremendously pleased with the results.

Litten lined his system with a synthetic rubber pond liner, Firestone PondGard EPDM. It is tough stuff, but the seams have to be glued, and Litten has had to make occasional repairs. His soil is a heavy clay, but even so, the banks of the project kept falling in. Eventually he removed the rubber liner and installed sheet steel beneath it, along with a layer of felt. He ripped out the waterfall and re-did it 3 times before he got it right.

Water is pumped from the lowest point back to the starting pond through an inch and a half diameter plastic pipe that Litten buried. Pond pumps come as submersible pumps or above ground pumps; Litten chose a submersible pump because they tend to be quieter. He hired an electrician to install the 120 volt GFCI- protected circuit that powers the pump.

Some of the resources Litten used are "The Practical Rock and Water Garden" by Peter Robinson and "The Master Book of the Water Garden" by Philip Swindells. He ordered most of his supplies from Just Liners, a company in Tennessee that he found very helpful - and that sell more than just liners. (1-888-838-4017 or www.JustLiners.com)

As any pond owner knows, there are sometimes problems with algae growing in the water. Litten adds "Microbe-Lift" and/or "TetraPond". They must be fairly benign, as they are both approved to use with fish. Mosquito larvae have not been a problem for Litten, but this year, just to be safe, he's been adding Microbe-Lift BMC (which contains bacilllus thuringiensis subspecies israelinsis) every other week as an organic control for larvae.

By artfully placing stones and plants, Litten has created a water feature that never shows a hint of anything artificial. Along the edges he grows plants that droop over the water - pachysandra, vinca and sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum).

Litten's project was inspired by the desire to hear the sounds of running water, which he has accomplished. When he first built it, there wasn't enough drop to get good loud brook sounds, so he expanded the project by adding a waterfall with a five- foot drop. Then this year he decided they needed a stone terrace so that he and his wife could sit closer to the waterfall. I'm not sure there's an end to his project. And I'm real glad I haven't been bitten by the "water bug."

Henry Homeyer is the VT/NH associate editor of "People, Places and Plants" magazine. Write him at gardening.guy@valley.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746.