A backyard waterfall, stream, and pond is a water feature.  When you add plants, it becomes a water garden.  When you add plants and fish, it becomes a magical place you could sit by all day if you didn’t have to do adult things like go to work and buy groceries.

Alas, I am neither independently wealthy nor close enough to a store to qualify for any kind of delivery, so I do have to leave my oasis more than I would like to.  Now the last time you saw the water garden it was under snow and looking pretty darn empty — probably not what you would consider an “oasis” — so let me rewind a bit.

After a winter that seemed like it would never end, spring finally came and I’ve been able to do the things I’ve been itching to do since the water garden was installed in early March.  A newly-installed water garden, though pretty, can look a little out of place and lifeless until you take a cue from Mother Nature and build out the ecosystem.  That meant I needed plants, fish, and beneficial bacteria.

If you’ll recall, patience is not my strong suit, so when I called Swan’s on a Friday morning to find out if they had any fish in yet and was told that yes, they just got some beautiful Shubunkin in, but they had several other calls so no guarantees if they would still have them by Saturday afternoon, you know what I did.  Lunchtime run to the water garden store!  I picked out 7 fish, 3 plants, fish food, and bacteria, then hurried home with my treasures.

The fish were initially adventurous in checking out their new home, but then Beau tried to walk across the pond and fell in to the deep section.  The fish retreated into the fish cave and were not to be seen for awhile.  Within hours of getting home I began kicking myself for not getting a Wanvisa lily, which I’ve been coveting since I saw one on the water garden tour last year, so Saturday we made another trip to Swan’s.  16 plants and two additional fish later, we walked out confident we now had everything we needed.

After releasing the new fish and setting the pond plants in place, I spent the rest of the weekend planting thirty-some plants around the water garden.  There’s a lot of rock in a water feature, and it needs to be softened with plants both in and out of the water to make it look more natural.  My Bluestone order had arrived the week before and I was able to use many of those plants around the stream and waterfall.

By Tuesday morning, the fish had begun to show themselves again; so naturally, Beau thought that was the perfect day to yell “cannonball!” and belly-flop into the pond from above.  Sigh.  The fish went back into hiding.  Enough time went by without a sighting that I started to fear the fish had all gone to the great pond in the sky, but on Friday hunger must have won out because they came out for dinner.

Yesterday, we took a trip out to Water’s Edge in Lawrence for their open house and picked up a few more plants. (Remember how I said we were confident we had everything we needed?  We were wrong.) We picked up a red canna (which should grow HUGE and will be so cool), a dwarf sweet flag, brooklime, more water hyacinth, water lettuce, parrot feather, and anacharis for water clarity.

I’m looking forward to everything filling out in and around the pond.  The creeping plants should start to cover the edges, softening the look and making you wonder where the land ends and water begins. The lilies, hyacinth, and lettuce will give the fish good cover; the grasses and other tall plants well help to further naturalize the pond.  My variegated iris has already bloomed, and I’m sure the rest of the bloomers will be just as stunning.  I still need to add a few more plants and ground covers, but this is definitely a good start.

So yes, our water garden has become our oasis.  This is where you will find me in the mornings, the evenings, and any other chance I get:

I would argue there is nothing more relaxing than hearing the gentle sound of water cascading down a waterfall, along a stone-lined stream, and into a pond while watching fish play under water, catching glimpses of color as they dart from the cover of one plant to the next.  This is my happy place, made happier only when I share it with friends, family, and my four-legged kids.  Oh… and a glass of wine.

I look forward to sharing more pictures as the water garden continues to mature!