The Pond Story

Looking out my window it’s another gray, humid day. And with the gray, we hope the rain will come. The high heat and hot hard winds have dried out my beautiful green haven. So if the rain doesn’t come today, I’ll be out there with buckets of water, giving all my plants and the new trees a little help.

That reminds me of the garden I left in Piedmont. I had different flower gardens all over the yard. And it was a very big yard; a full quarter of a city block. I had the Iris Garden, the Shade Garden, the Pond Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the Bog Garden and various other themed ones. I had 52 rose bushes. It took all my free time just to maintain that yard, and when I got sick, poor Hubby had to take over. When we moved here, he pleaded with me to not do so many gardens. So I have tried to concentrate my flowers in 2 areas and mostly planted hardy perennials. I now have my Orchid House Garden, used for bringing out my house plants in the summer. That is planted with hostas, peonies and iris. I have peonies brought from Piedmont and slips of my mother’s peonies around the house. I have the day lily bed that was here when we moved in and a scattering of lily varieties in both areas. The last flower garden is my Shade Wildflower Garden tucked up against the house. And now I have my Pond Garden again. It also is planted with hostas, peonies and iris.


The Orchid House and last fall’s new garden.


The pond garden has a long story. I have already told you about my second, or third, or fourth cousin Ester’s house with the cement pond in the back yard. That was when I was about 10. It took over 35 years to get my own pond. For years, garden ponds were out of vogue and you couldn’t find any information or supplies for them. Then about 10 years ago, they came back into popularity again. I lucked out when a coworker decided she didn’t want to deal with maintaining a pond in her yard. I got the pond and pump with all the fixings for nothing. So Hubby put it in for me, tucked away in the Shade Garden surrounded by hostas, ferns and lily of the valley. It was a wonderful haven after a day at work. I spent hours out there with my feet in the pond, my toes being nibbled on by the goldfish, and the wind chimes whispering in the breeze.


My Haven in Piedmont.

But we moved, and my pond, and in fact the gardens were a huge selling point. So it got left behind. Hubby promised me another pond which I finally got last summer. And we spend hours clearing trees and burdock to put it in. This one too was put in a shady area, cut into the grove, to protect it from the hard south winds. I planted hostas, lily of the valley and left the beautiful wild violets. I had the wind chimes going and again sat with my feet in the pond (no goldfish this time. I am afraid the raccoons will eat them). All were growing and my haven was complete.

Then last August, the septic system gave out and we had to put in a new one. Guess where? Yep. Right in the middle of my Pond Garden. So Hubby and I spend a horrible 10 hours, in high heat and humidity, scrambling to move my plants and pull the pond out. We cleared another area out of the grove, beside my Orchid House garden and planted all the plants. The pond would not work there, so we put it up in the barn and concentrated on making the new shade garden and hoping the poor plants would take the transplant in late August. And as of today, it looks like all the plants made it.


The start of the Pond Garden this week.

So finally this week, we re-did the pond garden. I had been gradually clearing another area and had planted some bushes already. We dug the pond in and moved a lot of BIG rocks from all over the grove. We got the pump working yesterday and filled the pond. There is still a lot to do; like finishing the mulching, moving over wind chimes and defining edges. But I again have my pond, and I can again sit with my feet in the water and relax. It just doesn’t get much better for me than running water, flowers, wind chimes and the birds singing. And all this in a green haven.


The Pond up and running. Just a few things left to do. (No, the swans aren't real).