My uncle has a water feature and pond in his garden! It's so cool (literally) you can hear the water gushing over rocks, there are goldfish, and lily pads, and pebbles, and...hanging planters..and..
Ok, before I get carried away, practical first things first. Where am I going to site this must-have water feature for my garden? It will need to be quite shallow as I don't want the chicken to accidentally drown in it.
I have thought about, and if you've been reading the previous past two years, the idea of making a pond for ducks down the bottom of the garden, or turning the lawn into rice paddy fields (swales) or having a river run through it like it was back in the days of Eden. For what is a garden without water? Cool fountains and rushing streams? Without water, most gardens would just be an ad for masport lawn mowers. I could have a rill, or a canal, or a lazy brook just running down the edge of my borders, and plant irises and bog plants at the water's edge. Then I could have somewhere cool to dip my toes, and also wash my hands after getting them all soiled gardening.
One of my birdbaths was literally smashed to pieces as I suspect a rather heavy bird or the neighbours cat tried to jump on it, so that was the end of that. I have two others, and the other day I saw a bird actually use one. Hooray!
In other news Jacqui was all business yesterday as we planted two passionfruit (one black, one golden) to clamber over the arch. I am so looking forward to a successful passionfruit vine when all the previous attemtps at trying to grow them have come to naught. We did go into Kings where I just bought a hose connector as my other one broke. Don't use gardena! Try hozelock. Also potting mix to pot up my melons and pumpkin, which we are going to place into more tyres in the orchard. I don't think Jacqui has given up on the prospect of winning giant pumpkin prize just yet. Last time it was stolen and she was pretty ticked off! Giant pumpkins are just too tempting to resist I suppose. I have seen one literally carved into a Cinderella's coach up for auction on Trade Me.
There are still Agria potatoes to harvest, and I have sown runner beans (expiry date, 2000) and something from Annabel Langbein's brand of seed packets that was a mexican garden of butter beans, corn, and squash. My eggplants are coming along. So thats all good. It has been sunny days and am making the most of relaxing in my deck chair and sun lounger with copies of NZ Gardener magazine. BBQ TBA. Maybe after the harvest and then we can have potato salad or hot potatoes with butter in my kettle bbq. I will let you know.
