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Consider the water garden for your landscape
You can recreate a water falls or a beach scene on your landscape. Photo by Constance Obonyo
What you need to know:
If you are one of those people who love it when you are at the beach or around waterfalls, why not consider a water garden for your home?
Water gardens are a type of landscaping design with water as its central element. The water can be supplemented by other features like rocks, artistic models and plants. All these can be carefully crafted to create a beautiful focal point for your garden landscape.
Types of plants
The types of water plants to introduce can be the Cyperus Papyrus, the Umbrella Papyrus (Cyperus Alternifolius) and the Water Hyacinth. Some of the water flowering plants that can root, grow and flower in water are the Impatiens, the Lotus and the Blue Water Lily (Nymphaea Capensis).
Gardening with electricity
You will need a pump under the model the artist has made and electricity, because the pump will work with electricity. If you want lights inside the facility, use the kind of lights that are usually installed inside swimming pools. It is also possible to direct lights from the outside, towards the water garden at appropriate angles, to highlight it.
Fountains
The other option can be to transfer an already made model, like a bird bath, connect a pump to its underside and direct water to spout out of its top to create a fountain. Fountains inevitably create water reservoirs, like ponds. If you would like a pond as part of your water garden, you can also introduce fish into it.
Fish and food
‘If you introduce fish into your pond, look for plants that fish feed on,’ Mr. Kinene advises.
If you want to introduce fish into your pond, you would not want to see the fish demolish your plants. There are types of water plant that can look attractive even when your fish have been nibbling constantly on them. They can also grow fast enough to keep up with or faster than the constant nibbling.
Try to get plants that can strike a balance between the growth of the plants and the fish that must munch them down.
Not any water plants will do. They should be tough enough not to fall apart from the nibbling of the fish and edible and soft enough as food for the fish. They should grow fast, but not too fast so as to take over the pond if the fish cannot keep up with their growth.
Security fence
If you are going to have a deep pond, erect a wire fence around it to serve both the security and aesthetic purposes.
You don’t want to erect a wall around it, for example, that would block your view of the beautiful landscape.
Charges
Mr. Sam Mugenyi of Gardens and Homes, who builds water gardens, says their charges for construction of water gardens depends on size, but that they charge from Shs500,000 upwards. On safety, he says users can touch fountain water without fear of electrocution and that the water is shallow enough for children to play in.
