London Holland Park’s water feature in Kyoto Garden.

The composition of enduring elements such as buildings, stones and paths that harmonise with the surroundings are critical factors in a good Japanese garden.

The waterfall plays an important role in Chinese and Japanese landscape. Japan’s earliest known manual of gardening—the Sakuteiki—describes ten different forms of waterfall stipulating the proper height and width of a cascade.

Japanese gardens are a living art form, in which the plants and trees are ever changing. As they grow and mature they are constantly sculpted and pruned to maintain and enhance the overall composition. Over time it is only as good as the careful and qualified maintenance that it receives by those trained in the art of pruning.

A space in the garden for contemplation or meditation fits with the Buddhist and Daoist philosophy

The National Botanic Garden of Wales - Middleton Carmarthen

The worlds largest single-span dome bigger than the Eden project and lots of Lottery funding investment. Well worth seeing where your investment has gone.

Doubled walled garden creating several micro climates and themed borders with a cool oasis at the centre are the key aspects of your visit. There is a strong ecological approach within the garden and several ideas for you to consider when you return to your own environment.

Other Garden Features to See

• Bog Garden & Japanese Garden,
• Bee Garden & Tropical House
• Welsh Rare Plants & Physicians of Myddfai
• Nursery Glasshouses and The Great Glasshouse
• Mediterranean Garden
• Organic Farm, bio-mass furnace & Estate Walks
• Kitchen Garden and activities for children
• Lakes and Dipping Ponds

Other gardens in Wales can be found by clicking here

Any space bigger than a bottle can be used to create a garden. This London tennament had a basement flat twelve feet below the pavement and about 5 feet wide. Despite those limitations there was an exotic rock pool, obligatory ferns and phormiums and the London Lizard, the Camden Croc, or the Admiralty Arch Alligator.

Designing with Humour

• Are the bars on these windows to keep the residents in or the London wild life out
• A light touch when adding whimsy to a garden can add many a smile to the passer by
• New materials can be introduced like this fibre glass sculpture
• Painted pottery Gnomes are not to everyones taste but Gnomes need homes
• Bruce Lawton’s Zen garden design tool is a bit of a spoof

Fountain in Oxford Botanic gardens.

One of the best ways to enhance a garden is through the addition of a water feature. Water brings a new element to the garden. In this photo the sunlight has caught the spray from the fountain, lighting up the picture.

Benefits of Adding Water Feature to garden

• Water helps create interest
• Creates a focal point in the garden
• Sound is reassuring soothing; it adds an extra element to the garden
• Children will love them.

Habranthus is a genus in the Amaryllidaceae family with species from Central and South America extending into southern North America. They have narrow, linear or strap-shaped leaves. Their flowers are very similar to Zephyranthes and both are called rain lilies.

This variety of Habranthus is flowering in late Summer (sept) and offers a delicate touch to colour with minimum fuss. Habranthus bulbs are quite hardy in the UK.

A National Collection of Hardy Lilies is held at Burnby Hall Garden in Pocklington Yorkshire. They are at their best from June and have a great display through summer. For the home pond the selection of the right water lilies needs great care. They are generally robust plants that are diverse in size and you don’t want too much leaf growth that over shadows the rest of the pond and planting.

Tips on Choosing and Growing Water Lilies

• Young plants should gradually be introduced to deeper water. Mature plants can cope with much deeper water
• The rhisomes of the water lily should not be buried in the planting medium or it will rot. It is a bit like Iris rhisomes that are just proud of the soil with hair roots going down.
• Treat yourself to one or few specimen plants to start with to benefit from the spectacular nature of the plant and leave at least a third of the water surface visible.
• Plants can be grown in big buckets if there is no pond available
• Divide congested plants and plant in fertile soil with trace elements and cover with gravel
• For planting 2 foot deep try Nymphaea Black Princess, a dark prolific red, or the double white ‘Gonnere’ and ‘Perry’s Dwarf Red which is suitable for small ponds.
• For scented flowers look for the Nymphaea Odorata varieties
• There is a wide choice of plants that can be planted 2 ½ - 3′ deep including ‘Virginalis’ & ‘Gladstoneana’ - a couple I haven’t grown but might like to try if I ever get a large enough lake.
• Waterlilies will not flower well and gradually die off in shaded pools and are best sited away from fountains or running water

Stapeley Water Garden is another location for seeing and acquiring plants

www.stapeleywg.com

If you want a cheap and easy water feature bury half a plastic dustbin in your garden. Fill it with rain water from your butt. If you use tap water it will have to stand for a week or more before introducing wild life and will probably go green with algae.

There is still plenty of frog spawn about in local ponds. You can make an escape bridge for the frogs by laying an old log over a corner of the pond. Natural rainfall will replace most of the evaporation except in summer when I let it reduce in depth but you can top it up from the hosepipe. The depth of the old bin makes a safe environment for aquatics but be careful with babies and young children.

We have used our pond as a home for goldfish that the children no longer want. They  lasted several years until they reached a size that the Heron liked. Similarly with golden Orfe they lasted many years and enjoyed basking in the sun on late summer evenings. The pond was mainly sheltered from the direct sun and is a feature in a wooded are of the garden.

Tips for Ponds

• I find most of the recommended tips are of marginal benefit
• A floating ball has never prevented a freeze up - but I was lucky not too loose any fish due to ice
• Netting to stop leaves was also more trouble that it was worth - every couple of years I fish out the ’sludge’ from the bottom and leave it very close by for creatures to return to the pond.
• Marginal plants and moisture lovers need more water than the overflow from this type of pond provides.
• Oxygenating plants work best if they grow below the surface. One of the most vigorous and recommended is Elodea crispa (Lagarosiphon major)

Charlie Dimmock may not approve but as a pond starter kit this is a cheap and quick option. I see you can now buy a Charlie Dimmock Gnome but I think that would end up in my pond