Pond Plans

The sound of the weed wacker could have been annoying on a cloudless summer afternoon as a light breeze swayed the hummingbird feeder.

But it was hushed by the sound of water spilling over boulders into a shallow pond framed with water lilies and a floating sunset pink caladium.

A pond that Bill Roberts, a retired accountant, didn't exactly embrace when his wife, Mary, suggested it after seeing one on a garden walk.

In fact, he said "Nah."

But now he spends nearly every day out there, fishing a leaf out now and then, even though he doesn't really need to.

"I can't spend enough time out here," he said, pushing back in a patio chair at the glass table where they had breakfast that morning while watching Ollie, the biggest and oldest goldfish.

Water gardens are coming back, because the sound and movement of water helps us de-stress, said master gardener Kathy Mundell-Bligh.

"It's almost instant relaxation. Our lifestyles have created the need for them. There's nothing even close to the sound of water to relax you."

Mundell-Bligh is working on this year's annual Central Illinois Water Gardeners' pond walk July 14, which

will feature the Roberts' pond in Normal, along with eight others. Also on that day, visitors can watch a waterfall being built at Wendell Niepagens Greenhouses in Bloomington.

In the early 1900s, nearly every Victorian garden had a water pond, she said.

"You weren't cool unless you had a water garden."

"I still think that's true," Mary Roberts joked. She grew up with a mother and grandmother who loved flowers but she didn't have time for gardening when her children were young.

Now that she has grandchildren, "I love it. I just love it," she said, stooping to feed the fish.

When her husband retired eight years ago, he didn't have a hobby and didn't know a thing about plants. Now he keeps an eye on the hostas, worries a little about the thinning honeysuckle hedge and wonders when the water lilies will bloom.

"He's my gardener," she said.

Before they dug out a flower bed and replaced it with a water garden, they watched a how-to video, thumbed through books and got advice. But they still ended up with a too-small pond; raccoons were fishing out the goldfish.

Chizmar Landscaping redesigned it, nearly doubling it to a 1,600- gallon water garden with blue-gray boulders, river rock and stepping stones that allow you to cross it.

And there's hardly any maintenance.

"It's just kind of a world of its own," Bill Roberts said. "You feed the fish basically."

That's how it should work, said Mundell-Bligh. Create a balanced ecosystem and the fish control the algae and insects, provide fertilizer for the plants and the plants provide oxygen for the fish.

Leaves and other debris float into a skimmer box, and once a year you clean the filter.

"People think it's so much work, and it's really not if you create a good system to begin with," she said.

Since the Roberts' pond is shaded, algae is deprived of needed sunlight and the pond doesn't draw mosquitoes because they won't lay eggs in moving water.

Even if they did, they wouldn't last long, the master gardener said.

"It's like caviar to fish."

After the first frost, the couple lifts the potted aquatic plants out of the water and cuts back dead foliage. Because their pond is deep enough, at about 30 inches, plants can over-winter there, along with the fish. Even a blanket of snow won't harm them, as long as there's a hole for air. Plants in smaller water gardens have to be brought indoors and kept in a cool, dark place.

Proceeds from this year's pond walk will be used to create a waterfall near the Unity Community Center in Normal.

The Central Illinois Water Gardeners also built a pond for a nursing home and a waterfall for Bloomington Junior High School.

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Parade of Ponds

What: 2007 Parade of PondsWhen: 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. July 14

Where: Bloomington-Normal gardens

Demonstration: A waterfall will be built at Wendell Niepagen Greenhouses during the event

By: Central Illinois Water Gardeners

Benefits: Waterfall project at Unity Community Center, Normal

Tickets: $10 advance; $12 day of event

Available at: Local garden centers; Third Sister, Bloomington and The Garlic Press, Normal

Contact: Jackie Tridle, (309) 664-1730

(c) 2007 Pantagraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.