For October. 1^22 



287 



Water Gardening 



ARTHUR SMITH 



IT is not only from the nimnitains, the prairies, sunny 

 fields, or shady woods, that our garden flora come. 

 Rivers, brooklets, margins of lakes, are all invariably 

 fringed with lovely flowers, and fleets of water lilies sail 

 in the deeper waters. 



The artistic possibilities of any home surroundings are 

 doubled by the introduction of a fair amount of water. 

 Water always furnishes a pleasing addition to a land- 

 scape, and although every country place cannot be so 

 situated as to be blessed with a stream or lake as part of 

 its attractions, yet where they are absent there is some- 

 times much which could be done in the way of artificially 

 producing a situation in which the many beautiful hardy 

 aquatic and sub-aquatic plants will thrive. 



Where streams, ponds and swampy places exist upon 

 an estate there is no part of it which can more easily be 

 made naturally beautiful. While Nature always does 

 much in this direction, situations are frequently seen 

 which are in an unpleasant and unhealthy condition, when 

 there is no reason why they should not be places of 

 beauty, instead of an eyesore. Besides the great variety 

 of picturesque effects that are possible with water, it 

 affords the only means of growing the many worth while 

 plants which are only happy in, or close to water, the 

 chief feature in some being flowers and in others foliage. 



Streams with a swift current running between steep 

 banks do not lend themselves to water gardening, but in 

 these cases use can generally be made of the water to 

 supply an artificial pool or lakelet. There is no more 

 attractive addition to anv garden than a quiet pool with 

 suitable plants growing both in it and around its margins. 

 There is a soothing eftect in the appearance of such a 

 pool on a hot sunny day which is fascinating, and which 

 defies comparison with any other part of the home. It 

 is therefore worth while going to some trouble and ex- 

 pense to secure a feature of this kind, and it is also one 

 of the many things connected with hardy plant garden- 

 ing in which the first cost is practically the only one or 

 any moment. 



Of course, the most beautiful of all water gardens are 

 those having their foundation in a pellucid, slow running 

 river, as their natural features are so much better than 

 anything we can make artificially, and the existing vege- 

 tation is also always natural to the situation. With a 

 little thought much of this can be so blended with intro- 

 duced plants of greater range, and in other ways which 

 will suggest themselves to those of artistic taste, that a 

 place of increased beauty may be created through the 

 refinement of Nature by art. 



When constructing an artificial piece of water, the avail- 

 able water supply has first to be considered, as without 

 a regular supply it is useless to attempt a water garden. 

 Therefore, a water garden should be made proportionate 

 to a certain available supply of water. It is surprising what 

 can be done with a sniall quantity, provided only that it 

 never fails. A continuous rush of water into and through 

 a pool is not only unnecessary but positively harmful to 

 the welfare of the plants, the more so if the water has 

 been pumped from a well or comes from a public water 

 supply, as in these cases it is invariably cold and hard. 



In this connection I am reminded of a pool, really a 

 cement tank, existing in the center of a sunken garden. 

 The tank has to be drained in the Winter, therefore the 

 water lilies are in tubs so that they can be taken in and 

 kept out of the reach of frost. A fountain plays in 



the center of the tank and there is also another flow of 

 water into it, both of these are cold and hard. That 

 a continual flow of water of this description into the tank 

 has a very adverse effect upon the plants is very apparent, 

 as their foliage is small and soon dies, and the floral ef- 

 fects amount to very little ; and so far as beauty is con- 

 cerned, it is conspicuous by its absence. To succeed with 

 water lilies in a tank of this kind all that is required is 

 a sufficient inflow of water to scarcely more than cover 

 loss by evaporation, in which case the water wfll always 

 be during the growing season more or less warm, so that 

 the plants will thrive instead of struggling for existence. 



Fortunate indeed are those through whose grounds 

 runs a perennial stream, even if it is only a very little 

 (ine, for with the help of this, quiet pools can easily be 

 constructed to any extent the conditions will permit. If 

 it is not possible to use the stream itself as part of the 

 water garden, sometimes the water from it can be diverted 

 or conveyed by underground pipes to a suitable site for 

 such a garden. In any case select as low-lying a place 

 as possible, a natural depression if one can be found, 

 where one can stand above the water and look down upon 

 the plants. Water so placed that there are lower parts 

 of the garden all around it looks incongruous and out 

 of place. Unless one is making a pool or tank in a sunken, 

 or an enclosed formal garden where it should be rec- 

 tangular to conform to the other lines of the spot, every 

 care should be made to prevent any artificiality in the 

 appearance of the outline. Regular curves of circles and 

 ovals are utterly out of place and look ridiculous in a 

 landscape with irregular and natural features. In order 

 to be effective, the outline of a piece of water must not 

 only be irregular, but it must also be in accordance with 

 the laws of Nature, and, as in most cases, the natural 

 pond or lake is merely an expanded stream or river, we 

 must look to the shore lines of the latter for guidance in 

 the formation of artificial ponds. 



In a natural stream the curves are mostly due to the 

 water meeting with some obstacle wdiich causes a devia- 

 tion in its course. We find invariably that where a 

 promontory, a projecting rock, or some other interfer- 

 ence causes an alteration in the course of the water, the 

 latter is thrown against the opposite side with greater 

 force, and unless the ground is very hard a portion of it 

 is washed by the impact and an extended recess is the 

 natural result. 



In the same way artificially constructed pieces of water 

 to look natural should have the largest and the boldest 

 recesses opposite, or nearly opposite, the largest promon- 

 tory on the other side. The shore line should not terminate 

 abruptly but should form a slope continuing below the 

 water level. 



E\-en when a constant stream flows through an estate ' 

 the opportunity for water gardening is not always made 

 the best, or any use of. One of the worst cases that has 

 come under my observation was upon an estate where 

 the grounds sloped down to a meandering stream which 

 had naturally widened itself out to a limited extent into 

 bays and still pools, altogether ideal conditions for water 

 gardening were presented. But the treatment of it con- 

 sisted in building a wall all along the margins : making a 

 snake-like gravel walk along the stream "about ten feet 

 away from it: at intervals on both sides of this walk, 

 round- and oval-shaped beds were cut in the lawn, filled 

 every Sunnner with beddiiig plants. So far as the water 



