CHAPTER XIX 



WATER MARGINS 



HAPPY are those who desire to do some good water- 

 gardening and who have natural river and stream 

 and pond, as yet untouched by the injudicious im- 

 prover. For a beautiful old bank or water edge is a 

 precious thing and difficult to imitate. If it is lost 

 it is many years before its special features can be 

 regained. But if the pond still possesses its own 

 precious edge, and has its upper end half silted with 

 alluvial mud, its great tussocks of coarse Sedges, its 

 groups of Alders and luscious tufts of Marsh Mari- 

 golds, it is as a canvas primed and ready for the 

 artist's brush. 



In such a case what will have first to be thought of 

 will be some means of comfortable access. For if a 

 quiet bay in pond or river has near the bank a bed of 

 Water Crowfoot or the rarer Villarsia, we want to get 

 close to it on firm ground without fear of slipping 

 into the water or getting bogged among the rushes on 

 the bank. So we make a path by putting down some 

 rough ballast and ramming it partly into the moist 

 ground, and lay flat stepping stones upon it, and level 

 up to them. In the very wettest places, or if the path 

 has to be taken actually into the water, some small 



154 



