The Water Garden 117 



staked out, it will probably be necessary to use a spirit level and 

 straight edge to fix the grade for levelling the bottom; perhaps a 

 surveyor s instrument may be needed if the pond is to have a greater 

 diameter than a hundred feet. Small water gardens can have 

 charms out of all proportion to their size and expense, let it be I 

 remembered. As the roots of water lilies must never be allowed 

 to freeze, the depth of the pond they are to be planted in will be 

 determined by the thickness of the ice, if any, that is likely to form 

 over it. It is certainly desirable that the water should be as 

 shallow as possible, usually not deeper than two feet, not only 

 because the sun will keep it warmer, but because much digging will 

 be saved. Then, too, the rubber-booted gardener should be able 

 to wade out to every plant in case of need. For this reason the 

 practical person will advocate the planting of water lily and lotus 

 roots in tubs or boxes and sinking them, rather than setting them 

 out in the enriched bottom of the pond itself where they may spread 

 at will. If the entire bottom of a pond be covered to the depth of 

 fifteen or eighteen inches with rich, heavy soil, the cost is naturally 

 considerably greater than when only the small area planted, or 

 the tubs that contain the tubers and rhizomes of aquatic plants, 

 need be supplied with it. Moreover, the rubber boot is sure to 

 damage roots that roam at large, and, by stirring up muck and 

 rubbish from the bottom, it fouls the water. 



Since much water is necessarily lost from a pond every day 

 by evaporation and the transpiration of the plants, it is essential 

 that little or none should be lost by leakage, particularly if the 

 water supply be not abundant. An ordinary day labourer can mix 

 pure clay in a mason s shallow, wooden mortar-box, chop it with a 

 spade if it be lumpy, sparingly moisten and then pound it with a 

 wooden maul until it is of the proper consistency to be beaten on to 



