HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 19 i 
house owner. Perhaps 
a few hints will help 
you. 
Let us presuppose 
that water is a scarci¬ 
ty. It will be a con¬ 
siderable expense to 
have it running from 
the house into your 
garden to provide a 
place for water plants 
to grow. If you can 
acquire a large brew¬ 
er’s hogshead, have it 
cut in half, first wir¬ 
ing the staves to keep 
them in place. By a 
judicious use of pitch 
or tar or some water¬ 
proofing medium, re¬ 
pair any leaks. Then 
sink these tubs in the 
ground and you will 
have a very satisfac¬ 
tory water garden. 
The evaporation of the water 
and the transpiration of it by 
the plants can easily be over¬ 
come by adding to the supply 
a bucketful every day or so. 
Don’t place such a water fea¬ 
ture at random in your lawn, 
but find some sunny spot 
where the tubs may form a 
unit in the design. Remem¬ 
ber that because such tubs are 
circular they must be formal 
and must have a formal 
treatment. So, do not at¬ 
tempt to cover the edges with 
a naturalistic growth of bog 
or water plants. A single 
variety of nymphaea is suffi¬ 
cient for each. But such a 
water garden is really a tem¬ 
porary makeshift. You will 
want something more 
substantial. Let us see 
what is to be done with 
the permanent water 
basin. You may con¬ 
struct such a desirable 
feature yourself with¬ 
out particular difficulty. 
Have it in circular or 
rectangular form or 
the rectangle broken by 
a semicircle at either 
end. Fussy designs are 
never desirable. You 
must first make it 
waterproof and next f - 
weatherproof. . Manu*. 
facturers of * ooiVcrete- 
advise what is''known 
as a r i c h'dmixture 
wherein one part of 
Portland cement is 
combined with one 
and a half parts of 
sand and three parts 
broken stone or loose 
gravel. This works 
out to four bags Port¬ 
land cement to 5 7/10 
cubic feet of sand to 
11 4/10 of gravel or 
broken stone. To get 
the best waterproof 
results the concrete 
should be combined in 
a sloppy mixture so 
that it remains wet 
until it is possible to 
complete the whole 
job. Walls of this 
mixture are thick 
enough if six inches 
through, and the pool 
is a small one. If, 
however, you are 
making a large con¬ 
crete basin, it would be well 
to use the quarter-inch metal 
manufactured rods or the re¬ 
inforcement of wide-meshed 
wire. At any rate, reinforc¬ 
ing up the sides and into the 
bottom would be a help. For 
growing water lilies two and 
a half feet of water is all that 
you would need. In the 
neighborhood of New York 
the frost line extends only 
somewhere between two and a 
half to three feet, but if you 
intend to have the pool a per¬ 
manent one to winter over 
water lilies, it would be well 
to go below this depth. Dig 
out a basin in the soil from 
three to three and a half feet 
and tamp the soil firmly into 
place. If the basis of 
the pool is not solid, it 
might be well to fill in 
for about six inches 
with broken stone and 
slag, tamp it down for 
a foundation and then 
lay the cement bottom 
on top of this. Some 
have made a simple 
basin in a situation 
where the earth is of a 
consistency t o pack 
tight by laying a con¬ 
crete bottom for the 
pool and using a wood¬ 
en mold only on the in¬ 
side. In other words, 
the dirt itself serves in¬ 
stead of an outside 
mold. The walls of 
An attractive lily pool placed at one end of a garden where its formal treatment is fitting 
to the site. Work such as this is possible of home accomplishment 
The Garrison house has a large lily pool constructed with a brick wall. 
There are probably too many plants growing here 
it§ edges being planted with moisture loving and rock plants 
