If the lily-pond must be an artificial one, try to preserve the semblance of nature by concealing the cement edge with rushes and the many 
available ornamental grasses 
Making a Water-Garden 
HOW EVERYONE MAY HAVE A LILY-POND IN HIS OWN YARD—WHAT TO 
GROW IN IT—SOLVING THE WATER SUPPLY AND MOSQUITO PROBLEMS 
by Mary H. Northend 
Photographs by the author, J. H. McFarland Co. and others 
A LL mankind loves a garden, but comparatively few of us 
realize the charm of water-gardens, because they are so 
rare. Their beauty needs only to be seen in order to be appre¬ 
ciated. Then why are they not more commonly seen ? Three 
reasons have been given me by three different persons: — First, 
ignorance of their construction; second, an exaggerated idea of 
their cost; third, fear that the more or less stagnant water would 
breed mosquitoes! 
As to the last objection, its futility causes one to smile. Put 
a few goldfish into your pool, and they will take care of the 
mosquitoes. Moreover, freeing the pool of mosquitoes will be 
to them a joy and not a duty, for the young larvae are their 
favorite food. Sunfish will perform this office just as well as 
goldfish can, and, if less beautiful, they are also less expensive 
and more hardy. Do not, however, make the mistake of putting 
both kinds in at the same time, or your dainty little goldfish will 
fall an immediate prey to their stronger and more voracious 
neighbors. 
Now as to the construction of a water-garden, the scheme is 
really very simple. Fortunate is the person who has a small 
stream running through the premises, part of which can be 
diverted from its original channel, and coaxed to form a thing 
of beauty in some pleasant nook of the garden or lawn. With 
a natural brook, however small, to furnish the theme, we can 
produce numberless aquatic variations. There can be miniature 
cascades and moss-grown rocks, carefully shaded banks draped 
in Stonecrop and Maidenhair fern, a mossy log spanning the 
stream at one spot and a vine-clad rustic bridge at another. 
Between the bridges the water may widen out into shallow pools, 
carefully planned in their details, but so very natural in their 
cumulative effect! Around the edges of these pools we set our 
roots for a bog garden. In the pools we have only to start 
roots of our native white Pond Lily or the pink Pond Lily that 
comes from Cape Cod. Both are perfectly hardy. Planted in 
a natural basin, such as I have described, they will take care of 
themselves in winter as in summer, and can need no possible 
attention from us, unless it be to thin the plants if they increase 
and fill the pool. 
Goldfish, sunfish or minnows will improve such a stream. 
You can even keep young trout, if you choose. But in any event, 
whatever your fish may be, to guard against loss you must screen 
with fine wire netting the passageway by which the water enters 
your land, and also that by which it leaves it. 
Now you may say that you have no natural stream that can 
be persuaded to cross your grounds; that if you had, you would 
at least give this experiment a fair trial. Are you sure that 
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