More Water Features Please
Cat on Bridge
I'm the sort of gardener who always wants more. More plants - easy! Just zoom off to a nursery and flash the Moosey wallet. More borders - easy too, just start energetically digging. Now I'm getting greedy - I want more water features.
Designer Needed
But there's a problem. When it comes to water features, 'more' requires input from the resident civil engineer. He needs to be convinced that I'm serious, and then to be hooked into the design of the project.
And I already have two amazing water features. They're large, they dominate the garden, and they've inspired me to build gardens around them.
Still Cold Water
Boh water features were already here when I came to Mooseys all those years ago. They are still the same size, and the water they feature is still as cold. Nothing's changed except their surroundings. Firstly, the pond.
The Moosey Pond
The pond is large and practical - it's used for stock water, and for irrigation. Water pumped from my pond irrigates the Hazelnut Orchard as well as my garden. I've planted Gunnera and Ballerina roses underneath the trees, and have installed two garden seats nearby to enjoy the watery sounds and ambience. It's the perfect swimming pool for my dogs.
The Moosey Pond
I have one pond, so naturally I want 'more' - a second, larger pond, one that I could get away with calling a lake. I've found the perfect place - the Frisbee Lawn will be sympathetically drowned. No-one plays Frisbee anymore, and this lawn gets so dry and brown in late summer. And it's in a natural hollow...
Escher and Rusty in the Pond
A Waterfall!
Putting all my water feature eggs in one basket, the intake water for this proposed lake will cascade artistically down a person-made waterfall. In the middle there will be an island, upon which a little shed will rest. Pretentious gardeners would call it a summer house...
I've appealed to the resident engineer. I haven't included a fountain or a rill - that means I've been fairly frugal in the design elements. His job is simple - make it work! It would add impact to my (hypothetical) open garden advertising paragraph - waterfalls and lakes always do.
The Moosey Water Race
I also have a large stream running through my gardens. It's actually an irrigation canal, which we call a water race. The water certainly does race through, past my flaxes and rhododendrons in the Willow Tree Garden, under several bridges, past the mighty Gunnera in Middle Garden and off under Rooster Bridge towards next door's back paddock.
It's a delightful water feature, and I spend forever weeding and planting its banks. A moderate gardener would be totally satisfied with one stream. So, naturally, I want more! I want a second stream, one which wriggles from Rooster Bridge down through the trees and shrubs in my Wattle Woods.
The Moosey Water Race
And I've started! I've created half the stream bed and planted its edges, and tested the water flow with a garden hose. The small gardens around Rooster Bridge are luxuriantly filled with the foliage of flaxes and ferns. This would be the perfect place for an undershot waterwheel!
A Waterwheel!
I must appeal to the craftsman and alternative technology enthusiast lurking inside the resident engineer. An undershot waterwheel would provide the final touch to my open garden advertising paragraph!
The eccentric, rambling Moosey Garden has two large ponds, a waterfall inspired by the majesty of the New Zealand bush, and a romantic wriggling stream fed from a rustic undershot waterwheel.
Hee hee...