My best effort. Ponds with garden

I'm not much of a gardener and this is mostly annuals but it was my best garden ever. I just went to the garden centre and bought a few flats and stuck them in willy nilly based mostly on size. Just to the left of the center is a round burning bush. It looked great in the fall and is now huge.
There are actually 3 ponds, two smaller ones behind and above my buddies daughter.
These were concrete ponds and my back aches just thinking about hauling in all those stones, many over a hundred pounds.
It was worth the work.
The water sounded great and was a magnet for birds, even a few that were unheard of in the area.
Now I live in an area too cold for such a pond/garden or I'd do another.

You can never be in an area too cold for a pond....We are in Ontario and have a beautiful pond. I bought a fibreglass pond liner for $40.00 and put it in the basement to over-winter the fish. The basement is cool enough so they kind of go dormant and only need to be fed a few times. In the spring, out they go again. The pond outside we used a couple of old waterbed liners a friend threw out, cut along the seams to open them up, one for the lower pond, one for the upper. I gathered stones from the local farmers fields to put around the edges. The only money invested was for the pump and the fish. Never give up on having a pond...it is always possible wherever you may be !!! So relaxing after a long hard day to sit beside it and listen to the water running, and see the fish swimming around.
Lee Anne

Your garden is lovely. Where could you possible live in Vancouver that is to cold for a pond.

Wow, that's beautiful! I can imagine the work that went into it. Really, really lovely. The dry stone wall caught my eye too.

I have a pond in a fairly cold zone too. I have an aquarium set up. My goldfish are in it in the winter and hubby's fishing minnows are in there for the summer! lol

Sandy

ah_hoya - that is lovely. And while I don't have a pond, my next door neighbours do. Where are you in Vancouver? My daughter lives there and we'll all be out there in March for her wedding.

Ann

I actually live near Princton BC My zone is 3-4
When signing up I just put down the generic Van Canada

Sandy the 'stone' wall is actually broken chunks of concrete side walk. Each piece is about a square foot in size.

Great way to use old sidewalk!

Even in Princton, you should be able to have a pond successfully. We are moving to an area in the Southern Interior too that is a zone 4-5. It has a concrete pond that I fully expect will be just as good as the one I have here in Zone 6. Definitely, you should think of putting in another one. You obviously know what you're doing when it comes to ponds. Your image above is absolutely beautiful.

Don

ah_hoya your ponds are awesome! It doesn't matter what zone you live in for ponds. It just means we don't get to hear them as long as some others.
:) Donna

Hi ViolaAnn

The wall extends for another 30 feet and rises to 4 feet high. It has a lush foot thick white cerastium planted above it that hangs over comlpletely to the ground hiding most of it in summer.
I used to sculpt the cerastium to let the wall peek through it spots. It was very pretty in bloom.

Aaaaaaaaaaah eye-candy for a pond lover......awesome design and planting ah-hoya!

Your pond is gorgeous.

Thank You.
It WAS my pond. :(
I wish I had pictures from above because just behind the girl is another pond 3 feet across by 16 inches deep and another above that another about 2 feet by a foot deep.
The plan was to have a faux 'creek' from the concrete block wall near the maple, running into the top pond with a nice little bridge over it but I never found the time to do that.

What a gorgeous picture! The whole thing is awesome!! A friend of our's has a pond and 13 goldfish that stay in it all winter. All she has to do is keep the aerator going and they do just fine. We get pretty cold here. :)

Ah_Hoya,
That garden is simply magnificent. I would never have wanted to leave that behind. I hope to extend the gardens around my small preformed pond, but slow going. the slight slope really lends itself to the garden over-all. Thank you for sharing that wonderful photo. Do make another. A lot of work, for sure, but so pleasing to look at when it is falling into place. Bambam