Who or what inspired you to ponding?

There has to be a reason... some person... something that triggered your passion for ponding and having a pond of your own in your own yard. For me, my interest in Mother Nature and esp. one person are reasons for enjoying my little pond for almost 4 years now. Here is the picture of the person in "His Eden" - you can see his pond in the background just behind him. I inspired him to visit DG.... signed in... but duly forgot the username and password when he did not visit after a gap of a month or so two years back. He's a busy engineer, very creative... I've copied some ideas from him and he is quite happy to share his knowledge. He's a true gardener too, just loves plants and nature like all of us. Has lots of space in his premises - a real rarity and a lucky element these days [ancestral home]. We have exchanged views, fish, plants. His pond got a leak and changed the liner after which I have visited less. This is an older picture - I think I posted in some thread before but it is vague memory.

Share yours!

Dinu

I had never really thought about having a water pond until I just started digging a hole in my garden one day to plant a shrub of some kind and just kept digging. I ended up with kind of an roundish shape about five feet across and and two feet deep. Have enjoyed it and expanded every year since then. Never by much really, just what I can manage to put in myself. I will have to take pics when the weather gets better.

I'll wait for that tetley. Hope you have taken them in different stages.

As a child I lived with my grandparents on 30 acres with 3 ponds and a creek running through it!!! All the cousins played along the creekbed at a beaver dam. It became my favorite spot in the whole world and I guess it stuck with me as I grew up and had to have my own waterfall and pond.

This is my waterfall now!!!

jeri11-
very simular story here. my grandparents owed a 22acre farm with a stream that ran through it. my cousins and I would spend hours down there, it was so peaceful. My husband and I bought our first place 6yrs ago and when we moved in, we noticed quite the hole already in the back yard and immediately thought - Yippee my very own waterfall/pond - peaceful place. After going to a pond/koi shop. well the rest is obviously history ;-)
DC

Isn't it funny how odd things in our lives make such an impression later. I never realized how much those lazy days really meant to me!!! We seemed to have time back then, now it just flies by. LOL!!!!

Jeri,
That's very nice w/f! Very lucky you are to live in a dream!! One more dream of mine remains and in all probability, it will remain in that state I think - to be sitting near a waterfall in my home [not when the overhead tank overflows or when it is raining - LOL] listening to the sound of splashing water and no other sound but some birds! Very wild dream considering the situation I'm in right now - even ponding can become history. :(

Yes indeed, we had lots of time for ourselves as well as for others. Now we see ourselves racing against time and hardly any time for others!! That's a sad development in my view. Time flies.. but I sometimes ask myself "what have I achieved during that time?"

Your ponds are beautiful. When I lived in FL, we were on a small lake that allowed only electric motors, no gas engines or water skiing--very quiet and lovely. Now I have only a small through and a birdbath! What a difference even a very little bit of water can make. The sound is so tranquil and gazing at the water and letting your mind calm has got to be good for one. Please post more pictures as your landscape matures and changes around your ponds.

Well Dinu, now is the time to start building! As talented as you are I am sure you could come up with just the right thing. Work on it a little at a time and soon you will be amazed at what you have accomplished. Even if it turns out not to be exactly as you envisioned it, the final result could possibly be better. When I put the stream and waterfalls in I was thinking of a trickling stream something similar to the beautiful work of Jeri11 and SongsofJoy. Mine is not even close but I really love the way it turned out.

Who knows, If you talk your DW into showing me how to put on one of her beautiful saris I may pack up the shovel and come help you dig!

This message was edited Mar 5, 2008 10:26 PM

Thank you Tetley!!! It was 44 years before my dreams were realized and I've thoughtly enjoyed it for 15 years already and hope for alot more!!!! There is still plenty to do!!!

Thank you jeri and Tetleytuna. Inspiration!!

Well Tetley,
My DW will be pleased to show/teach how the sari is put on.. for that you have to bring 'your person' here for first-hand demonstration!! We have slightly rocky earth beneath and so you need more tools than a shovel!! LOL.

For me it was my friends here on DG... the Southwest Gardening Forum. Their beautiful ponds inspired us, and honestly, we didn't know it could be done here. My DH had built a couple of ponds (before me) back in England, but together we created our desert oasis. Also, this water gardening forum has and continues to inspire and educate us. See what DG does!

Brenda

That's true as well, Brenda. I've learnt many things once I got started, in this forum.

During my marriage and raising my children we lived in God's country - on Georgian Bay..later when DH passed away I moved to a farm which had a large enough pond that we were able to canoe/paddleboat so when I moved to town I was heart-broken..the house I purchased had a rather large back yard so one day I started to dig, music on, sunny day, and I dug and dug and dug until almost an entire corner of my world was dug..it is in levels and the deepest being 6'...last year was my 1st year really, didn't put any plants within but started a garden around it..during hot days I'd even sit on one of the levels until DS caught me..explained the dangers of 'HYDRO AND WATER' lol..so this year, I look forward to including pond plants...

Betty, it is amazing what you can accomplish with just one shovel full at a time isn't it? I know if I would have thought it out ahead of time I probably would have given up before I even started.

Nice post Betty!

Betty, way to go... apparently you were inspired to dig! Can't wait to see pics of it this summer!

Brenda

Betty congrats!!! All that digging paid off with a nice pond for you to enjoy now!!!!

And the colour and beauty of the water lily also wanted me to have one myself in my own yard. Just before I came to know about that friend's pond, I had visited a reputed school premises [my botanist friend had taken me there to see the garden], I was stunned by the beauty of the different lilies growing in water. Soon after, I came to know that friend and then decided the best place for it then took up the tools after applying leave to office for a week! All done myself - no shovel. The amount of soil that came from the pit in 4 days defied my imagination - though my pond is small. I had to choose areas to fill this soil with. It was back-breaking! But probably it made me stronger. This pattern never ceases to impress me!

Isn't it amazing how easily we're hooked for life!!!!

Thank you for the kind words..this photo only shows a little corner of the pond and flower garden not completed, but I enjoyed it last year...thought I'd share..

What a place Betty!
Very pretty!
Had your tea?

Thanks Dinu, my friends always laugh, that's about 1/4 of my garden and then almost as much in front..I've a zillion places to sit, but they've never seen me sit..did a little 'TEA' room to have my cup, but so far, been to busy...lol

Edited to say the only one taking time to smell the flowers is my "MISSY"

This message was edited Mar 11, 2008 1:17 PM

Betty that looks like my tea house. I rarely sit in it either but love it when I do!!!!

Jeri absolutely gorgeous..I told my DB that when he does my gazebo (using satelite dish) that I promise to sit at least one hour a day...had my fingers crossed behind my back when I said such a thing.... how very peaceful it looks...I make little sitting areas within the yard..non match the beauty of yours..perhaps this year...lol

My picture didn't enlarge much but it looks very inviting to me. We used my tea house last year for the RU and had 1 wedding out there but other than that it goes unused!! I'm usually sitting up by the pool so the GKs can get me wet and I can keep them from doing permanent damage to each other.

While on a trip 7 yrs. ago to Bristol TN for the August NASCAR Bristol night race I coaxed my DH into stopping at a garden center. In the August heat, built right smack dab in the middle of a hot asphalt parking lot, was a waterfall and small pond with fish and plants. It was built right on top of the paving with natural TN stone from the area and a rubber liner. It blew me away. Even my normally non-gardening DH was transfixed. We came home and dug a hole, a big hole and then a year later we dug a second bigger hole. Who says NASCAR isn't enriching?!

If your like me it's been a whole learning experience!!!! Everyday!!!

Nice shots Betty and Jeri. If there is a pond, sitting areas are a must. That is another inspiring thing. Sit there and relax. Ponder over the various things while listening to the birds....is an experience not many can get! I love that slightly curved stone bench Jeri.

Betty and Jeri... both so very pretty!

Brenda

Thank you..don't you think it's a catch 22...if you want your yard to have ponds, sitting areas, secret rooms, flower beds..my oh my, when WOULD you get to sit...the more I get interested in my gardening and the beauty of the yard, making wonderful art pieces for it, well, it gives me less and less time to enjoy...a yard with a chair, 2 flowers might have been the answer

By the time I painted these there was no time to sit..lol

Have a few minutes before leaving for the city..found a photo of the pond mid-summer...by fall I had enlarged the garden..this spring will order large slabs of rock to I can have a waterfall..

Yep I went in search of all those rocks..hard on the back, but worth the effort..

Betty I love those two chairs and the painting!!!! Gorgeous!!!!

I was inspired by my love of nature - especially anything having to do with water - streams, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, oceans, etc. I looked for a few years for a piece of affordable land with a natural river running through it, but couldn't find anything...so one day I just decided to build my own. My watergarden consists of a 70 foot stream, multiple waterfalls and a 3000 gallon pond. While I love it all, I love my stream most of all. It's certainly not as majestic as the real thing - but I enjoy it nonetheless!



This message was edited Mar 12, 2008 10:32 AM

OMG just love it..such a sense of peace sitting nearby a stream or a pond...now that must have surely taken loads of work..

Betty, I call it Paradise! That shot of yours above is simply fantastic. The sound of water is so relaxing! No wonder, SongsofJoy decided to own one.

Thanks Betty and Dinu. Yes, it was a lot of work, but I would do it all over again if I had to. As Dinu says, there is absolutely nothing like the sound of running water. There is a seating area off the left side of the picture. I spend lots of time there.

I absolutely love your stream the most also!!! I could just spend hours there, LOL if you didn't live soo far off!!! But I enjoy strolling with you when you do post pictures. It's so cool and refreshing looking!!!!

lol..and a lot less work!

Joy, I could just live there almost entirely! Peace, tranquility, that trickling sound of water, the chirping of birds... aaaah, that's the world for me......but I'm in opposite quarters.... heavy traffic, pollution.... yet, I do have a small chance to listen to the birds early in the mornings when there is no traffic. I sit there beside the pond [no water sound], coffee glass in hand, fish feed granules for the fish...