Gardening Questions and Answers to Perfect your Garden and Waterfall
Q. I am building a water garden in our back garden and I want to give it a sort of Japanese flavour without going over the top with ornaments and such like. Are there important principles in design that would help give it the sort of serene atmosphere you get in Japanese gardens?
A. Water has been essential to Japanese gardens since the concept of a garden was originally lifted from the Chinese in the 9th century. Even if there is no real water there the element can be symbolically represented with raked gravel. Not only is it the heart of a Japanese garden, it is there to reflect the beauty of the overhanging trees and it adds depth and space to the area in front of the viewer. Water in a pool is a balancing in element to the hard yo of the rocks and also any stream or cascade running through or over the rocks, so it must be in proportion to the other elements in the garden.
As long as the shape of the pool is fairly organic, you can get away with edging it with anything. The customary shingle and large pebbles leading up to a lawn of moss may not seem suitable for many domestic situations. Decking is a soft option and balances the effects of a lot of hard landscaping, even reducing the effect of a geometric shape to a pool. The art is in less rather than more. Allow yourself certain well-placed features or the right kind of containers suitably planted placed in a harmonious balance.
Islands are important because they were inherited with the original concept from China where the island was the home of Immortal Souls. They also help to hide some of the water from the viewer in a large stretch of water. All of the water must not be visible from any one point suggesting that there is more to be seen.
For the health and clarity of the water, it must never remain static. Traditionally the water garden would be fed by a natural stream and an outlet from the pool would rejoin the original course of the stream. The source of the water must be obscured from view and you must never be able to see the whole water garden from one point.
Moving water is as essential as the calm reflective pool because it has the power to distract us from our preoccupations. The noise it creates also has the effect of drowning out most other extraneous noise in a calming way. Small ribbon waterfalls are as effective as great torrents.
In the heavily symbolic structure of a typical Japanese waterfall where the water lands at the base, there is often a stone that divides the water as it rushes on downstream. This represents a fish on its journey up the waterfall where it will turn into a dragon. The water dividing stone at the top represents the dragon, a symbol of mans ultimate achievement in his journey through life.
Keeping Children Away from the Watergardens
Question: As a family we have always loved the idea of having a garden pool and much to our delight we have just moved in to a new house that already has a small water garden. However some friends of ours say that they are so dangerous to children they advise us to fill it in as they have done with theirs. It seems such a shame, is it necessary?
By the way our children are 6 and 8 years old and are usually quite sensible.
Answer: Your children have probably passed the dangerous age. A short time ago the DTI conducted a survey into children in drowning accidents in the garden, which showed that there had been a regular number of deaths from drowning in garden ponds involving children (usually) under 5.
There had been between 6 and 10 deaths for every year for the last ten years. 39% of these accidents occurred at neighbours houses, 29% at relatives and 18% in the childrens own homes. The children most at risk were 1 and 2 year olds (80% of those killed) and most of the children were boys (76%).
What is alarming is that these figures should have been so consistent year after year despite the increase in media exposure. However in 2002 there was a sharp drop in the figures and it was hoped that the outcry was beginning to have some effect. Perhaps the significant decline was a result of the rise in popularity of the pebble pool style water feature. Or perhaps we were just becoming more aware of the magnetism between children and water. Whatever it does not mean there is any room for complacency and if you feel there might be any danger it is as well to take precautions.
If you felt as though you ought to fence the pool for the sake of your friends who might have itinerant toddlers, dont have a gate. The one time it gets left open is when the accident happens.
All toddlers should be supervised at all times by an adult, especially visitors since over 70% of these accidents occurred within 5 minutes of the child last being seen alive. Also ensure that any neighbours children cannot sneak into your garden when you are not there.
If you do feel it is necessary to fill in the pool, do it one operation. Innumerable accidents have occurred in pools emptied for safety reasons (particularly concrete pools) that have been left dry, but have collected sufficient rainwater in which a toddler could drown. When the toddler falls in he or she is quite capable of drowning in just 3inches of water!
What many reporters of this survey fail to mention however is that during the same period the survey covered nearly as many adults died in ponds by drowning as children. Some of them were frail old people but on the whole most of the tragedies were related to alcohol consumption.
So what do you do if people cannot even sensibly look after themselves, let alone children? It would be a shame to remove even one of the many thousands of garden pools that exist in every town, city and village in the country, since they now make up the most important home for much of our aquatic wildlife in this country.
There are a number of companies that will install a u/v stable heavy plastic or metal safety grill to make the situation completely foolproof and allow you and wild life to enjoy the pool. One is Safapond Ltd in Nottinghamshire.
Published with permission of Peter May, for more visit ...http://www.linklux.com/ ..