My little pondside garden construction

I had an area next to the little pond, that was all clay and nothing much but weeds was growing there, there was a waterfall there that I built in 2016 out of salvaged rocks, and waterfall parts and a waterproof membrane, and moved in salvaged plants at that time to grow around the waterfall. I also added some old logs and an old metal trellis in this area, but it didn't have a place to sit and enjoy the scenery.

I also had this octagon shaped salvaged piece, not sure what it was, but it wasn't treated lumber so I wasn't sure how to use it. I decided to paint it and use it for a Japanese style screen on the south side of my new little garden area. I added some posts to hold it up and framed it with used 2x4's and an old window box for a planter at the bottom of the screen. I planted some vines and some hostas and perennials in the window box and in the garden around it.

Here I moved in an old piece of decking and a swing that I had at the other end of the pond. I had all these cement pavers saved from a patio that had been behind our old garage when we had our house fire, so I hauled them back here to make paths and a patio area around the swing and beside the waterfall. I also formed a few  new garden areas with the walkways around them and have been planting them with hostas, ferns, and perennials.

Then I took some old salvaged lattice and made a screen on the east side of the new area, this makes it private from the neighbors and road to our east. Put up a few bird houses to draw in my feathered friends. The hemlock tree had been there for a long time. There was a beautiful Japanese pine as well, but it was winterkilled a couple of years ago. There was also a weeping willow nearby that I had planted that was growing nicely I underplanted with day lillies.

This garden is also behind our son's house, which is next door to us. Joel loves Japanese style gardens so this is also meant to be enjoyed by him. We have a fairly large lawn area around this with a few shrubs and trees growing in the area and to the south is an area of raised beds that I have been building recently, with arbors for and kiwis.

The pond itself has been left wild so that it will attract wildlife of all sorts. And it does. This photo was taken in the spring before the cattails and waterlilies had their new growth on them in 2017. 


This photo was taken from another salvaged decking piece that I put in the corner of the little garden that has a bench on it. The ornamental grasses you see in the photo are growing around the waterfall.
You can see a few of the baby hostas ad ferns that I planted, they are really small but will grow and spread and fill in and make the garden lush and nice in a few years. This was right after they were planted.