Miniature Water Garden

Last week we talked about how to upgrade your outdoor space with some easy and fun DIY projects. San Diego gives a great variety of backyard landscaping ideas, especially with its pretty consistent weather conditions. So let’s talk about our next project, it is quite simple to make and such a wonderful and affordable add on to your backyard space.

Pint sized container water garden! Yes, this small 18” to 20” version of an enchanted fairy tale pond is a project easily made in one day and will give your backyard or patio space once again a big “WOW” effect.

Here is the list of what you will need ( which you can get at any San Diego Garden Center):

• 18”-22” plastic container ( it should be around 8” deep)

• clear vinyl tubing

• submersible pump

• a sprouting object (to pump a small amount of water and give the pond the soothing sound of splashing water)

• pea gravel

• clean kitty litter

• water plants (of course)

• nylon stocking

• partition (stone/brick or any heavy material to split the plastic container in 2 parts)

Once you decided on your container look for the best place in your outdoor space. Aquatic plants thrive in direct sunlight. A sunny but wind free space will be ideal. You will also need an electric outlet for the sprouting object/water pump.split it in half with big rocks or any heavy material to separate between a lower and a higher side. The lower side (which means less gravels) will be perfect for plants that “float” on top of the water like lilies. The shallow side will be the area for plants that prefer shallow water conditions.

First drill a small hole in the rim of your plastic container, big enough to mount the water sprouting ornament. You can find beautiful ceramic ornaments at your local garden store. Now add the deep water plants (we picked lilies for our project) to the deep side of your water garden and spread out the soil around the area. Add the kitty litter on top of the soil, around the water lilies, this will create a level floor. The object that you decide to be your partition should be placed inside your container in the middle to divide the water garden in two levels. Add the water plants for the shallow growing side, spread out the soil as you did for the deep wate side and fill it in with kitty litter.

Now we only need a couple more steps to complete the garden. Cover a regular sized plastic cup with plastic to prevent gravel from falling in. Add a plastic cup to the deep side Into the kitty litter so that it sits nice and snug. Now fill the container with your nice looking pea gravel, keeping the side for the lilies lower than the facing side.

Remove the plastic cover from the cup. FIrst connect your water pump to the spouter object with vinyl tubing. Add the pump inside the plastic cup and press it down so that the suction cups grip to the bottom.

You are almost done!! Cover the pump with a nylon stocking filter to prevent gravel or anything else from falling inside and clogging up your pump. Add as much gravel as needed to cover the pump and the cup.

Voila, fill up the new created water garden with water and you have a beautiful new landscape addition in your backyard or on your patio!

Water gardens are very low in maintenance, just fill up the evaporated water and occasionally scoop up some algae or dead plants.