I know many here enjoy gardening, so I thought I'd share this article. I particularly love the canoe pond. I wouldn't be able to row a canoe, with my physical limitations, but this would be a great way to enjoy having one around, and I've always wanted a garden pond. The water feature for a shade garden is cool, too. I have a shady section of my yard where I've planted a palm tree, and it would be nice to add something like that. I've been wanting to make a fountain using a solar panel, but the funds aren't available right now, so I enjoy looking around for inspiration online. http://www.hometalk.com/b/856902/di...=facebook&utm_campaign=featured&date=20150617
The canoe garden is awesome, Diane, and I really like that one the best, too. They are all really nice though, and the little waterfall one is awesome; but would take a lot more knowledge to build. If we had that out next to our little swimming pool, we could pretend we are swimming on a secret pond somewhere. The lot behind our house is so densely overgrown, you can't even tell that there is a main street back there. Once I get the shrubbery growing up around the perimeter of the fenceline; then we will truly have our own private world out back. I have read about raising fish in a back yard pond, and I think we could maybe do that with one of the small swimming pools like we are using right now for swimming. Tilapia are supposed to do really well for back-yard fish farming, and they would be fine with the shade out there. Maybe we can add a pretty fountain in the top of that and make it a water feature as well ?
That sounds like a great idea @Yvonne Smith. It never occurred to me to actually farm fish in the backyard. If you do, make sure you read up about protecting them from predators. I had some fish in my patio pond before, and one morning I went out to feed them, and found a blood bath. I think it was probably raccoons that got to them, and there were fish parts everywhere, it was sickening. Maybe y'all could fasten some fencing to the top that could be removed when you needed to access it, or something like that. You could maybe even make some money selling them, if you chose to. I'm not into killing and cleaning them, or I might consider that, since it would be great to not have to buy fish, and I could stand to add more of them into my diet. It sounds as if you'll eventually have a backyard oasis. One or more water features would probably drown out any noise from outside your property, and also block others from hearing what goes on inside it. I like the idea of that, especially if it drowned out the sound of chain saws and lawnmowers . I find those particularly jarring, especially if I haven't slept well the night before. One of these days, I will set my patio pond up again, but I need to get a new pump, I believe. It's only about 13 gallons, and has a Tiffany glass style bottom, which is particularly pretty with water in it.