Dull as ditchwater

Used to be, excess water from our neighbor's fishpond would drain into our fish ponds. On any normal day this is not a problem since the water flows like a small stream... until a heavy downpour comes. As water rushes through, the strong current erodes the banks of the fishponds causing significant damages.

To solve this perennial problem, they dug a ditch to permanently divert this flowing water away from the fishponds. This ditch traverses the entire width of the farm in almost a straight line, safely directing the water into another neighbor's pond. But due to the sloping terrain, some portions would drop at a steep angle a foot or more high, causing water to cascade down like little waterfalls. The unintended but delightful result is this soothing and calming sound of water falling and running, which is impossible not to hear when you're strolling nearby.

The ditch, which runs almost forever, however is somewhat of an eyesore. We could bury it like an underground drainage, but then we'd lose the view and sound of running water. There is no danger to health anyway since technically it's clean, coming from a pond full of fishes.

While walking alongside this long and narrow excavation, an idea dawned on me. What if (in the future), we widen the ditch, make it deeper and let the water accumulate to a certain depth. Then throw in plenty of aquatic plants and landscape the surrounding areas with bog plants, other water-loving plants, ferns, moss, pebbles, rocks, etc. Voila! We have a water garden!

Just thinking about the potential of this plain ditch makes me salivate like a child gazing at all the sweet treats in a candy store.

Icing on the cake

Whew!!! Bring out the cake and party hats!

Who knew? I could not believe that its been a month now since I started a chronicle (in short, blog) of our 'little grand' project. And hopefully (knowing myself), I will be able to sustain this blogging project until the very end, when our 'little grand' project is finally a working, breathing entity.

Since we have a long, long, loonnngggg way to go before the project is completed, let's get back to business. Unfortunately though, I don't have much information to update you with for now.

Once again, I called home to get the latest update and I was told the process of erecting the fence on one side of the farm is moving along nicely but its not even halfway. Finally all the chain links have also been delivered. So apart from acts of men or acts of nature, there should be no reason to stop or even slow down.

That's it. Told you there's not much to update you with. But...

My quest to find garden design ideas prompted me to visit one of the garden attractions here in Salt Lake City. It is called the Red Butte Garden and Arboretum. And I would say it was a fun, interesting and enjoyable experience as I strolled around this sprawling and beautiful city garden. Aside from that, I was also able to get some pretty cool ideas I could certainly use in our own garden.



Wisteria arbor


Modern water features that separate the Herb, Medicinal and Fragrance gardens



Herb (top) Fragrance (bottom) gardens


Entrance of Children's garden



Views inside Children's garden


Waterfalls (top), Koi fishes (middle) and Water Pavilion at the creekside



Other cool water features and foot bridges




Decks and garden patios

If you noticed that there are no close-up pictures of plants and flowers, you are right, there is none. It's because I am more interested with the structures and design concepts. But it doesn't mean I didn't take any, maybe they'll appear on some other posts.

I'm pretty sure though that the designers of this garden did not include this particular creature as an added attraction. Snake!!!!

While we were leisurely strolling and taking pictures, one of our companions suddenly shrieked in fear. There was a rattlesnake slithering its way across our path. And we knew it was visibly irritated because it was vigorously rattling its tail as if saying 'get out of my way!'

I took a snap of it after it found an empty crevice where it thought it can safely hide. Although we ran into a sign that says there may be snakes on the premises, we never thought we would encounter one. Now that's the icing on the cake to our stroll in the garden.