WiseAcre Gardens

north of the adirondacks – wildflowers & perennials that survive winters colder than my wife's feet

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Garden Pond at Home

Posted by WiseAcre on May 12th, 2008

2008

May 12

It wasn’t so long ago that the gardens looked bare and the pond stood in stark contrast to the landscape.

Pond during early spring

A few weeks later and things are looking much better.

Pond - May 12

What caught my attention today was some Sweet Woodruff growing out of the pond wall. Sweet Woodruff earns it’s reputation as an aggressive spreader. Not even a stone wallseems to stop it.

Sweet Woodruff growing out of a stone wall

Below the woodruff are Jewelweed seedlings and above is a creeping hydrangea which is proving to be no match against the invading groundcover.

Sweet Woodruff

On the other side of the pond the Hostas and Ligularia are filling out nicely.

Pond

Now to zoom in a bit closer to see the ‘bubble rock’

Bubble Rock

Calling this stone special is an understatement. No one had ever seen anything like this before at the quarry and I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else either. Ripples – yes. Bubbles – no. The stone has lost it’s colors as it’s darkened with age. I suppose a good powerwash would bring back the purple and orange.

Bubble Rock

This was one set of slabs I wasn’t going to let go of. Unless of course you make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Perennials , Ponds , Stonework
Comments(8)

8 Responses

Northern Shade Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
The softening effects of the plants give such mellow feel to the pond. I like the mixture of the stone wall and natural rock. The leaves reflected in the pond is a classic shot.
Northern Shade,

I agree – rock looks best when you ‘hide’ it with plants. Come winter and they become over-exposed and the sight of so much stone can get bleak and stark.
Joy Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hey there Wiseacre !
This is weird .. I just finished visiting Nan Ondra’s blog where she did a post on rocks .. “singing rocks” included .. but your bubble rocks are certainly something I have never seen before !
I love the pond .. plants and ROCKS .. my Sweet Woodruff disappeared on me .. so now you know what CAN stop it ? .. ME ! LOL
Joy

Joy,
I’ll have to go check out Ondra’s blog when I get a chance. May is a tough time, too many people want their project finished last week. I’m forcing myself to reply to comments in the morning. By evening I’m too tired to sit at the computer.

Someday I’ll tell you about “Sex Stones’

OH Joy a Sweet Woodruff Killer
Mr. McGregor's Daughter Says:
May 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I love how nature is trying to commandeer the pond, & I have a bad case of Ligularia envy. I also have an even worse case of stone envy. Sigh.

Mr. McGregor’s Daughter,
If you have a shady spot that gets early moring sun you may be in luck. I find my Ligularia doesn’t like the sun and will wilt but once the sun passes the plants quickly recover. I’ve kept mine wet but I have volunteers that came up behind the wall where it gets pretty dry. That area gets bright light but little direct sun.

I can’t really help you with the stone envy. You’re going to have to find your own idiot to bring you some. My village misses me too much when I leave.
Rosengeranium (Indoor Gardener) Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 6:52 am
I want a pond too, but I think the allotment board would disagree if I made one on my allotment. Perhaps I could use the bathtub instead…

Rosengeranium,
I feel as bad for people who can’t have a pond as for those without cats. Please don’t say you don’t have a cat too or I’ll really be depressed

Around here old bathtubs are used to build shrines. I should take photos of all the tubs half buried on end protecting statues of Mary and do a post.
Benjamin Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
4 million dollars for the stone. Shipped by you, and installed by you. Deal? It’s pretty cool, as are the green things around the pond. Plants. Green things are called plants.

Benjamin,
Deal! I’ll be at your place on Monday with the stone. There’s a 25% blogger discount so 3 mil will do. And not all green things around a pond are plants. Have a drink from the pond and we’ll see what color you turn.
Frances Says:
May 21st, 2008 at 5:31 am
Hi Wiseacre, you are on my must read list, the responses to comments are as wonderful as the postings. We struggle to keep sweet woodruff alive here in TN. Maybe too hot? I finally got it going in the more moist shade under the garage deck steps, But barely. We are zone 7. Love your bubble rock.

Frances at Faire Garden

Frances,
The responses come easy, it’s the postings that give me trouble without someone to bounce off of. I’m a man of few words until you get me started.

I don’t know about the heat but Sweet Woodruff has to have moist fairly loose soil in deep shade. I’ve tried it on Long Island where the soil is mainly acidic clay and it didn’t like that no matter how moist and shady it was. Since it likes to spread by underground roots I think the compact clay had more to do with it’s poor growing than the pH. But I wouldn’t be surprised it doesn’t like the lower pH too – Where I see it run amuck is usually in wooded areas with a neutral sandy soil
Ben Says:
July 8th, 2009 at 4:12 am
It’s wonderful. i like a lot the photos so full of colour, and it’s nice how everywhere appears some green.great job and the bubble rock that’s for sure something.thanks for sharing!
Becky Says:
May 20th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
My gardening friend Ingelborg from Germany says that there sweet woodruff grows under beech trees. She gathered beech leaves to mulch her plants in the shade if her house.