• Finishing Touches for the Water Garden:Landscaping the Edges

• The Iris and Other Plants for the Water’s Edge

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Happy are those who desire to do some good water gardening or install an outdoor fountain and who have natural river and stream and pond, as yet untouched by the injudicious improver.

For a beautiful old bank or water edge is a precious thing and difficult to imitate. But if the pond still possesses its own precious edge, and has its upper end half silted with alluvial mud, its great tussocks of coarse Sedges, its groups of Alders and luscious tufts of Marsh Mari-golds, it is as a canvas primed and ready for the artist’s brush. Access is important, a firm footing is necessary.  So we make a path by putting down some rough ballast and ramming it partly into the moist ground, and lay flat stepping stones upon it, and level up to them. In the very wettest places, or if the path has to be taken actually into the water, alder trunks, cut up two feet long and driven into the wet ground, will make a durable and effectual sub-structure. It is a matter of simple comfort  but important to not show an “artificial” garden path.

A pond-head sometimes must be rather straight and in some cases may have to be walled, but when the wall is not needful and the pond edge is to be planted for beauty, its natural shore should be treasured and retained. It is all the prettier if the path does not exactly follow its edge, but only occasionally reaches it; and it can be made quite dry and sound by some such method as that above described at a far less cost than would have to be undertaken for an edge-destroying walling.

It was a good day for our water margins when the Giant Gunneras were introduced; for the immense size and noble form of their foliage enables us to make water-pictures on a scale that before was impossible. One would like to grow them in several other ways, one of them being on the banks of some stream that passes down a narrow valley with a wide and shallow stream-way strewn with great grey boulders. The Gunneras are so overpoweringly large that they dwarf everything near them; their size seems to demand some association with primeval rock-form and evidence of primeval force.

Often one sees some piece of water that just misses being pictorial, and yet might easily be made so. It is in the park ground of a fine place whose ancient gardens are full of beauty, and whose environment is of grandly wooded hill and dale. The abrupt line of this pond cutting straight across the foot of the rising ground on the right is somewhat harsh and unnatural. A great improvement could easily be effected by a moderate amount of navy’s work, if it were directed to running a sharp-pointed bay into the rising ground on the right, and tipping the earth taken out into the square corner on the near right hand; saving the bed of rushy growth and planting it back on the new edge and into the bay. The exact position of the excavation would be chosen by following any indication towards a hollow form in the ground above, and by considering how its lines would harmonize with the lines already existing. The two sides of the bay would also be eased down after the manner of those hollow places one some-times sees by pond or lake in rising ground where cattle or wild creatures come down to drink.

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Unless the pond is in immediate connection with garden ground, masses of handsome flowering plants look all the better when they are detached from one another, as they are usually seen in nature. It maintains the wild-garden character that is suitable in places that are rather distant from the garden. Equisetum is also one of the desirable water-side plants for this use; best in boggy ground in shade. Where the pond adjoins the garden a more free use can be made of garden plants. The pond-edge in the picture has been boldly sown with Poppies and Foxgloves, with capital effect. In such a place the perennial Oriental Poppy would also be excellent, and the larger of the herbaceous Spiraeas; the large white-plumed S. Aruncus; S. venusta, S. palmata, and the double Meadow Sweet, S. Ulmaria.

In that same good garden at Wisley, now the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, the beautiful Japanese Iris leevigata or I. Kampiferi grows by the thousand;in the flowering grassy banks by the narrow water opposite the Gunneras, by the edges of other ponds, and in a meadow-like space of several acres. In all these and other such places this good plant, the Water Iris, is doing well. There is a general idea that all Irises like water gardens, and that Irises, with them, mean Flag-leaved Irises. These are for the most part mountain plants, while Iris florentina grows on wall-tops; and though they may do fairly well on a well-drained river bank, they are not the true Irises for water edges. Among those most commonly in cultivation, the ones for the water-sides are the native yellow- flowered Sword-flag (Iris Pseud-acorus), I. ochroleuca, grand in cool, moist loam; I. fulva, I. monnieri, the varieties of I. sibirica, and the noble Japanese flower so grandly grown at Wisley.

Plants that are distinct of habit and large of leaf always look well near water; this has been felt in the Devonshire garden, where a tuft of Veratrum album is seen seated on a rock overhanging the rushing stream, although it is not a true water-plant.

The great Cow-Parsnep (Heracleum) is one of the best of water-side ornaments. The kind we have known and used so long seems likely to be superseded by the newer and still handsomer H. mantegazzianum. The plants of Cow-Parsnep in the picture are rather too much smothered among other growths, which hide the handsome radical leaves. It is seen at its best in grassy water edge or other cool damp place where it is backed by dark foliage. It would be excellent about old water-mill buildings.

Thalictrum flavum is a first-rate water-side plant. Originally a native, and not unfrequently to be found on river banks, it has been improved and much in- creased in size by cultivation, and now throws up its grand heads of feathery yellow bloom to a height of seven feet or more. It is always well in planting pond edges to have a good quantity of the flag-like native growths; Bulrushes and Sweet-sedge and the best of the other Sedges.

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• Plants for the Water-Lily Garden

• The Water-Lily Garden, A Meditative Focus in the Formal Garden

• A Terrace Vision for a Water-Lily Garden

• Additions to the Terraced Water-Lily Garden

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In this case I would have the two lowest steps actually below the water-line. Although steps are in the first instance intended for the human foot, yet we have become so well accustomed to the idea of them as easy means of access from one level to another that in many cases they are also desirable as an aid to the eye. In this proposed layout, the easy lines of shallow steps from the level of the path to that of the water-surface and below it, would be preferable to any raised edging such as is more usually seen round built tanks. It would give the eye the pleasant feeling of being invited to contemplate the Lilies, instead of being cut off from them by a raised barrier.

On the sides of the path away from the tank is a flower border, backed by the wall that bounds the whole area of the court. On the three sides, to the right and left and across the tank as you stand on the main flight of steps, the wall, midway in each space, falls back into a half-round niche. The niche across the tank is filled with Cannas, the taller kinds at the back for stately stature and nobility of large leafage; the smaller ones, of larger bloom, being planted towards the front.

The upper terrace wall above the level of the Lily court would no doubt be surmounted by a wrought-stone balustrade, but as the scheme descended towards the lowest level the architectural features would diminish, so that they would end in a flagged walk only, with steps where needful.

But the treatment of this would depend on what was below. If it was all pleasure ground, or if there was a river or lake, the architectural refinements would be continued, though not obtruded; if it was a kitchen garden it would be approached by perhaps a simpler walled enclosure for Vines and Figs, the paved walk passing between two green spaces, in the center of each of which would stand a Mulberry tree. On the upper leveled spaces right and left the formal feeling would merge into the free, for there is no reason why the two should not be combined, and on one level at least the green expanse should be seen from end to end, the flagged path only passing across it. And all the way down there would be the living water, rippling, rushing, and falling. Open channels in which it flowed with any considerable fall would be built in little steps with falls  to capture the musical quality of flowing water.

Descending the slope, at every fresh landing some new form of plant beauty would be displayed; how, coming up from below, the ascent of a hundred feet would be a progress of pleasure by the help of the smooth flagged path and the wide flights of easy steps. Every step in the garden would be nearly two feet broad and never more than five inches high, no matter how steep the incline. If ground falls so rapidly that steps of such a gradient cannot be carried straight up and down, we build out a bold landing and carry the steps in a double flight right and left, and then land again, and come down to the next level with another flight. Then we find what a good wide space is left below for a basin and a splash of water or some handsome group of plants, or both.

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Then there are frequent seats, so placed as best to give rest to the pilgrim and to display the garden-picture. Where the lower flights of steps occur we are passing through woodland, with a not very wide space between the edge of the wood and the wide paved way, here unbounded by any edging. Here we have, in widespread groups, plants of rather large stature Bamboos, and the great Knotweeds of Japan, the large Tritomas and the Giant Reeds and grasses, Arundo, Gynerium and Eulalia, and between them the running water, now no longer confined in built channels, but running free in shallow pebbly rills. Here we have also other large-leaved plants the immense Gunneras and the native Butter-bur, the North American Rodgersia, and the peltate Saxifrage, all happy on the lower cooler levels and gentle slopes; watered by the rill, and half shaded by the nearer trees. As the path rises it comes clear of the wood, and the garden spreads out right and left in the lower levels of its terraced spaces. One of these, perhaps the lowest, I should be disposed to plant with Bamboos on both sides of a broad green path. As the paved path mounts, the architectural features become more pronounced; the steps that were quite plain below have a slight undercutting of the lower part of the front. A little higher, and this becomes a fully moulded feature, with a distinct shadow accentuating the overhanging front edge of the step, and so by an insensible gradation we arrive at the full dress of the Lily court and terrace above. In so slight a sketch as this one cannot attempt to describe in detail all the beautiful ways of using such good things as Roses and Clematis (among hosts of others) that such a garden suggests. But it is perhaps in gardens of formal structure that some of their many uses may best be seen; for the long straight line of the coping of a parapet may be redeemed from monotony by a leaping wave-mass of a free-growing Rose, with its spray-showers of clustered bloom, and the tender grace of the best of the small white-bloomed Clematises of spring and autumn is never seen to better advantage than when wreathing and decorating, but not hiding or overwhelming, the well-wrought stonework that bounds the terrace and crowns its wall.

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Thoughts of this kind have come all the more vividly within the last year or two upon  seeing gardens of the beautifully – colored forms of the newer Water-Lilies. Lovely as these are in artificial pools or in natural ponds and quiet back-waters, they would probably be still more beautiful, by their use in a four-square tank in the Water-Lily court of a formal garden, one’s mind all the more readily inviting the connection because of the recollection of the Nymphteum of the ancient Roman gardens, of tank or canal form, with stone-paved walks shaded by a pillared portico, and of Nymphcea, the botanical name of the Water-Lily. There is a perfectly well-dressed look about those Lilies, with their large leaves of simplest design, that would exactly accord with masonry of the highest refinement, and with the feeling of repose that is suggested by a surface of still water.

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To return to the Water-Lily tank, its border spaces at the angles of the basin would have raised edges, and would be planted with dwarf flowering Cannas, mostly of one kind and color. The enclosing walls would be about eight feet high, and as groves of beautiful trees would be in their near neighborhood, I should wish that any foliage that could be seen from within the court should be that of Ilex. In describing and figuring such a small piece of formal garden, I am endeavoring to show how a good use can be made of beautiful plants whose use was unknown to the old garden builders, for, with the exception of the White Lily, hardly any of the plants just named could have been had. Had I ever had occasion to design a garden in what I should consider the most reasonable interpretation of the good Italian style, I should have been sparing in the use of such walled courts, keeping them and the main stairways for the important and mid-most part of the design, whether the formal design was placed on the next level below the house, or, as in the case I am contemplating, at a right angle to it, and coming straight down the face of the hill. In this case, wherever flights of steps occurred, there would be walls well planted above and below, stretching away to right and left, and below them long level spaces of grass. One of these long grassy spaces might well be made into a perfect picture gallery of the lovely modern developments of Water-Lily, in connection with a Water-Lily court.

Straight down the middle of the turfed space might be a narrow rill of water fifteen inches wide, easy to step over, bounded by a flat kerb a foot to eighteen inches wide and level with the grass. At intervals in its length it would lead into separate small square-sided tanks only a few feet wide, but large enough to show the complete beauty of some one kind of Water-Lily at a time, so that the lovely flowers and leaves and surface of still water would be as it were enclosed in a definite frame of stone or marble. Where at the lower or valley edge of these long grassy spaces a descent occurred to the next lower level there would be a dry wall planted with Cistus and free-growing Roses never, never, sharp sloping banks of turf. I always try to avoid the spirit of intolerance in anything, but for these turf banks, so frequent in gardens, I can only feel a distinct aversion.

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• Historic References to Tanks in Water Gardens
• Placement of the Tank in the Water Garden

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The recent remarkable development of the water-lily as a water garden flower has already had a marked effect on garden design, in that an important modern pleasure ground is scarcely complete without its Lily tank. The Water-Lily’s simple form both of flower and foliage seems to adapt it specially for being grown in basins in the ornamental garden.

The broad flat kerb of wrought stone, used to edge the pond, is in harmony both with the level lines of the water and the flat expanse of grass. Such an edging is far better than the lumpy raised erections of poor design that so often disfigure our garden pools. Raised parapets are only good when they are very well designed. The proper relation of the water-level to the edge of the tank is a matter that is often overlooked. It should not be far from the level of the lower inside line of the kerb. Nothing, except an empty tank or fountain basin, has a much more unsatisfactory appearance than a deep tank with only a little water in the bottom. They are often built quite needlessly deep. It is most important in the garden landscape that the tanks or basins should always have the water at the proper level. If a basin of water forms a definite part of a garden scheme the line of the water at the right height is as important as any other line in the design.

Adding a Border to Pond Tanks

Consider a raised border, with a boldly curved section as befits its larger area, but  not raised enough to impede the view of the water or to cut it off from the beholder’s enjoyment.

In the first place there is no need for any tank to be more than two feet deep, while its under-water margin need not be more than one foot deep. It is much better that this should be in two distinct steps, the outer and shallower part being two or three or more feet wide according to the size of the pool. This would also help to keep the water-plants in their place, as in a dressed tank it looks better that whatever is grown in it should be kept well away from the edge, and be surrounded by a distinct margin of water. Nothing is better suited to this kind of tank than Water-Lilies, and Arums (Callathiopica); in tanks of smaller size Aponogeton and Pondeteria. It is quite likely that Nelumbium might be grown as a tank plant in the milder parts of England. In another section a Lily tank is described in a court of beautiful architecture ; but a much more homely enclosure, with plain walls of brick or stone, a large tank and a framing of handsome flower borders, is a delightful thing in the garden.  Setting the tank in such a way to make a pathway just above the water-level, paved with stone or brick, and putting in a dry wall and two sets of steps for easy access, a little wall garden may be had one one side and on the water side a choice place for moisture-loving plants such as Mimulus and Caitha, Water Forget-me-not and those Ferns that delight in a place where their roots can their fill of water.

This part of the garden design alone, of tanks in enclosed spaces, is worthy of much further development. It would combine equally well with upright mortared walls of brick or stone, or with gently sloping dry walls. How easily such a wall and water garden could be made just below a pond-head, with a fall of water dashing into a little rocky basin, then passing under a bridge of one flat stone into a long-shaped pool, with its narrow water-walk below and its wider wall-walk on the higher level. What a paradise for Ferns and Wall Pennywort and Mossy Saxifrages would be the cool and rather damp rock-walling under the head, this being on the western or southern side, and what a pretty and interesting place altogether.

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