My Garden Plans for 2011

This one is especially for Fer’s carnival. See mygardeninjapan.

I have great plans / dreams for my garden for 2011. Maybe with a little advice and encouragement from my blogging friends, I will be able to make my dreams a reality.

We get mostly winter rainfall and for the past few years I have been really upset about all the water going down the drain. In summer when it is really dry I keep wishing we had some of that precious water. The first thought was to install rainwater tanks, but they are ugly and expensive as well.

So I came up with the great idea of building a river bed and leading it into a pond. The rainwater can be led from the gutter into the river bed and then into the pond. If the pond gets too full I have planned a bog area. We have a lot of bulbs that grow in temporary winter ponds and then like to be totally dry in the summer.

We plan to do this in our back garden where we already have a small pond that can be incorporated into the design. If this one works out well then I would like to do the same in the front garden – but don’t tell my husband – he is already groaning about the amount of work ahead.

On Sunday we went to the Harold Porter Gardens in Betty’s Bay to get some ideas. The pic below gives an idea of what I trying to create.

This is the area I have to work with.

The area in the shade behind the blue pipe will remain grass. The area in the sun extending towards the pool will become bog and pond. The river will run down on the left and fall into the pool somewhere after the white pole – old wash line post that will finally be removed.

Same thing just from the opposite side. The existing pond is in the back ground. The rainwater pipe will be led along the back wall, which will hopefully be hidden  soon by a few young trees and shrubs that were planted a few month’s ago. 

Hubby contemplating the work ahead.

So quite a big task ahead, all the help, advice and encouragement will be appreciated.