New Life, Old Water Garden...

I began removing rocks with the idea of consolidating two water gardens.  I had my work cut out for me.

How many rocks were around and in this water garden?  I'm not counting.  I first made this water garden for Dad after Mom died. I used his rock collection and added more as the pond progressed.

Dad  would sit for hours watching the goldfish swim until he decided to rebuild the pond.  He dug canals circling the pond and to the fence line. There he constructed an earthen dam.   I didn't know what he was doing unless maybe he was routing an overflow path for flood waters.  I let him work.  The garden was for him.  He rounded mounds of dirt over the rocks and patted it into to place until he had the perfect dirt banked stock pond.  He had Alzheimer's.  It was his yard and his pond.  He was enjoying himself.

After he was gone I excavated the rocks and put it back together.  The fish had disappeared but there were frogs.

During the years Marcy has added lilies and parrot grass and planted surprise flowers around the garden for all to enjoy.  The pecan tree leaves fill the pond every fall so I usually deep clean it twice a season.

This season I had decided to combine my two gardens.  I began to remove the rocks...alllllll the rocks.  Picking our leaves and pecans as I cleaned the pond.

Here's the tractor tire water garden after a winter of animals and weather.  I saw bull frogs so the plan changed.  I could not empty this and lose my bull frogs.  The Blue Herons have almost decimated the bull frog population in our large ponds. I decided I'd just clean this one more year and then re-access...later after the eggs hatched and the new frogs were ready to be moved.

So back to Dad's water garden which I had almost completely disassembled.  A surprise awaited me there too.

Nestled under a rock was a "nest" of salamanders.

I love these creatures.

Again, I could not wreck their home.

You know a woman made water garden is good

when the wildlife moves in.

In this dark mess I found eggs

which don't look like frogs to me.

Spring has arrived at the water garden 

I didn't reflect for long.

The wildlife shall stay.

I remove the debris and add water.

I shall replace the rocks making it pet friendly.

The rock garden that began as Dad's will remain

one more year.