The pond! The pond!! THE POND!!!!

Finally. After talking about this for over two years, we have at long last taken steps. Over the next week or so, we are receiving estimates and design ideas for a new back garden water feature, which will include a pond and a waterfall, as well as … well, who knows?

Many of my Garden Walk buddies have declaimed with great conviction about the ease of creating one's own pond. I came close to buying this rhetoric, but my husband never did, and I think he's probably right. The correct set-up of the ingredients—pump, tubing, liner, stone and other hardscaping—will determine how easy it will be to take care of in summers to come. We're simply too inept to be able to create that set-up. I'm into plants, not plumbing.

Our first victim was the English Gardener, a company that has done a ton of landscaping jobs large and small throughout Western New York. Joseph Han (above), now the official English Gardener, spent a generous amount of time with us today. The pond part seems doable for our budget and I was also interested in some ideas he had for making better use of my wisteria, which we've been restricting to an overly shaded corner. He pointed out that urban gardeners can do more with their spaces through using overheard constructions such as curved pipes—maybe crossing the courtyard—to let the vine ramble and bloom overhead. It's interesting. I am hoping the pond will contain some other materials—ponds are so ubiquitous now, that I think ours will need some extra drama.

Stay tuned.