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Making a Water Garden Further Notes |
Whenever such an outlet is arranged, provision must also be
made for the water to get away and this must, of course, be
done before the cementing is completed. It is usually sufficient
to make a runaway channel from the base of the bottle or
whatever is used, so that the water finds its way into a little
clinker bed and is soaked up by the surrounding soil. Alter-
natively, the outlet may be connected to an old drainpipe and
the water directed to a ditch. The cement is, of course,
finished off smoothly and evenly. If the job has been well done
it should be quite watertight but there are various sealing com-
pounds for completing the job. They should not be necessary,
but, nevertheless, they are useful in certain instances.
Particular care is necessary when concreting the vertical sides
and it is often necessary to use boards to keep the sides upright.
Ideally, the pool should be completed so that it can be filled
with water for some months before plants are put in. This
ensures that any harmful chemical properties from the cement
will have vanished. Also, if the concrete has been painted with
one of the sealing compounds, there wilt be no risk of danger
to the plants.
If it is possible to empty and refill the pool a few times before
planting is done, this will ensure the removal of any toxic ele-
ments which may have got into the water through the cement.
I am sure that there are many people who would very much
like to have a lily pool in their garden and yet they shrink from
the idea of making one, believing the task to be long, arduous
and fearing that even after long and careful work, such a pool
would not be satisfactory. There is good news for those who
feel like that, for Messrs. Perry, the world-famous water plant
specialists, are offering a new type of plastic lily pool which
has been scientifically designed and carefully made.
The Ideal Lily Pool has come through rigid weather tests
over a period of twelve years and has withstood the arctic
winter of 1947 and the tropical summers of 1949 and 1959 as
well as being frozen solid in a refrigerator. Apart from being
big enough to hold two water lilies and ten or a dozen other
plants, it will accommodate up to half a dozen fish, as well as
water snails.
We must not overlook the fact that it is often quite possible
to sink a tub, barrel, tank or other container into the ground.
This is frequently done and plants carefully chosen, will
usually prove most successful under such conditions.
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