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Organic Ecosystem Ponds

Pondless Waterfalls

Urn and Fountain Features

Water-Wise Landscapes

Meet Your Water Feature Professionals

Texas Ponds and

Water Features

Why Not Attend a Pond Tour This Summer?

by Matt Boring

The Natural Water Gardener

Whether you already have a water feature, are contemplating having a pond installed in your yard, or you just like to visit other people’s landscapes to simply admire or perhaps get ideas from, attending a summer pond tour can be a perfect way to spend a weekend day.  Pond tours are fun for the whole family and I have frequently seen three generations of a family on tour together.  The little ones oooh and aaah about the beautiful and colorful fish in the ponds while their parents (and sometimes grandparents) visit with the pond owner and envision what their own yard would look like transformed into an aquatic paradise.  They start to imagine coming home from work each day to unwind to the relaxing sound of moving water and daydream about entertaining friends and family at their own private vacation spot.

Some pond tours are put on by those of us who build ponds professionally to showcase our work.  Others are done by local pond, Koi, or gardening clubs as fund raising events.  In the past six years I’ve put on my own pond tours, attended tours put on by other groups, and had my own and some of my customers’ ponds featured on local tours.  It’s fun no matter how you slice it, although putting on any kind of venture like this is a huge amount of work for whoever’s sponsoring it.

My first step into this arena had two of the first three pond I built included on the Austin Pond Society’s annual tour.  It was not without controversy.  The first was a 26-foot diameter pond in a Lake Travis-adjacent yard.  This water garden featured two streams, each with multiple drops, granite pathways, two bridges traversing the streams, and a drought and deer-resistant native landscape.  It was my first step into residential landscaping and it was a doozy of a step.  In less than a year since its completion, it had been seen in two different magazines, was showcased on KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener television show, and was now being included in the city’s premier pond tour.  My second pond to be included was a front yard pond with a small stream running across the yard.  A section of the front walkway had been removed to allow the stream to pass and a custom deck complete with a bridge crossing the stream was constructed from the front porch to the mailbox at the street.  It had also been seen in at least one magazine by that point and was also featured on Central Texas Gardener.  They were both big hits with the attendees.  I must admit that after hearing so many people tell me that they liked my ponds better then any of the others on the tour, my head was in danger of not fitting into my car for the ride home! 

Of course this was the first time most Austin pond enthusiasts had been exposed to organic water gardening.  They had never seen construction techniques like those I use.  They had never seen ponds lined with rock and gravel and many commented on how much more natural these water gardens looked than the traditional black liner ponds with a ring of flat stones around the perimeter that had become the standard in water gardening for so long.  When I explained how the balanced aquatic ecosystem functions to keep the water clean, clear, and healthy with very little maintenance and without the use of chemicals or un-natural UV radiation sterilizers, people were genuinely intrigued and impressed.  The one dark spot on the day was hearing that at another pond on the tour, the pond owner, who had been spoon-fed all her pond “knowledge” by local water garden retail stores, was passing out flyers decrying the organic water gardening philosophy and telling people that these ponds would never function the way they were supposed to.  I was glad that one of my ponds that day was in a front yard and encouraged people to drive by any day, at any time, and at any time of the year to see for themselves and make their own judgements.  Sometimes it’s hard to teach a traditional dog organic tricks!

Since that time, however, anti-organic attitudes have softened and now you’re almost sure to see several organic water gardens on almost any pond tour you attend.  If you’re interested in attending a local tour, check with your local pond, Koi, or garden clubs for information on scheduling, cost, and ticket locations.  Typically, you purchase a map book with descriptions of each pond on the tour and are able to plan your day on your own, seeing which water features you want to see and can fit into your schedule.  You may even gain weight during the day.  Some of my pond customers have served a wide variety of snacks for their guests on tour day, including Danish and coffee, wine and cheese, fruits and veggies, chips and dips, and of course, soft drinks, bottled water, and iced tea.

If you are really into looking at ponds, and I mean REALLY into it, you may consider attending the world’s largest pond tour, the Parade of Ponds, held in the Chicagoland area on the third weekend of July every year.  The Parade of Ponds is put on each summer by Aquascape Designs, the world’s leading manufacturer of pond products and the reason that organic ponding has taken the country by storm.  There are well over a hundred ponds to view on the Parade of Ponds, so don’t even think that you can see them all.  I’ve attended this tour twice and it is just amazing to see the creativity used in designing these beautiful water features.  Every one’s an original creation designed with the yard and the tastes of the homeowner in mind.  There are ponds built by many different companies on the tour, so you can see differing interpretations along a common theme– water features that look as if Mother Nature herself created them.  And every water garden on the Parade of Ponds is an organic aquatic ecosystem featuring fish, plants, and natural stone. 

It is my sincere hope that organic gardening will soon catch on the way organic water gardening has and that humans will realize that we need to be good stewards of this planet we call home so that it will be there for all coming generations to enjoy and treasure.  Clean air and water are vital to the survival of our species as well as all the other species on this fragile orb.  We owe it to ourselves and our children to reduce our dependance on chemicals that pollute our world and get back to nature.  Our backyards are a good place to start and set that example for our kids.  Whenever possible, we should encourage composting, the use of organic fertilizers and pest controls, and by all means, organic water gardens.  Nature got it right the first time.  We should follow her example as closely as we can.

Happy Pondering!