A Watery World: Garden ponds provide enjoyable eco-system for landscapes

Shawn Patterson just loves the pond outside her formal living room window.

Dragonflies lay their eggs, and her two children — ages two and four — get to watch the nymphs hatch and grow; they get to see the whole reproductive cycle of life as the fish bear young and the tiny babies mature. Possums and raccoons come down to drink water while butterfly plants serve as host to a number of local winged insects.

The pond has only been there since November, installed by Allen Williams, owner of Williams Wildscapes in Pharr.

The three-tiered water garden, she said, is “fabulous, gorgeous,” and she loves watching the water flow first into one area, then into another before ending in the deep pond, where it re-circulates.

“It’s in my front yard, by the formal living room window, which is where I sit in the morning and read my paper, and watch my birds come in and feed and bathe and drink and all that fun stuff,” said Patterson, who lives in the Woods subdivision in Mission.

Water gardens have become very popular in the Rio Grande Valley, said Williams.

In three years of business, he has averaged about 10 per year. The kind of water garden customers ask for, he says, depends on how much they’re willing to spend and whether they want just a stream over rocks or a pond with fish.

“If they just want to have water and they want to have the sound of water, you can go with that idea,” he said. “It really depends; will they try to provide a bath for birds, will they try to grow plants in it, try to fill it with fish?”

A simple rock with a pipe inserted through the bottom to drip water can cost as little as $300. More elaborate systems with pumps, fish, and falls can range between $3,000 and $10,000.

The folks at Mid Valley Garden and Pond Supply in Weslaco get several requests for fish ponds, said Anabel Cuellar, an employee.

“A lot of people like the ponds, because what attracts them the most is like the water plants and the fish, like the koi, especially the koi, and the water lilies — the night blooming and the day blooming — and we have a bog plant for the water,” she said.

Williams said fish ponds require at least six inches of water, “deeper if you have koi.”

Williams, however, doesn’t recommend stocking ponds with koi, because they will outgrow the pond and require more swimming area, require a bigger filtering system, creating more expense. Instead, he advised stocking ponds with fish from nearby canals and other water areas, such as killifish and gambusia.

Patterson stocked her pond with koi, goldfish, and five algae eaters. She said Williams also put some native fish he’d caught himself.

“They seem to be doing well,” she said.

It’s important, when keeping a pond with fish, to maintain adequate living conditions. That means keeping the water clean and filled with oxygen. Cuellar said many customers put algae strings in their ponds (it’s more like grass than real algae) to keep oxygen in the water.

However, to keep the pond clean, Williams strongly advises adding beneficial bacteria and enzymes.

“Because you have fish in there, you are not putting chlorine to keep the water clean, or you’re gonna kill the fish,” he said. “So literally, what you’re trying to do is establish an eco-system.”

The liquid bacteria and enzymes are placed close to the pump, which cycles water through lava rock; the stone, filled with pores, provides a perfect place for bacteria and enzymes.

“That starts your biological process of breaking down the nitrates and nitrites,” he said.

Williams does do periodic maintenance on water gardens, to include replacement of the “organic component.”

“Eventually,” he said, “you’ll get enough of a reproducing environment in there and literally its own ecosystem that the need becomes lessened.”

There’s an entire eco-system around Patterson’s pond. Not only are the fish and dragonflies reproducing, but the butterfly plants growing around its banks have already begun serving as host plants for eggs and larvae.

“I am so thrilled that it’s obviously a healthy environment,” she said. “My kids are having a ball.”

The music of the water, whispering like wind chimes into her living room, seems to captivate her attention, too.

“Right now,” she said, “I’m working with my sound guy to figure out how I can pipe it into my house.”

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Travis Whitehead covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4452. For this and other local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.

For More Information

• Williams Wildscapes

750 W. Sam Houston, Pharr

(956) 460-9864

www.williamswildscapes.com

• Mid Valley Garden and Pond Supply

Two locations:

1800 E. Bus. Hwy 83, Weslaco

(956) 973-1998

611 E. Bus. Hwy. 83, Alamo, Texas

(956) 782-5600