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From the elaborate bog gardens and lily
pools of our parks and big estates to the humble
tub garden of the backyard is a far step ; yet,
contained within the walls of a small yard
I have seen as beautiful a water garden as you
could imagine. This yard was about eighteen
or twenty feet square and around the walls
were ranged tubs of all sizes. In these were
water lilies of various pygmy species and on
the ground were old kitchen sinks containing
tall marginal plants. In front of these were
other sinks in which bog plants were growing
and, here and there, where there was room,
were glass globes of water, on which floating
plants grew. The walls were trellised and
over the trellis climbed nasturtiums and
Virginia creeper. The whole effect was startling, to say the least.
The plants were gathered mostly, except
the water lilies, from wayside streams and
pools ; the sinks came from a builder's yard,
where they had been lying derelict for some
time, having been replaced by more modern
kinds. Pieces of tile or slate were cemented
over the outlet hole. Old coppers, too, are
excellent for many of the submerged plants
with flowers above the surface-Water Crowfoot, and so forth. With old sinks they can
be incorporated in the rock garden ; in this
case it is advisable to set the copper in a bed of
cement, for, when the bottom rusts away, it
would leak otherwise.
The tubs should have greater width than
depth ; if barrels are used they should be sawn
in half, the water at the bottom of a deep tub
is almost devoid of oxygen, and, if fishes are
to be kept, they will die either from asphyxia
or from exhaustion.
Finally, do not use barrels that have contained tar ; with other substances the inside
of the barrel can be burnt to purify it, but
if you try to burn out the inside of a tar barrel
your next visitors will be the fire brigade.
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