Water Garden Mud Flat

I’ve never doubted the wisdom of putting a water garden outside the front door to my house. It has been a constant source of entertainment and educational opportunities.

Each summer the water garden displays a phenomenon that I have come to call the artificial mud flat. The bottom of the water garden is a plastic liner that leaves little to which aquatic plant roots can anchor. The water lilies were originally planted in containers that gave plenty of room for root growth. The roots have long since left those containers and now sprawl far from the pots. Eventually, they reach a point where their buoyancy brings them to the surface along with a healthy load of bottom detritus. Once it surfaces, the mat is quickly consumed by tadpoles and the roots once more head for the bottom. While it exists, tiny flies track the surface like flocks of shorebirds. The whole sequence is quite interesting, even though it’s not something you can plan for.

The water lily leaves got blasted by two hail storms. The leaves now bear scars of the encounter. Most plants didn’t suffer at all from the hail. The floating leaves were perfectly positioned to allow penetration by the hail stones.

Male mayflies have been swarming above the water garden. They adopt a bouncing flight pattern designed to attract females. The long front legs are used to capture and hold the female during mating.

The bulrush is looking like a set of glow tubes as it catches the setting sun. The idea of having tall plants to the back of the water garden and short plants in front worked fine until the plants produced seed and developed their own arrangement.