Water Feature Installation

Last Wednesday was a national public holiday – Voting Day.  Yes, one whole day was set aside so that the country’s citizens could exercise their right to vote.  This was also an opportunity for the gardener in me to also make use of the day to exercise my right to garden!  Which is precisely what I did.  I made use of the additional labour –my dear husband – and scheduled the installation of our water feature.

I purchased a ready-made feature - a waterfall made up in a concrete mould – and a submersible pump.  I used to think that these fake rock water features bordered on kitsch, but when considering the weight of some of the rocks which we’ve unearthed, I now consider these features very practical because you don’t need excessive manpower to install it.  That’s not saying that the feature is feather weight.  Between the two of us we just managed to lift the two pieces.

I’ve used a lot of unearthed rocks from the garden to edge the flowerbeds so I asked the supplier to match my water feature to the rock colour.  This may sound a little pedantic but, in retrospect, it was definitely worth it so the feature now looks more natural.

We dug the hole, buried the base and completed the installation of the feature in a total of 5 hours (well 6 after correcting a slight error in positioning!).

I’ve planted a Freylinia tropica ‘White’ (White Honeybell Bush) at the back to provide some height and shade for the feature.  As the feature is in our orange section of the garden, I’ve chosen some orange flowering plants – Strelitzia reginae (Bird-of-Paradise), Gazania krebsiana, and Tecomaria capensis ‘Salmon’ (Cape Honeysuckle) which is broken with some finely textured Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’ (Asparagus Ferns) and Hermannia pinnata.  I interspersed some Dietes grandiflora (Wild Iris) and Crocosmia aurea (Falling Stars) as their strappy-leaves fan out to provide some softness.  I’ve also planted some Zantedeschia aethiopica (Arum Lily) to add a splash of white.

Here’s what it looks like:-

The plants still need to grow to fill up the space, but the birds are already visiting to investigate.  Just 30 minutes ago, we had an Olive Thrush perched and drinking from one of the pools.