article: Affordable Small Water Gardens

Affordable Small Water Gardens

Gardening on a budget is not as tough as you thought. If you want a water garden you can have one – you just have to be a bit creative in where you find the materials and in the planning of your water garden. Doing the project yourself is going to save so much money that you are going to be excited about what else you can do when building a water garden. Contractors are expensive, but doing the work yourself you can afford a few other accessories that you have been dreaming about.

Starting out you need to plan your water garden. You will hear this over and over again. If you start digging without planning where you are placing your water garden and the size of your water garden, your project can get out of hand with expenses and materials.

After you have planned on where you are going to put your water garden, you can think about the size. When on a strict budget, you want to get the most for your money. The smallest water garden is actually going to be less expensive using a preformed pond liner. The preformed pond liner prevents you from having to spend more on other materials year after year, such as the plastic lining, concrete repairs and a preformed pond liner is going to make your project look more professional overall.

Choose a size of a preformed liner that is going to fit your budget. If you are not planning to raise fish because you don’t want the added expense you can pick one, any size or shape that fits your budget instead of fitting the size and types of fish that you are going to raise. When you are on a budget, you won’t want to raise fish so you don’t have the added expense of having to get a filter, or other types like filtration systems.

While you are in the planning stages of your water garden, you can collect shell from around the driveway, along the road and anywhere else you can find it. The smaller the water garden, the less shell that you need to gather.

Under the water garden, you also are going to want to put some sand so you can protect the pond liner from ripping or breaking the shell. The sand also allows you to level out the pond liner without having to dig more soil out.

You can fill the water garden with water from the rain if you are starting your project in the very early spring. This will save you a few dollars on the budget. If you want to put more water in the small water garden you can also set out five gallon buckets and collect additional rainwater at the same time so you can fill your pond faster. Some areas of the world that are hit the hardest with droughts will collect water all spring for use in the water garden as a source of conserving water.

You do not have to pay big bucks to decorate or detail your water garden. You can collect small pieces of plants from other water gardeners and you can ask friends or family for divided pieces of their water garden plants. Decorating your small water garden with fresh plants that will grow in and around the water is easy when you meet other people who also have water gardens in their landscape.

If you do not know any one who has a water garden, you can purchase water garden plants in just about any retail gardening center, but you just have to watch for sales for the best prices that will fit your budget! By the end of your first water gardening summer, your landscape will be beautiful.

No matter what type of water garden you are building, there are many ways that you can cut corners and save money. You can use stone that you find free instead of purchasing bricks or concrete to create the paths of the garden. You can get plants and fish from friends or relatives instead of purchasing them. The water garden is complete with a natural setting that you complete using your imagination; just remember to have fun doing it!