Monty Don Says I Need a Water Feature: Six Reasons Why I Don't Have One
I have noticed that this post gets a lot of views from Britain and Ireland, and several from Asia. I would love it any of you could write a comment below. Most of my readers are from the New York City area, and no one local has visited this post for months.
It would be great to know if this is being read by real people, and not bots searching for “Monty Don.”
Thanks,
Char
I love Gardeners' World and its host, Monty Don. Gardener’s World is a weekly gardening show from the UK, and I subscribed to BritBox just so I can watch every Friday. Monty Don’s gentle voice and endless wisdom brings me joy even when Connecticut is freezing cold and I am lusting after English spring. Normally I enthusiastically agree with Mr. Don says, and he seems to feel that a water feature is almost mandatory. I do not have one in my garden, and I am reluctant to wade into that pool.
The six main reasons I do not have a water feature:
I don't want to have something that I have to winterize. I have had several plants that should have been winterized, and they are mostly dead now. My zone 7 garden does get some snow and it definitely dips below freezing, and the ground has frozen solid. Unless it's a glorified bucket of water, there will be some maintenance and my laziness could result in a conspicuous failure. I don't want a glorified bucket of water because...
I don't want to breed mosquitoes. I am not going to put poison in it or pretend that some expensive creature I bought is eating them when it's probably long dead.
The noise annoys me. It really seems that I have my choice between stagnant water, a loud water feature, or a motor I can hear.
There is no obvious place to put it. There is no place near my house that works and the best place to put it needs power.
The scale is tricky. I have a long, narrow garden and the feature needs to work with the whole design or be fairly inconspicuous from other spots in the garden. I have seen a lot of water features that are too dominant or too dinky. I thought of a rill or channel that would be part of the entire garden would be really cool, but I don't think my first water project should be so big and all encompassing.
I don't like most commercially available water features and custom made is very expensive. The commercial ones tend to be boxy and overly styled, and I think they will look dated in a few years.
Still, I am beginning to consider it.
