Basic Information About Water Gardening

THE WATERSIDE GARDEN

New York State, USA

The garden called Innisfree is not what it seems. It is not in Ireland, as one might expect, but in New York State. And it could not be further from Irish scenery, design or plants: it was inspired by Chinese landscape and gardens. This is how it happened.

Originally called Millbrook, Innisfree was the family home of Marion Beck, whose husband, Walter, was an artist and teacher. When they moved there in the 192.os, they changed its name to Innisfree in homage to W.B. Yeats's poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'. Why? The garden has no nine bean-rows and no hive for the honeybee as the poet suggests, but it held the same promise of simplicity and peace as the poem, which is deeply romantic. What happened to Innisfree is equally so.

The house Marion Beck inherited was surrounded by 300 hectares (740 acres) of rolling hills, natural woodland and outcrops of stone. At its centre was the i6-hectare (40-acre) Lake Tyrrel. Walter Beck, who trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and later taught at the Pratt Institute in New York, became enthused by black-ink brush paintings of the Chinese landscape and calligraphic scrolls, especially those of Wang Wei, an eighth-century artist who used his own gardens and buildings as subjects for his paintings. From 1930 until Marion Beck died in 1959, they used the inspiration of Wang Wei's garden scrolls to create their own garden. Later, their protege, Lester Collins, a landscape architect whose views coincided with their own, took on Innisfree until his own death in 1993.

Using the natural glacial lake as the garden's centre, the Becks constructed a series of intimate 'cup' gardens, each one separate and distinct from the next and each creating its own self-contained scene. In each, the intention was to create asymmetrical spaces that combined rhythm and pattern with space and form, as in the Chinese scroll paintings they studied.

Because this was to appear a natural landscape, the garden largely relied on plants from the surrounding woods to create the scenery. These were carefully planted and pruned into artistic but natural shapes. The Becks used the rocks left by the glacier — sandstone, limestone, granite and quartz — to make the stone sculptures essential to Chinese gardening. Each was moved into its precisely planned space and positioned to give just the right punctuation mark. Water from the lake was pumped into a huge reservoir hidden in the hillside, from which a series of underground pipes fed the man-made pools, waterfalls and sculptures that enliven each garden 'picture'. Lester Collins's contribution was to apply Japanese skills to these Chinese-inspired pictures. He worked to make links between the various cup gardens, so that visitors would walk from one set scene to another, a concept known as a 'stroll' garden.

Today, the house, which was in the twentieth-century Queen Anne style — somewhat heavy but less lowering than the Victorian country house — has gone. It was demolished in 1982 as not being in keeping with the garden. The garden itself has been reduced to 6o hectares (15o acres), and, since Collins's death, Innisfree has been run by a trust, which opens the garden to the public.

How To Maintain A Water Garden

THE ROMANTIC WATER GARDEN

Not many people have the chance to create a garden from a ruined medieval town set on a spectacularly steep mountainside. But we can imagine the delight of re-creating the town plan with plants, the tremendous opportunities given by hundreds of old stone buildings, now ruined and roofless, and the challenge of creating new bridges leaping the tumbling streams that rush down from the old wells and watering places.

For the Caetani family, this most romantic of garden sites was not a daydream but reality. Ninfa, near Rome, belonged to them even before the town was sacked in 1382. as a result of opposition to the pope of the day. In its heyday Ninfa was a sizeable community, boasting a cathedral and seven churches, but all was lost when it was laid waste by papal decree, and it lay deserted for six hundred years.

In the twentieth century, however, the Caetani family repossessed the derelict town with the intention of creating a garden among its streets and ruined buildings. In the 1920s Duke Gelasio Caetani began to drain the nearby marshes, home to swarms of malarial mosquitoes. He made sure that the walls of the old buildings were fully stabilized, and canalized the river that ran through the town. Meanwhile his English mother, the Duchess of Sermoneta, began — as Englishwomen do — to plant quantities of old-fashioned roses against the ancient walls. These loved the climate and the freedom to ramble over the old stones. She also planted cypresses, their sky-rocket shape so typical of the Italian landscape, along the lines of the old streets, to create punctuation marks and emphasize formality and axes. Other Mediterranean trees included the evergreen ilex and black walnuts (Jugtans nigra) as well as Magnolia grandiflora, well suited to the region. A vast reservoir was constructed to store enough water to keep this luxuriant planting healthy and flourishing.

At first, native Italian trees were favored, but gradually the old town became home to all manner of exotics. This was the inspiration of Marguerite Chapin, the American wife of Duke Gelasio's brother Roffredo. In the twenty- five years they spent living in the village — the medieval town hall had been restored and made into a home for Duke Gelasio — Roffredo and Marguerite planted a huge range of plants that thrived in the sheltered conditions, including Drimys winteri from Chile, Cladrastis sinensis from China, hoherias from New Zealand and Montezuma pines from Mexico. They also created more pools and rivulets tojoin the streams already flowing into the River Ninfa, which lies at the heart of the garden, adding new watery habitats and further romantic idylls.

Their daughter Lelia, an artist, continued to work on the garden at Ninfa with her husband, Hubert Howard, until her death in 1971. She lined the old pathways with bushes of rosemary, added more old roses and climbers up the walls, as her grandmother had done, and filled streams with white-flowering arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica). There are no more members of the family tending the garden today, but the work continues through the Caetani Foundation.

Plants Of The Water Garden

THE FORMAL WATER GARDEN

When the Renaissance, starting in Italy in the fifteenth century, set Europe free from the stifling clericalism of the medieval period, its architects and artists went back to the Classical principles of ancient Greece and Rome. And, because most garden designers of the Renaissance were actually architects, garden design underwent the same vast change.

As the twentieth-century garden designer  (and architect) Sir Geoffrey jellicoe explained: The saga of the Italian garden is richer and more varied than any other garden culture, falling roughly into three periods: the True Renaissance (1400—I 500); the High Renaissance (isoo-1600) and Mannerism and Baroque (1600—T700) ... it was in Rome that the first serious studies were made of the ruins of antiquity and the startling discovery of proportion as an echo of the rational human mind (The Landscape of Civilization, 1989). He then conjures up the formal Renaissance garden: ... the mythological caryatids, the long shady airy arcade, the tremendous folly, the splendid carpet patterned in evergreens and fountains, the music and sparkle of rising and falling waters and the dignity and grandeur of it all'.

The gardens designed by such architect, as Rernardo Buontalenti in the sixteenth centur), and ,knclre Lc Notre in the seventeenth were symmetrical, formal, carefully proportioned and treated like rooms in a palace. Plants played second fiddle to statuary, garden buildings and, most importantly, water.

Division Of Outdoor Plants

THE ISLAMIC WATER GARDEN

Jardin Majorelle Marrakesh, Morocco

Although the Islamic garden appears, at first sight, to be highly formulaic — high- walled and private, bisected by two canals or rills and with four rectangular beds — the work of the French painter Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) in Marrakesh proves how adaptable even this format can be.

Majorelle was a great traveller in Africa before he arrived in Morocco, where he decided to stay because of his health. He chose to make his home in the beautiful town of Marrakesh, with its clear light and color and backdrop of the snow-tipped Atlas Mountains, and he settled at the edge of the town in 1919. Morocco was then still a French colony, and much of the architecture outside the souk and dramatic main square is recognizably French.

The artist, having moved into his pavilion villa with adjoining studio, started to experiment with his walled garden. The garden was already constructed along classic Islamic lines, with its crossing rills, fountains and a large fish tank, and as the garden was built on a sloping site, there were constant changes in level as the main path wound its way through the flower beds. However, it was only in the 1930s that the garden began to take on its distinctive character.

Opposite Although this is clearly a Mughal garden, it is far more playful than most, and, rather than being enclosed, the views down the main cascade open up on to the lake itself.

Top left The magnificent mountains provide a breathtaking backdrop. Above and top right Nishat Bagh is hugely admired — the jewel in Kashmir's crown — and is enjoyed for its frivolity and liveliness, which are more apparent than in most Mughal gardens. is shaded by a double row of chinar trees (Platanus orientalis). At the top of the garden is a pleasure pavilion.

A delightful Mughal painting in a book of poems of 1663 by Zafar Khan, a governor of Kashmir, depicts a very grand personage (perhaps Asaf Khan himself?) sitting on a golden oriental carpet with his courtiers around him and Nishat Bagh behind. A steep cascade is shown with a pavilion at the top, and on either side of the rushing water are beds of poppies and irises. In the background is a range of fierce mountains. Another part of the painting shows a series of arched niches built behind the cascade, probably intended for lights. The Mughals apparently made their waterfalls and fountains even more dramatic by putting lamps behind the water to increase the sparkle. These can still be seen at the seventeenth-century garden of Rambagh at Agra.

The garden also has a zenana. a special area for women, where two octagonal, three-storey gazebos were built so that ladies could view the lake, the rice paddies and the mountains beyond. There are also special viewing platforms alongside the rushing water.

The Garden Book (z000) is full of praise for this gem of a water garden: As the garden has a far steeper ascent than any other Mughal garden, the features have a more dramatic and lively effect: the water cascades faster, the sizes of the chutes are greater. This garden is much louder and visually ostentatious — a radical move away from the subtle and sublime tranquility of most other Mughal garden settings. The site is superb — and a crowning jewel of the Kashmir.'

Gardening In Water Garden

Having visited the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show over the decades, I have noticed that now, after a period of lack of interest, there is a revival of enthusiasm for water gardens. This may be a result of climate change and ever hotter summers, or the development of the technology that makes waterfalls, modernistic fountains and other watery effects easy to achieve. The best garden in the show of woo (a very good year for show gardens), 'Evolution' by Piet Oudolf and Arne Maynard, featured an arching jet of water that leapt from one pool to another (overleaf); anyone wandering in would have been drenched, but clearly this did not deter the judges.

I shall be looking at how famous designers have used water features in the past, from Bernardo Buontalenti, architect and designer to the Medicis, to 'Capability' Brown, a major mover in the landscape gardens of England, along with the more recent contributions of Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ian Hamilton Finlay. I shall be looking, too, at how designers, often confined to small urban spaces, have nonetheless found it possibleto include just one small fountain or a single still pool. The influence of the traditional water gardens of the Far East and of Islamic cultures from India to Spain is huge, especially on designers who are working in town gardens or in arid areas, as the heavy reliance on stone, bamboo, infinity pools, silent rills and trickling troughs shows. Included here, too, are those gardens linked to a large expanse of water that cannot be disregarded: gardens beside lakes and rivers, gardens perched on cliffs and by maritime inlets, and island gardens, where water is literally omnipresent.

Of course, water today is a political subject: if global warming continues we are likely to have too little in certain areas and too much in others. Water will probably become a resource that we have to use with care rather than with abandon. But the very fact that it will be important and valuable will increase its worth in our eyes.

Nursery Raising And Transplantation

Pest controls

YOU MAY, FROM TIME TO TIME, think about using some type of pesticide in or around your garden. You will probably go to the garden centre nearest you and ask a staff member what to do about the leaves curling on your fruit tree, the green bugs on your roses, or some obvious damage to a plant. Of course, the level of knowledge of staff members at a garden centre or even a specialist nursery will vary. They may point you to a certain product and say this will take care of your problem. It may, or may not.

The use of pesticides is a science, one that has been made much easier for the novice with the constant work of chemists and other researchers working for manufacturers. But it still requires attention on your part. Some plant treatments may be effective at one time of the year, but ineffective at others. Some plant treatments may work on one plant but be harmful to another. Let's look at how pesticides work.

• Always wear protective rubber gloves when applying insecticide sprays.

The label will state what, if any, food plants may come into contact with the product. The label will state treatment times, and how long you must wait to harvest after treatment. All garden pesticides can be.

Synthetic insecticides

Some chemical insecticides work on contact, and others have a systemic action. Contact insecticides must come in direct contact with the insect to have any effect. Contact insecticides for garden use are sold as a dust, spray, liquid concentrate, or soluble powder. When using a contact pesticide, you must thoroughly treat all parts of the plant, because some insects live primarily on the undersides of leaves. Systemic pesticides are those that will travel throughout the plant. An insect feeding on any plant part will ingest the systemic chemical that will kill it.

It is possible for some pests and fungal diseases to build up an immunity or tolerance to chemicals, so that a pesticide that was once effective no longer works. Continual use of the same chemical is not to be recommended. Different insecticides contain different active ingredients, so it's a good idea to rotate these regularly. All pesticides are poisonous to people, animals, and birds, and some will harm beneficial insects.

Synthetic herbicides

It is quite tedious to pull out weeds over and over again. Many gardeners find it easier to use a herbicide or weed killer to do the job. There are four common types of synthetic herbicides: pre-planting, pre-emergent, post-emergent, and sterilizers.

Pre-planting herbicides are used after you have prepared the soil, before you plant your seeds. They destroy weed seeds in the soil. After you have followed the directions, plant the seeds. Pre-emergent herbicides are used to destroy seeds as they germinate. They do not affect established plants or weeds. Post-emergent herbicides are used after the grass or other plants are established and you want to eliminate growing weeds. These products, usually sprays, may kill any plant on which they land. Sterilizing herbicides kill all plants they come into contact with. If sprayed on a plant, they will kill the leaves and then attack the roots and kill them. Avoid using these on a windy day.

It is extremely important when considering the use of any pesticide in a garden.

Rock Garden Plants

Fruit and veggie varmints

IF YOU LOVE A JUICY, sweet plum picked right off the tree, you're not alone. Some insects attack fruit crops with the same sort of gusto you might apply to a bowl of fruit salad. If you plan on growing fruit, look out for codling moths, pear midge, pear and cherry slug worm, and sawflies. There are also many unwanted vegetable visitors including caterpillars, cutworms, carrot root flies, and pea moths.

Apple saw fig

The adult sawfly lays eggs in fruitlets just at flowering time, and on hatching, a grub leaves a characteristic ribbon-shaped scar on the apple surface, before tunnelling its way into the heart of the fruit to feed on the central core. This normally causes the fruit to drop in June or July. When the larva is fully fed, it'll depart via an exit hole, crawl into the ground to pupate, and emerge later as an adult.

Once sawflies are within the fruit, they are protected from all chemical controls. So it's not worth spraying the fruit. You will not harm the insect, but the spray might harm anyone who eats the fruit.

Codling moths

The most common cause of wormy apples, these whitish-pink moth larvae also feed on pears. When the codling moths have invaded, you'll see small holes in the fruit skin with dark brown, crumbly matter around the holes. As if the larvae damage wasn't bad enough, the holes are perfect sites for bacterial and fungal growth. The larvae drop to the ground or crawl down the tree trunks when they are ready to spin cocoons. They may over-winter under tree bark or in garden litter. Severe codling moth infestations can totally destroy a fruit crop. Damage is worse in years that have warm, dry spring-time weather, because the moths lay more eggs.

To protect your garden, clean up garden fruits as they fall, and place rejects in a covered container for eventual disposal. Remove weeds and other debris to eliminate larvae hiding places.

Pick off and destroy fruitlets showing signs of damage before the larvae escape into the soil. If infestations are severe, spray the tree branches with an appropriate insecticide, reading the instructions carefully.

Pear midges

The early symptom of the pear midge is when small fruitlets become deformed and blackened and fall off the tree in late spring and early summer. With a bad infestation, all the fruit can be lost. On splitting the fruit, you'll see a large central cavity and numerous tiny white grubs up to 2 millimeters long. On small trees, pick off and destroy infested fruitlets before the maggots complete their feeding. You can stop the adult flies laying eggs by spraying with an appropriate insecticide at the white bud stage of the tree, which is when you can see the petal color but before the flowers have started to open.