A bunch of years ago, I built a pond in the garden. I knew just a little, but needed to know more to best serve customers of our landscape business. After rejiggering the pond several times, I finally got it nearly right. But, in addition to figuring some things to do and not to, I also found I really enjoyed this thing.

If you’ve been reading here for long, you’ve probably figured that I can be a bit obsessive. Of course, this can lead to conflict. First, when family finances were tight and I’m buying bushes or hauling in a load of boulders. Then, there were space considerations as sections of our acre of lawn began to turn to ponds and gardens.

Where are the kids gonna play? But, they grow up, go away to school, get married, and move out for good. We don’t need a badminton court any longer. Now, no reason to hold back.

I’ve never been one to do much advanced planning. I think about something and do it, so while the garden’s first pond was planned and designed, then reworked, the second and third ponds were less deliberate.

Not coincidently, both happened the same way. My wife planned a weekend away, visiting her grandmother in Pittsburgh or something that didn’t involve me. I thought, “I need another pond,” so when she returned a few days later, there it was. And then, another.

Of course, the construction was not so simple, but with no distractions, I had little to do except eat, sleep, and dig. Several years later, the large koi pond was a more complex matter, figuring elevations and retaining walls as well as filtration, which required more planning. This pond was constructed over two weekends and with the assistance of a small excavator, with the finish hurried by an approaching tropical storm that would have made a muddy mess. Instead, the deluge started the filling of the pond.

The constructions of two rock gardens in the past couple years were somewhat spur of the moment creations. I’d long been interested, but one day decided “here’s a perfect spot”. The next day a truckload of rock and gravel was delivered.

And that’s how it works. Be inspired, then do it. Now that I’m retired, I wonder what projects might be next. Little open space remains, but when we decided to add a sunroom in late summer, the area surrounding the deck to be demolished had to be cleared. The circular patio had long been overhung by a wide spreading dwarf blue spruce and barely controlled Ostrich ferns.

For years, I argued against taming and reclaiming this patio. There are other seating spaces, but as construction of the sunroom approached, I reconsidered. The next day, to Barbara’s surprise, the spruce and prized ‘Christmas Jewel’ holly were gone. A week later, the ferns were cleared, with the patio reappearing as more than a wide pathway to the lower, rear garden. This older part of the garden was radically changed. What else might change with more free time?