My Water Gardens READ HERE

This is my water garden area. 

I name the areas on my patio. There is the bird bath garden, the raised bed garden. And in the veggie department, I have one lone tomato plant so far. 

I actually think that is fruit, isn't it? A tomato?

And to balance the galvanized tubs of water, we arranged some pots of herbs and flowers around it to give it balance.

I'll take more pictures later. But the water gardens are just to the right of the gazebo. My various gardens kind of zigzag across the patio.

Do you know what this is? The galvanized container of marbles with water? That is a bee and butterfly bath. They can hover on the marbles and take a bath without drowning in the water.

There is nothing like the calming sound of water to relax you. To sit under the gazebo and close your eyes and just listen. 

The male cardinal calling to his mate. Branches whispering in the breeze. 

It is simply magical.

I dug up mint and a canna lily, washed off most of the dirt, and planted them in pots that Israel drilled holes all around so that it would sit down flat in the water. 

I used pea gravel as the top layer in the pots. There is bigger gravel on the bottom of the pots. Some plants have about an inch or so of dirt. 

And this, my friends, is my version of a water garden. A gathering of different type containers. Water plants and herbs and flowers in them. 

I'm sure I'll be adding and changing things as I go. But this, for now, is what I envisioned.

Updated to add: Don't have standing water over your marbles in your bee/butterfly bath, due to mosquitoes you don't want laying larvae. 

Pour in water about halfway up the marbles and they will be able to get to water, but it isn't standing where mosquitoes will lay larvae... See this:

I found this information here. I am going out and pouring off any water "standing" above the marbles. Live and learn!