I have to come out here twice a week to clean it, clear away some of the moss and algae. Building a water garden is not a costly project if you do the labor yourself. Just don't try and go too big. A water garden need not be a hole in the ground either. Wake has constructed a water garden in his front yard that is simply half an oak barrel filled with water plants.
Water trickling out of the cistern into a gravel pit is pumped back into the barrel.
It gives the illusion of an artesian spring. Wild birds love it, Wake said. You can even make a small indoor water garden that requires no maintenance. Wake's living room hosts a 12-inch ceramic shallow flower pot transformed into a small water garden. He filled the container, which lacks drain holes, with smooth river stones and a strand of pothos plant.