Midwest Pond and Garden Tours Part 3 July 2025

Join us for Part 3 of the 2025 Midwest Pond and Garden Tours as we explore some of the most inspiring backyard water features and lush garden landscapes in the region! In this episode, we visit 10 unique ponds, from a hydroponic koi pond with thriving lettuce beds to a stunning woodland swim pond tucked into a secluded, tree-filled lot. Discover creative uses of bonsai, tips for water clarity and pond filtration, and jaw-dropping plant combinations that blend ornamental evergreens, perennials, and aquatic plants. Whether you’re passionate about garden design, pond maintenance, or looking for landscaping ideas, this tour offers endless inspiration for every level of gardener. Don’t forget to subscribe for more garden tours, pond design tips, and planting ideas all season long!

CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
0:07 Garden and Pond 1
4:00 Garden and Pond 2
8:04 Garden and Pond 3
10:25 Garden and Pond 4
13:55 Garden and Pond 5
15:49 Garden and Pond 6
19:51 Garden and Pond 7
21:45 Garden and Pond 8
26:39 Garden and Pond 9
28:56 Garden and Pond 10

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Day three of the Midwest pond and garden tour. 
And we visited 10 ponds. And this first pond is unique in that it has a hydroponic system where 
he grows his own lettuce amongst other things. He also does quite a few boneside plants and 
they’re they’re really wonderful. We visited this pond I don’t know what’s it been maybe 5 
years. And you can see the weeping willow in the back. That was not as mature as it is now. 
This pond looks completely different. It’s It’s quite good. He’s uh he’s really excited about 
growing his lettuce. He enjoys having having   uh salads all spring. And he explained that 
uh he had a leak and that explains why he’s got a geyser there rather than just a 
waterfall. So it doesn’t usually look like that. he explained cuz that that is quite 
dramatic looking. But he managed even though he had a leak. I don’t quite understand uh 
where the leak was but he still managed to keep his pond open and looking good. 
And his fish look really beautiful too. You can see the the pipes there that feed the 
hydroponic system. Right. And you can see all of his bonesai. Yeah. He has bonsai everywhere. 
He’s really become very good at it. I don’t I don’t remember seeing so many the last time we 
were there. And he definitely didn’t have as   many pond plants. Those are quite pretty, too. 
Um he’s growing the water lettuce in the front, I think. And that’s the uh what’s in the back, 
Mark? Is it water highest? It’s water hyent. Yep. and he was explaining how uh with bonesai plants 
um many of the trees have to be buried. You can just bury the whole pot with the tree in it in the 
ground because that’s the way they would normally   live. Mo most of them more of the tropical ones 
he has to bring inside. In the case of our garden, we do have a lot of those types of trees, but 
they’re already buried in the ground and we   keep them boneside in place, which makes it 
a lot easier. So, he has a lot of work to do at the end of the season with all of those 
those plants in the containers. And you can   see his hydroponic system there where it’s taking 
water from the pond and feeding it through. And he has quite a lovely garden, too. And again, 
look at how he’s made all those little wooden wooden stands for all his bones. Mhm. Yeah. Bone 
sight everywhere. And he has a pear tree, right? You see that it’s heavy with fruit and 
probably been dragged down by the rain, too. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, 
although it held off today during the tour. We kind of were ahead of it um 
all all day, which was which was good. So, here’s his here’s his 
table full of uh bonesai. It looks like he has a lot of 
smaller plants waiting to go   into pots to be boneside, too. That’s an old one. Okay, now we get a good view of his 
hydroponic system. So it takes water from the pond and feeds it through these 
trays in which the uh the plants in this case lettuce are planted. And he says it can 
come out you know pretty much every day and and pick a head of lettuce. The the reason 
it works is of course is because there are   fish in the pond and the fish poop and 
it acts as fertilizer for his lettuce. So we’ve visited this pond. I think this 
is our third time visiting these homeowners   because we kind of know them now. Once you’ve 
become familiar with various pond owners, we all visit each other’s ponds and it’s really 
really fun. Um, so this is an absolutely beautiful pond built by Aquacape and he’s got a an amazing 
wooden bridge that they found for him. But we’re also impressed with his garden. He’s does some 
beautiful plantings. I see over on the left one   of my favorite plants was a nepata called Montro’s 
white and I highly recommend that you plant it if you want pollinators from about now until the end 
of October. You can see it there on the left lower part of the screen. You will have so many bees. 
It will look like the entire plant is moving. It’s fabulous. I recommend it to everybody who 
comes here. And you can see he’s must have had a   little bit of trouble with herand I think. Do you 
remember him talking about that? because he’s got some fish line across there and that can prevent 
a heron from walking into your pond. There’s a beautiful stream coming down into a waterfall. 
It’s It’s quite lovely. Yep. And sorry about that bump. That was me. I read the sign saying be 
careful um of the step. Um but I still missed it. all of his plantings of the 
perennials. They’re so pretty. Yeah, I really admired this bridge that 
he has. The beautiful wooden bridge. Aren’t some of those evergreens beautiful? 
Sometimes I see these gardens, we visit them and then think, where can we put some of these 
plants or trees in our garden? And the answer is we can’t. We just don’t have any room. But we 
try and that’s one of the wonderful things about going on these pond tours is it gives you ideas 
and inspiration to do things in your garden when you when you get back home because gardening never 
stops and we we’re we are talking about changing our garden based upon what we saw this well based 
upon at this house. Yeah. Because I really like the way the stream runs down into the waterfall. 
So, we may be getting our pond builder out next spring to take a look and see what he can do. 
And the other thing that we realized in talking to the pond owner as well is our pond really is do 
a clean out. Um, we haven’t had a clean we haven’t had it cleaned since it was rebuilt in 2018. Um, 
and because we have stones, rocks on the bottom, quite a lot of sludge has built up over time 
because in talking to this pond owner and he has wonderful water clarity. He was telling us that he 
has regular um pond cleanouts. Oh, and this area. Um, I think the first time we visited, we spent 
ages sitting on that glider and just enjoying enjoying the vibe of this of this garden, which 
is really really well done and quite wonderful. In fact, I think that’s I think we call it the 
glider house, don’t we? When we do when we look   at the list, sometimes we’ll forget names and go, 
“That was a house with a glider.” Yeah. And it was a really hot day the first time we visited. So 
we sat in that shaded area with a glider. And I I think we spent at least 10 minutes on that 
glider. It even made us think we needed one for   our garden. But we’ve never done it. We have No, 
we don’t have the space. We don’t have the space for a glider. Oh. Oh, and these cookies. He 
called them koi keys. They were so good. His daughter made them. Isn’t that cute? We told him 
we have to steal that idea for our tour. Yes. So, this next homeowner has been 
in the club for quite a long time,   and he definitely knows how to build his own 
pond. This is his third time building it. He added a couple of waterfalls. I won’t 
even tell you the equipment. He listed   in the description of his pond, all of the 
equipment he has to keep his pond clean. And it’s amazing. Oh, the water quality is is 
really really good. It was really good. And that’s why I mean a lot of a lot of these homeowners 
and the more they learn about about keeping fish, one of the most important things is the water 
quality, of course, for the fish. Um, but also, you know, you want to make sure that the you can 
see your fish when you’re you’re here. And you can   he’s got some bubblers in, so it just prevents 
you from seeing them a little bit. But if you want healthy fish, you don’t want to lose any. You 
want them to grow. that guy all black. He’s He’s got a lot. He also had you. There’s the double 
waterfall. Oh, right. I think he did a really nice job there. It’s uh I think he was saying 
in the description that he was he’s trying to make it look more natural and he’s he’s certainly 
achieved that. That’s some wonderful stone work, right? And the shrubs around it, too. That 
looks like a creeping juniper of some type. That’s really pretty. That does soften the stones. 
We do that, too. Uh the all of the grow the growth in the center is really pretty. I’m not sure 
what those are. Oh, you can see the Japanese   maples that he talks about in his description. And 
then they’ve done a nice job with annuals as well. But he he built this pond himself. I 
think we did visit this a few years ago and I and it’s really different. 
He really did a nice upgrade. It’s got some really pretty driftwood, too,   which I always think we need on the top of our 
waterfall, but I don’t know where to find it. I think while Mark was videoing this, I was 
standing and talking to him about water quality. This is a pond that we’ve visited often and 
one of the things I like like about it is   the way that you end enter the property. As 
you can see, it’s very secluded even though it’s on a fairly busy street. The other 
amazing thing about this pond as well is the quality of their fish. The pond owners 
have won several prizes for their fish. You can see it’s quite a large pond, quite 
deep. Don’t remember how deep it is. Um, it is 10,500 gallons, which is quite big. Um, 
I don’t think they say how deep it is. No, but they have an upper pond and that’s where 
they keep their lotus and their waterlies and   a basalt column bubbler which then flows into 
this. And a lot of times the reason to keep that kind of a second pond is because all of 
those plants act as um it’s like a biological filter for the rest of for your water. We 
keep a little bog but theirs is quite large. They have some very large fish but some 
very very beautiful fish. Some of the best fish some of the best koi that I’ve seen 
on these on these tours. You can see why   they’ve won prizes for their koi. Now, many of 
the pond owners or the um the homeowners here, they take their koi out of the ponds and 
they show them at various locations around the country. It has to be very 
stressful, but they enjoy winning um prizes for their fish. And many of 
them are so beautiful that we can see why. Those metal structures you see there is it’s a 
a hoop house. So these pond owners um that build that over their pond in the winter and cover it in 
plastic to protect the pro protect the fish during the winter. And as you can see their property 
backs right up onto the Burlington Railroad. So, but that doesn’t distract from how 
well landscaped their property is. No, it’s nice flocks there. They’ve really 
done a good job back here because they   had a number of trees died a few years ago and 
they have completely redone this landscaping. It looks beautiful. Was a hydranger, 
was it? There. That was really pretty. And he warned Mark as he walked through 
there because he’s had chipmunks and   so he keeps filling in the chipmunk 
holes with dirt. We all have those. Although I don’t think they 
talked about battling rabbits.   Just about every pond we visited talked 
about how many rabbits we’ve had this year. That’s a really pretty little pine tree. This is a home we visited before, but we did not 
remember that we had visited it. I think they made   a number of changes, too, since we were here 
the last time. They have a lot of very nice um annual plantings here. They have a beautiful 
pergola. We didn’t really show it in there,   but it’s a very nice covered pergola because it 
had rained all morning, and they have quite a number of decorative items. That little bowl has 
water lettuce in it. He has a lot of pond plants, a lot of water liies, but the most one of the 
most impressive things, you’ll see it as we go   around. He is growing a tree in his pond. And I 
forgot to ask him how he can do that. It’s a bald cyprus. We have one on our parkway that’s quite 
a bit bigger than this, but it’s really lovely. And you can see they had their furniture covered. 
So it it had rained, right? Although um it had stopped by the time we got here cuz as as I said, 
we were running ahead of the rain the whole day. That’s quite a quite a lovely waterfall. The 
way it splits into into two other waterfalls. Very well done. They finally got around. It’s not 
the normal feeding time. So you know how that is. I come home from work. And then you can see 
there’s the the bald cypress growing in his pond, which is amazing. Never seen I 
haven’t seen that before. No. No,   we haven’t. And it really the the pond 
is beautiful the way it’s right next to the patio. They they do a very nice job with 
everything. They’ve got their fire pit there. Yeah, you can tell that it’s an 
area that they use a lot and it   does seem it does have a very relaxed atmosphere. So, if I had to describe this 
next property in one word,   the word would be magical. I 
said to the owners as we left, we could have spent several hours here. They 
have such an amazing collection of evergreens. And it’s a a relatively small garden, too. She 
has really packed everything in. And she buys   her evergreens online and lets them mature. 
And I know the grower that she buys from, I’ve I’ve actually ordered online from 
them, but we don’t have anything like this. And as as the homeowners mentioned, the 
gentleman there, he’s in charge of the   pond and the fish. And if you have 
any questions about the landscaping, ask my wife because she knew everything. Oh, that’s a miniature ginko. So, the the the pond 
is Let’s not miss the pond. Right. Right. But, uh cuz the pond is also excellent. Those 
are some beautiful water lilies. That’s probably the first thing we noticed when we 
walked in was the the water lilies. Hadn’t   seen that color before. His water quality is is 
really good. Um, and he has some very nice nice koi and it’s really well integrated into the 
landscape. Um, very natural looking. But the stars of the garden are the collection of trees 
and other evergreens. Really is quite something. And they still managed to have a little patch 
of grass. Yes. So you can walk through it. But look at that pine tree on the left. And she 
what she does if you have a pine tree, well, you’ll notice in the spring they put out on each 
little edge, it’s called a candle. And if you want to keep your pine tree small, you cut the candles 
off by about half. And she’s been doing that so that she because she has to maintain them in this 
small garden. And some of these trees are really   old like this elm that we’re going under now. 
and she buys them actually as miniatures but let in the case of the elm lets them grow. We were we 
were surprised if not shocked. We have a miniature elm in our fairy garden. We had no idea that if 
you left it it would grow as big as this guy. She does have a rabbit issue like most of 
us because she has been putting chicken   wire around some of her more delicate plants, 
especially hostas. They do like to chew on hostas. And then back to the pond. I was saying that it’s   extremely well integrated into 
the landscape. Some nice rocks, a waterfall that’s not too dramatic,   so it doesn’t make too much noise, 
but very, very natural looking. Really well done. Was it an aquacape pond? 
I don’t remember. I don’t think so. I’m not   sure. They may have built this themselves. 
Oh, no. It is um it’s an aquacape pond. After this tour, I actually went home and looked 
online for uh buying water liies online because they’re not available locally really. A couple 
of um garden centers sell them, but they’re pretty standard. And this was a particularly 
beautiful one, so I’m going to have to find it. I’d say they have even less 
grass than we do. Yes, they do. The homeowner here is actually 
a pond builder and so he has a   number of features. You can see them 
in his front yard. They’re quite nice. It looks like he needs a little bit of space to 
park. So, he’s made a little extra spot here in   his his front driveway to park a car. But, 
um he’s got some lovely boulders. He’s has some nice um bubbling urns here in the 
front. And that’s that’s quite pretty. It is. Those are some really nice rocks. 
They are nice rocks. It’s very well done. So, moving into the back garden, you can see 
more urns. You can tell he’s a pond builder, and you can tell he’s really into water features. 
And probably the thing that caught my eye right away was that bridge with the brake in it, which 
is quite dramatic. You kind of have to step over or jump over it. I thought that was quite well 
done. And again, you can see some of those rocks, some of those boulders. Quite dramatic. It looks 
like his fish aren’t very mature. He just has some small fish in there right now. He was quite 
busy with some other other people visiting and talking to him about building ponds, I think. 
And so, we didn’t really get to talk to him, but again, it’s quite well um integrated into 
the into the landscape. And it’s the waterfalls aren’t too dramatic so they don’t make a 
big crashing noise. So it makes for quite a relaxing environment. And I think the reason 
he has so many water features there is because he is a pond builder and he probably takes 
people into his back garden and the front   and just shows them what you can have and what 
it looks like. It’s hard to envision sometimes. So, as we approach this next pond, we should 
probably explain what these fish that you’ve been seeing in other videos are. They’re 
provided by the pond club that we belong to, and it’s a useful indicator of where 
the pond is as you drive up to it. Oh, this house. beautiful, beautiful 
landscaping which kind of promises   what’s to come in the backyard which is 
which is really quite quite spectacular. They do a beautiful job with their annuals and 
then as you approach it so many perennials here at this must be completely shade because 
they have the hydrangeas, they’ve got the   hukuras. It’s very pretty. There’s some 
nice ferns back there too. Nice ferns. That looks like an endless summer hydranger, 
right? It’s quite a sloping backyard as you can see because we have to go down a few 
steps to get to the pond. And that’s not bad camera work on my part because I was 
going down steps. True. It wasn’t too shaky. So, as we approached this house and we 
were parking, there were more cars on   the street than any house we visited on 
this particular day. And I think that’s because it is a spectacular pond. This is his 
fourth pond. He’s had four homes, four ponds, and he said this is the last one because he’s 
got everything he wants now. And you can see   how beautiful this is. It’s right up next to 
the patio. Has some of the most impressive water lilies I’ve ever seen. And he has a lot of 
them, too. But it’s a large pond. Let’s let me just check and see how big it is. It’s 6,000. 
Was it 6,000 gallons, 30x 20x 4 ft deep. Um, he has three dozen kois. Obviously, lots of 
liies. Some are tropical and hearty. Some   even bloom at night. We’ve never seen that. But 
we have such a small pond, relatively speaking, that we can’t have that many or we’d have to 
divide them a lot. But he did say, I don’t know if   you remember him saying this, Mark, but he takes 
them all out in the spring, divides them by three. He keeps 2/3 and he gives away another third. So, 
if he does that next spring, we’re going to have to watch for his notification. We have so many 
yellow blooming ones and they’re beautiful. They really are. But it it helps to have a little bit 
of diversity, I think, in the color in your pond. I don’t know how he did that smoke feature. I’m   not sure how he does that. It’s quite 
dramatic though. It’s very dramatic. And some of the plants in there, too. I don’t know 
what that is. That looks like a reed. He probably has to keep them in pots because frequently, we 
learned this with the first time we built a pond. We had some flag iris and they just took over 
the entire pond. Mark had to get in in the fall with a machete and chop them down. They were 
beautiful, but they were taking over. And so,   if you keep something in a pot, it’s a little 
bit easier to to maintain it in your pond. That is obviously where they sit. 
And look at how beautiful it is. Yeah, cuz this is the best view of the pond, 
which is why they put the seating area right here. And look at the different colors 
of the evergreens that hang over   too. That that takes some creativity 
and they did a beautiful job with that and some really nice plantings. Those cone flowers look especially good next to   the pond like that. They do. 
Look how picturesque that is. That’s beautiful. You wouldn’t believe that that 
was in somebody’s back garden.   True. It’s absolutely stunning. They 
spend a lot of time working on it. This homeowner found this pond in the 
backyard when he bought the house.   He’s an elderly gentleman. There’s a beautiful 
covered pergola there. He just left the pond. He loved it. And he’s just done a few little 
things to tweak it. He’s enjoying his fish. It’s really lovely. He has all these very large 
stacked rocks that you can walk up. And we spend a lot of time talking about he has a shark. It’s 
a small shark. A lot of people have these little u these little I forget what it’s 
called. Some kind of a finned shark.   They don’t get very big apparently, but they 
do eat the algae off the sides of your pond. And that’s why why some of the pond owners get 
the little sharks. We took a long time to find   him because he’s black. But I spent a lot of 
time with him looking for his shark. And that’s a nice little area, nice little sitting area up 
at the top, too. So, imagine buying a house and you have this in your backyard. And that would 
be lovely. He has quite a few very nice fish. Nice little seating area over there. Really pretty. Yes, it is. It’s very serene. It would be interesting though buying a house 
with a pond and then having to discover how to   take care of it if you never had one before. 
But it’s a lovely addition to a landscape. That pergle is quite nice. Mhm. So, this was the last pond on the tour. 
Actually took us 45 minutes to get to it,   but it was well worth it. It’s set in several 
acres of wooded area and is quite dramatic. I would say it’s quite dramatic. It’s one of the 
most dramatic ponds we’ve ever seen. And we we   had been here previously when we always want 
to see if the homeowner has made any changes to their pond. And he had not really made any 
changes, but still just as stunning as ever. And he did mention to us he never has to see any 
neighbors because of the wooded lot. You walk into this this lot and you do not expect what you see. 
I think he needs that piece of equipment to cut his grass. Yeah. because he cares for the trees 
in it in this area, too. So, he’s quite busy. And again, it’s not what you would expect. So, this stream runs next to his 
patio and then into a into a pond. And then there’s another stream with another 
waterfall that that runs into the main pond. A lot of places to sit and enjoy it. That must be nice. A little fire pit in the fall.   Look at Look at the trees. Just 
what a beautiful wooded block. Yeah. No neighbors in sight. The whole thing is really steps 
down. You walk down a number of   steps to get to the lower patio where 
the fish actually are in the in the pond. And I think he does does call it 
a swim pond. He does he does swim in it. lovely gazebo to spend time in if u if he 
has any mosquitoes. We didn’t notice any. That’s the main pond that the water waterfalls and   the streams flow into. And 
there’s quite a lot of fish. See up there was the the waterfall that we 
crossed, the stream that we crossed coming in. So, he’s made really effective use of uh of 
the landscape there because obviously that um hill that was already there and the 
way he’s built his ponds and waterfalls in into that landscape works really well. I’m 
assuming it was there before then. It wasn’t man-made. It doesn’t look man-made at all. No, it 
doesn’t. He has 12,000 g and another 6,000 g. So, he has a lot of space for a lot of fish. and he 
does have quite a few. Thanks for joining us on today’s pond tour. We really enjoyed it and we 
hope you did too. If you’ve enjoyed this video, please subscribe for more content just 
like it. Thanks for watching. Bye.