My View on the 2013 Dallas Water Garden Tour

My dream one day is to have a beautiful water garden.  Until then, I go every year on the Dallas Water Garden tour to get my annual inspiration.  This year, I went with my good friends who also love water gardens.  We had a wonderful time!  The Tour is sponsored each year by the North Texas Water Garden Society. 
http://www.ntwgs.org/  One day I hope to join (when both my kids have flown the coop).

This year it was held on June 8th and 9th and luckily it wasn't miserably hot.  We started the tour at the Creative Water Gardens Store in Garland, TX.  I had never been there before (my friends had though!) Oh my goodness, what a wonderful store - I can't recommend it highly enough for beautiful and inspirational water garden displays!  http://www.creativewatergardens.net/


 

Below are pictures of ponds, fountains, falls, fish, turtles, and water lilies taken at the store.

Beautiful multicolored water lily pads. 

I loved the fish fountain

I love dragon flies

Cool moss growing on the turtle!

Lovely garden angel

I was amazed at the number of fish for sale - huge inventory!

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to stop at all the ponds on the tour, so we selected the central and southern areas of the metroplex to focus on.  The first pond was the one that was mentioned in the Dallas Morning News article.  It was beautiful and so clear - like a 7,000 gallon fish aquarium (the filtering system was incredible).  See link for the article.  http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/home-and-gardening/headlines/20130605-dallas-area-residents-7000-gallon-pond-features-20-koi-fish-and-more.ece



The fish were very friendly!

The next pond we visited was much smaller, but still lovely.

 The surrounding pond plants and flowers were very nice.

I love bee balm, and it was very pretty here.

 

Bees love beebalm!

 Such a pretty waterfall!

The next pond garden was at the bottom of a small hill in the backyard.  It was also very lovely.

 

Walking down the hill

Although not part of the water gardens, I loved this beautiful variety of thistle that was in several of the front yards of the gardens that we toured.

The next pond had a boardwalk built around it and a small building for resting and meditation.  It was also very lovely.

The Koi here was also very friendly!

The last garden also had several carnivorous plants - growing in the garden in North Texas!  How cool!

And finally - a small pond with tadpoles - my fave as a kid!  See their little legs starting to develop!

Me and my best gardening buddy!  What a great day!