While the Morgans eventually outgrew that under-filtered ornamental pond, it lured them into the water gardening business.

Doing business as Tell Three Friends, the couple every year custom design and build 15 to 20 water gardens, each at a cost of $3,000 and up. They also are consultants and suppliers for do-it-yourselfers.

“I’ve always been attracted to water,” Morgan said Sunday during the Muncie Home Builders Association’s 10th annual Home, Garden, Patio and Remodeling Show at the Horizon Convention Center. “My ideal vacation is at the beach. The sound of water. . .feeds my soul.”

The Morgans charge $3,000 for a basic, six-feet-by-six-feet water garden, which includes design services; installation; pond fish; water lilies, sedges, rushes and other plants; a waterfall; boulders and small river rocks; a skimmer; a biofilter; a pump; a felt-like sub-liner and a rubber liner; closure of the pond for the first winter and opening the pond the next spring.

Besides how much a water garden costs, patrons attending the home show frequently wanted to know how much time it takes to maintain a water garden and what you do with the fish in the winter.

The type of stone in a water garden can drive up the cost. For example, the Morgans used very expensive mountain stone from Tennessee for the water garden they assembled for the home show.

The ponds are deep enough — typically two feet — that fish can escape the frozen water in the winter.

The difference between a water garden like the Morgans build and one that you buy from a home-improvement store is like the difference between an in-ground swimming pool and a kiddy pool, said Morgan, who was the first president of the White River Water Garden Society (a Minnetrista affiliate).

“Our water gardens work just like an in-ground pool,” she said.

Maintenance takes 10 to 15 minutes a month: emptying out the basket that collects leaves and other debris from the pond.

The water lilies, which bloom, and other plants add beauty, provide shade for the fish and retard algae growth, Morgan said. The fish, which play under the waterfall, add beauty, life, movement “and help balance the pond biologically,” she added. “It becomes a balanced ecosystem.”

The rocks provide hiding places from predators such as raccoons.

Great blue herons are the biggest predator.

Adding a heron statue takes care of that problem, Morgan said, because herons are territorial.

She is a former advertising salesperson for The Star Press. Her husband is an ex-Ball Corp. chemist and former wholesale seller of processed fish bait.

“We’re water garden hobbyists,” she said. “We’re making money doing what we like.”

source : www.thestarpress.com By SETH SLABAUGH