Couple enjoys pondering

Karl and Linda Stuecher's front yard used to be a sea of grass. Now it's a flowing water garden with yellow, orange and white koi that nibble fish food right out of their hands.

The pond also attracts toads, frogs, dragonflies and humans.

"Neighbors are always stopping by," Karl Stuecher said of the 15-foot-by-40-foot pond in front of their house in Rochester Hills, Mich.

With mature plantings and a statuesque purple smokebush cascading over one side, the Stuechers' pond looks like it could have been there for decades.

In fact, they built it not quite three years ago. Linda gave Karl a large rock as an anniversary present. She blindfolded him, drove him to the yard where the boulder was for sale, put his hands on the surface and told him, "Our love is solid as a rock," then let him see it.

They got the boulder home and placed it on the front lawn. Then they started thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a little pond around the rock?"

Karl stretched out a clothesline to mark an outline. They read books and attended a class on pond building at a water garden supplies store. Linda cleared their water garden plans with the city. They decided on a 10-foot-by-25-foot size.

However, Karl found he'd purchased more of the heavy pond liner than he needed. Rather than cut it, he buried the excess.

Smart move. Digging a hole is hard work. But, almost inevitably, people who make a water garden soon realize it's too small. Then they have to start all over.

Fortunately, when that occurred to the Stuechers, the liner was ready for the expansion. They estimate they spent about a month and $3,000 getting the pond going. The front yard still includes some lawn, which is visible from the street. The water garden is mostly hidden from streetview by plantings.

The pond is about 31/2 feet at its deepest, so the fish can stay in the water all winter. Rocks and gravel cover the liner.

The filter is behind the waterfall. Filter media cover the skimmer near the pump so usually it requires only a brief hose-down to stay clean.

Karl said they spend 30 minutes a week on maintenance but much longer sitting on outdoor chairs and a bench gazing at the water garden scene, an activity he calls pondering.

"It gives us a lot more time to sit and talk and hang out," said Karl, 52.

"I would never be without one," said Linda, 49.

Creating a water garden makes visible a previously hidden ecosystem. Critters you didn't know were around are suddenly there. That can be good (toads, dragonflies) or unwelcome (ducks, herons), although the Stuechers don't get too agitated over the returning pair of ducks.

"We don't look because we enjoy it so much," Karl said.

It can also create new indoor routines. Karl and Linda find they linger more often at their kitchen window because the window overlooks the pond. Last winter, they left the pump running, enjoying the changing ice sculptures as temperatures fluctuated over the mostly frozen surface.

Because the 32 fish are active at night, they've recently added more lights in the pond so it looks like "you're looking into a fish tank in a dark room," Karl said.

For Linda, the best part of the water garden is watching it. It's easy to enter a pond trance, to feel mesmerized, like time is standing still.

"Once you sit down, all of the sudden the laundry doesn't matter," she said.