Room for a New Pond

By Rick Osbourne

Gary and Karen Evensen are baby boomers living comfortably in the suburbs of Chicago. They love water, fish, and beautiful, exotic plants. The only problem is that in this particular suburb, water, fish, and beautiful exotic plants are not exactly plentiful. In fact, they're almost nonexistent. So when they moved into their home seven years ago, they decided to give their green grass backyard an extreme makeover, and in the process they'd see what could be done about getting water, fish, and plants into their overall suburban landscaping mix.

Actually, their backyard wasn't totally green and boring when they moved in. The previous owners of the home had installed a full-sized, in ground swimming pool years before they arrived. However when Karen and Gary checked the swimming pool out, they discovered it was in need of some major repairs, which Gary and his brother-in-law (who was in the pool business), took care of by themselves out of sheer necessity.

A Constant Work in Progress
But if you talked with them for 10 or 15 minutes, you'd discover that their entire home is, and always will be, a work in progress. And it's certainly not the home itself that's in any need of fixing up. On the contrary, it's a beautiful place, located in a peaceful neighborhood that's full of gorgeous, tall, mature trees, spacious lawns, and personable houses. Instead, it's the Evensens who have a natural tendency to look at their residence and visualize ways that they can make it better, more comfortable, and more interesting. And when a vision is captured in their mind's eye, they tend to take action, transforming possibility into actuality. It's just they way they are, naturally.

They Envisioned a Pond in the Backyard
One of the possibilities they saw laying dormant in their backyard was a peaceful pond, complete with beautiful plants, colorful fish, waterfalls, and a stream meandering down the slope that graduated gently from the fence and a line of evergreen bushes that ran along the back of the property, down toward their home. Once they agreed on the vision, the next phase was to do a little hands-on research.

They checked with a number of landscaping companies in the area, and finally found one that specialized in waterscaping, ponds, falls, streams, etc. After the consultation, the Evensens decided to hire Aquascape Designs to install their new water feature. When it was finished Gary and Karen had a beautiful, naturalistic complement to their existing, in-ground pool. In Karen's words, "we absolutely fell in love with the koi. It seemed like they enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed them, although down deep I know it's really the food in my hand that they enjoy."

The Pioneering Spirit
The Evensens bought their home before the water gardening boom had really developed. In a very real sense, they were in on the pioneering stages of a movement that really found its legs, its identity, and its way into the mainstream mentality of the new millennium. So they were on the cutting edge of what is now often described as a movement, a phenomenon, although arguably it's still in its infancy.

There Was More Than the Pond Though
Regardless, for the next six years Karen and Gary expanded their focus to the rest of the property, while remaining dedicated to their yard. They reshaped their entire kitchen, they added a double-decker, screened-in back porch, with the upper level overlooking the pond, stream, and waterfall, and the lower level opening out to ground level. Both areas double as entertainment areas designed to accommodate visitors young or old, male or female, business associates, or a group of friendly neighbors.

Construction Talent That's in the Genes
One thing that needs to be pointed out here is that Gary's construction talent seems to be inborn or genetic. Professionally speaking, he's the owner of a large copier company, but by nature, he's a builder who's not only willing, but also able, to make lots of things happen with his own two hands. And when you can actually live up to the do-it-yourselfer's motto, "Sure I can do that myself," it makes these kinds of things much easier to come by. In any case, Gary lives up to the motto.

The Very Unique and Hard to Believe Twist
Now let's bring this whole thing up to date and tell you what makes the Evensen's story and their west suburban home even more interesting and unique. You see, prior to the summer of 2003, a large and beautiful rose garden guarded the front of their house. It had been there ever since they moved in six and a half years before. Then one day Karen decided that she wanted to replace the rose garden with a brand new water garden, complete with falls, stream, pond, plants, and colorful fish.

The Next Move
When she told Gary about it he said, "Sure, I can do that." The first thing on Gary's agenda was to check with the city to make sure he wasn't breaking any municipal ordinances, or codes. Without incident, the project was blessed by the city but since the pond was going into the front yard, and it would be unfenced, Gary began thinking about liability issues. You may have a hard time believing this next move, but Gary decided that instead of building a fence to protect the new water feature, he was going to build an entirely new room around it. And that's precisely what he did.

Starting with the pond first, he excavated an area about 12' X 12'. He built the shelving, positioned the underlayment and the liner, situated the rocks, built the falls and stream, filled it with water, placed at least a dozen koi in the pond, all before he began the new addition designed to house the new pond. The entire project took about four months to complete. With five skylights built into the ceiling of the modernistic new room, the Evensens have had no problem growing plants. And with a special glass that filters out the ultra violet rays, they've also had no algae to wrestle with. Interesting, huh?

Parade of Ponds Visitors
The Evensens' new project began in early May, and was still in process during the annual Chicago area Parade of Ponds in mid-July. "We had lots of visitors," said Gary, "and everyone was curious about the new project." He finished in early October, beating Old Man Winter to the punch by several weeks. The next year we had lots of people come around just to see how everything turned out from the year before," he added.

Humidity a Non-Issue
The Evensens had a number of friends speculate that the new room could have humidity problems, and that mildew would be everywhere. But with a little research and hands on experimentation, they discovered that if they kept the water at room temperature, humidity was a non-issue. "Run your finger along the rocks, the walls, or the furniture," Gary challenged, "and tell me if you feel any film." After taking Gary's challenge on several different surfaces, his point was completely confirmed by this writer. There was also no mildew to be found anywhere.

The Koi Kissing Cat
The Evensens didn't stop at having only koi in their house though. They have two aquariums housing several different species of goldfish. They have a dog named Molly Beth, along with several cats. And Dirty Girl, one of the cats, developed an affinity for kissing the koi.

Koi Locked in Kissing Kombat
The other novel phenomenon occurs in the Evensen's pond whenever Karen or Gary feed the koi. At first everything looks fairly normal with the fish shooting to the surface to gather in fish pellets mixed with breakfast cereal. But after a couple minutes Karen called my attention to two koi (named Push Me, and Pull You) who were fighting over one pellet. They looked as if they were locked in kissing combat, but they weren't.

As it turned out, the bigger one sucked the pellet away from the smaller one, and Gary said it happens every time they feed the fish. He added, "The big guy wins about 90 percent of the time. I guess that's why he's bigger."

Check 'em out on the Pond Tour
So, if you happen to be in the Chicago area the second week of July, during the North American Water Garden Society's Pond Tour North America, and you want to see a really interesting and unique pair of ponds (not to mention a totally unique landscape), look up Gary and Karen Evensens' home. My wife is already making plans to see it when we go on the tour next year.