When Goat Creek Ranch moved to its new location 6 years ago we had to leave our old garden behind.  It wasn't easy after all of the work we'd put into creating an amazing garden space, but after carefully packing up the perennials and some of the rock, we set about to create an equally beautiful garden space... but this time it would be directly out the front door of our house rather than 150 feet away down a steep hill as it was at the old ranch location.

20 feet from the front porch patio deck was a large landscape mound with a 20 foot Spruce tree, a large Mock Cherry and a sweeping Juniper bush.  To the north of that is a small garden adjacent to the driveway.  It was here that the new ponds and gardens would begin.

The idea was to incorporate a mature garden landscape into the pond and new gardens to give the area a sense of permanence while at the same time making good use of the shade area to keep the pond cool in the hot desert climate.

The first step was to remove the grass from an area running from this side of the garden to the left in the photo above to the garden mound to the right and to within 3 feet of the garden against the front porch.  This would provide us with a grassy walkway in front of the house.

By the summer of the second year we had the entire pond are dug to a depth of 5 1/2 feet at the north end and 2 1/2 feet to the south.  Visitors couldn't understand what we were up to, even after it was explained, but we persevered.  The new garden was starting to take shape.

Early last  year (2003) we installed the liner and began the job of landscaping the 'bones' of the garden.  While the terrain here did not allow for the kind of terracing that we had at the old place, we did truck in enough rock to raise some of the beds as much as 3 feet.

Now that our new pond is built and most of the perennial beds are planted, we are working on plans to extend the garden further away from the house, with another two or three ponds for raising Koi.

In early 2004 we drained the pond after a successful wintering over for the koi (we only lost one male who had ventured into the shallow end and become caught in the ice) and upgraded the liner and rockwork.  In early July we rebuilt the waterfall and added a stream feature above it that flows out of the large juniper in the landscape mound.  We now have the layout for the new double pond ready and groundbreaking commenced in August 2004. It should be finished sometime this year.

Click Here to View the Photo Gallery

Click Here to View the Old Ranch Garden Photo Gallery