Clyft, I found alot of my pond items at sales and on craigslist. I even found the old stump I placed next to my pond along side the road! I purchased my initial "pond kit" on clearance. It was awful waiting till the weather broke to start digging but worth the wait. This year I expanded(doubled pond size)and made my skippy filter from a pot I bought for $25, pvc I had on hand and cleaned out the dollar store of scrubbies to fill it. I got lucky with my pump though, my father-in-law gave it to me. It pumps 1200gph. It would have cost me $175! The field stone I gathered from along side a gravel road the county was clearing to pave. It took a few trips but my husband and I got as many as I needed. There are alot of options out there to sift through. Just do TONS of reading on this site and anything else you can get your hands on. Everyone here has been a great help for me. I have roughly $250 total into my pond that is 600 gallons. You can spend much more of course. It just depends on your budget, pond size and patience to hunt down what you think you want. The location you have selected looks like a great place for a pond. A good thread on here to do a search for is "show me yours and I'll show you mine" LOTS of great ideas can come from this to help you along. I think it is currently on the first page of the forum. Also "above ground vs in ground". Look in the pond gallery as well. Of course as matt m stated build as big as you can in the beginning because you will want to expand no doubt. It is a great and addictive hobby!! Hope this helps you some.

Plant it and don't worry. I had JJ for several years here and it wintered just fine. I got rid of it because it was very spotty for me and have regretted it ever since because the blooms are so gorgeous! I miss it! When you plant it put the bud union, the knobby part at the base where all the canes come out, about 4 to 6 inches below the ground level. Dig you hole first until it's about twice as big as the pot it's in. Then carefully take it out of the pot being really careful not to disturb the root ball as much as possible. Put it in and then carefully back fill the hole and tamp the soil down around the rose. If you want some extra protection on it mound some soil up around the rose canes or mulch it with a thick layer of leaves or some other kind of mulch. Do not put it anything in the terra cotta pot outside for winter. That pot won't winter anywhere near as well as the rose will, lol! I got rid of all my terra cotta pots years ago and only use ceramic ones in the house. They get wet, absorb the water and then when it freezes they shatter. If you want to keep the pot bring it inside or stick it in your neighbors garage. You got some lovely roses. DD is one of my favorites too and I've had one of mine in the ground here for going on 35 years. It's been through every kind of winter imaginable and survived. So don't spend your winter worrying about them. They're both going to come back next spring and give you a season of beautiful blooms. Enjoy!

Some more ideas for cottage type flowers would be larkspur, love-in-a-mist, poppies, snapdragons, and bachelor buttons. These can all be direct sown in the fall or if you like to have more control over their placement they do winter sow very well. Don't forget hollyhocks, cleome, irises, sunflowers, and daisies. Oh I need to stop! The list for flowers can go on and on. As for shrubs, how about blueberry bushes? Or spireas? Butterfly bushes are an idea but some will complain they are invasive. I've grown butterfly bushes for well over 12 years now and have yet to have one reseed on me and they sure don't put out runners in my experience. I'm sure your local nurseries would be well stocked with evergreen shrubs that don't really offer much in the way of flowers but they would make great bones for year long interest. I think the shrubs of choice for my area are the various Japanese hollies (cheaper alternatives to the more expensivse boxwood). I'm not sure how well these would handle full sun but hopefully your local nursery people would know the answer if you were interested. Good luck! Michelle

Dawn, that was an interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I had more butterflies in my back yard this year than ever before, because I planted more flowers and tended things better than before. I had quite a few yellow ones, which apparently are Sulphurs and I saw some Monarchs and others as well. It was really neat to go out in my back yard and have the butterflies all fluttering around me, like some commercial for allergy meds. LOL! I had no idea that butterflies need salt! I'm sure I can rig up something for them. I had been thinking about planting a passion vine. It reminds me of my grandmother, who had one growing on a trellis near the front door of her house. The flowers are so unique and tropical-looking, and I know if they grew well in Iola, KS, they should do well here also. And zinnias are so colorful. I bought a butterfly bush a couple of weeks ago. --Ilene