In late August of 2021, I put in a different kind of garden—a water garden. I dug a hole in my backyard. It was six feet long, four-and-a-half feet wide, and two feet deep at the deepest point.

I put in a pond liner, and I filled it with water.

Then I covered up the edges with rocks and logs, and I put in some water plants. I put in a small water lily (Nymphaea ‘Sioux’), one swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), one marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), one wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), two gray rushes (Juncus patens), two slough sedges (Carex obnupta), and a handful of western milfoil (Myriophyllum hippuroides), an underwater oxygenator.