Article 4 - Garden PondsHistory of Garden Ponds
Garden Ponds - a Kings Choice
It is not
clear how many years garden ponds have been with us, but it is clear that "a long
time" is a good answer.
Remnants of
an ancient garden pond have been recently unearthed at King Solomon's pallace in
Jerusalem, and both ancient Babylon and Egypt have descriptions of various types of water
gardens.
We know
of descriptions of ancient water gardens and fish ponds since the brink of history. In the
Bible garden ponds and water gardens are mentioned several times usually as a setting for
love, beauty and calm.
Water
gardens were the kings privilage. And special gardners cultivated sweet water fish like
Koi and goldfish. These fish need air, which they gulp, and so they live close to the
surface, and are constantly visible. There are descriptions of ancient water systems, to
keep the water garden alive, and clean of insects and algea. These were naturally
ballanced garden ponds.
Everyone
remembers the story of the princess and her golden ball which fell into the garden pond,
and thus met the prince/frog. Throughout Europe garden ponds are found around every
castle, and in Australia, the capital, Canbara, has been built all around water gardens,
with one covering the parlament building.
There are
those who claim that the Koi has been cultivated and developed by the Japanese ony
recently, in the past 200 years or so. The interesting point is that the same sources
quote a lifespan of 200 years in exceptional conditions for Koi !
Both of this information should be taken with a grain of salt. In any case its true
Japanese name is pronounced: Nishikigoi which means a "national kiss" and in
Yiddish means I am not a gentile.
Koi have
many variaties of color and pattern, making the water garden a beautiful place to visit.
Red and white Kohaku, the coloreful Showa Sanke, or the vibrant Asagi are just a few of
the existing Koi variety for the water garden.
Today,
the Koi themselves are the kings. If you look them up on the internet you will find tha
there are water garden and garden pond sites with "Koi of the month" or
"Fish of the year". And they look like they enjoy it. It would be interesting to
hear what they had to say if the ever opened their mouth and talked. Of course this is all
said jokingly. Fish, just like all other vertebrates communicate among each other using
sounds and other signals.
