If you take nothing else home from this discussion, understand that doing battle with Nature is a sure fire way to lose the water gardening war.
The essential ingredient in any successful water gardening experience is understanding Nature and cooperating with her in every possible way.
As a matter of fact a water garden is normally seen as an antidote to a high-tech, robot-dominated world of work that many humans want to escape from after work.
Water gardening offers a way to reconnect and cooperate with Nature, not a way to further dominate and control her.
Leave the high-tech stuff at work, roll your pant- legs up, stick your feet in the pond, and become a kid again. Relax.
