Yard whets appetite for leisure

A tour sure to inspire pond envy includes a once-neglected yard turned into a tranquil outdoor living area.

NORTH HYDE PARK - The 700-gallon pond edged in jagged Tennessee fieldstone and brushed with an artist's stroke of jade green looks like a picture from a gardening magazine. Water hyacinths and daylilies drift in harmony with a flash of brilliant Japanese koi and shubunkin fish. A small waterfall creates sounds so soothing it prompts a longing for something.

A nap, maybe.

That's exactly the effect Kathie and John King were hoping for when they installed their pond in the back yard of their crisp, taupe-and-white, Victorian-style home in South Tampa's North Hyde Park.

"We enjoy it out here because it's a place to relax and not worry about yard work," Kathie King says. "It's very calming."

The Kings began converting their back yard into an outdoor living space about two years ago at the urging of their son, Timothy, then 14. It began with a pond and then spread into a family project that involved converting an underused yard into an elegant outdoor living space.

Truth be told, Timothy had quite a bit to do with the whole pond caper, admits Kathie with an amused sigh. After spending time at Pondscapes - a South Tampa store specializing in pond supplies and installation - Timothy began lobbying hard for a backyard pond. At the time, the Kings' back yard was a rather modest sliver of unloved grass.

"Dead grass, really," Kathie King says.

The Kings rarely, if ever, sat outside. Then one day the couple returned home and discovered their enterprising son digging a large hole - without permission, of course.

Instead of getting mad, they bought a liner and a filter and filled the hole with water. After consulting with Pondscapes owner Michael Jones and his partner, Kevin McLeod, they got rid of the grass and installed a handsome pergola and paving stones.

"We saw a family who wasn't using their back yard," McLeod recalls. "So we talked to them and figured out what they wanted to use the area for. They didn't just want a pretty yard that wasn't a usable outdoor space."

The Kings painted their maintenance shed leafy green, put up a privacy fence and coaxed tendrils of fragrant Confederate jasmine up the sides. They planted peach-colored hibiscus and hung orchids and ferns around an arrangement of wrought-iron furniture. Soon Kathie and her daughter, Julia, a ninth-grader at Plant High School, were making patio mobiles from colored glass and copper wire.

Who knew a once nondescript back yard could be so sweet?

"Now, we spend a lot of Saturday and Sunday mornings out here," Kathie King says. "We bring coffee and our books. We have parties. The neighbors come over and we all end up coming out here. It's become an extension of the house."

The Kings will open up their patio to the public as part of Pondscapes' annual Pond and Water Garden Tour this weekend and next. The self-guided tour features 10 to 12 homes each weekend. The homes are scattered across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, including in Brandon, Carrollwood, South Tampa and Temple Terrace.

The tour will focus on all types of ponds, from do-it-yourself ones to elaborate ponds in brick courtyards with fountains, streams and cascading waterfalls. Expect both formal and casual, organizers say. And plan on taking home plenty of patio and garden ideas.

This is Pondscapes' fourth tour, which benefits the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Maps of the homes are available at Pondscapes, 4213 S Manhattan Ave. There is no fixed price, but Jones and McLeod hope people will give generously.

The store starts getting calls about the event in January.

"We've had to spread it over two weekends to allow people to get to all of the ponds," McLeod said. "There's so much interest that we get calls the week after the tour is over from people wanting their homes to be on it next year."

What's unique about the tour is that homeowners mill about offering advice and telling stories about how they put in their ponds. The typical cost of a 700-gallon pond is about $1,200 if you install it yourself and about $3,900 if you a hire a crew from Pondscapes.

The company charges a $75-an-hour consulting fee to come to your home and look at your yard. Consultations are free in the store, as are the once-a-month classes on installing ponds.

Now that the Kings' pond has had time to mature, a natural algae growth blankets the liner, lending the pond a desired, natural look. It requires very little maintenance, Kathie King says, just a routine filter cleaning and a good vacuuming once a year. The fish live unsupervised, except for an occasional interruption from the family's cocker spaniel, Blackie, who likes to drink from the pond.

"I think it's gorgeous," McLeod says. "And that they did it themselves is incredible."

Pondscapes' fourth annual Pond and Water Garden Tour runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this weekend and next. To pick up a map of the self-guided tour, visit Pondscapes at 4213 S Manhattan Ave., Tampa. For information, call 839-8062.