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Water seems to appeal to a basic human need. Egyptian tomb paintings from 1500 B.C.E. show water gardens. For Persians and Moorish cultures a garden incorporating water, especially moving water, evoked not just the oasis, but paradise itself.

Two local gardeners would agree, but for very different reasons. Their two diverse landscapes show only a few of the vast range of possibilities opened up by the ancient concept of the water garden.

When a surrounding hedge began to shade out her rose bed, Gloria Oddo of Bonita Springs relocated the shrubs and was left with the perfect site for the water garden she’d wanted for years. Oddo especially wanted a waterfall for its cooling, soothing sound, and she consulted Dick Wild of Lotus Tropical Gardens to help.

Oddo wanted to enjoy her garden from both ground level and her second-story balcony, so the arbor that helps define the garden’s space was built extra tall. Wooden latticework suspended on two sides of the arbor further define the space, and provide a place to hang orchids and bromeliads. Newly planted flowering vines will eventually grow over the arbor.

Bold foliage supplies much of the color. Loropetalum is allowed to assume a full, bushy form here. The burgundy-purple of its leaves is carried around the garden by cordylines (ti plants), neoregelia bromeliads, and a colocasia (taro plant). The trailing ground-cover lysimachea at the pond’s margin and a bold alocasia contribute bright yellow-green accents.

Fat buds on a water lily promise tomorrow’s blooms. Papyrus, planted in deep sunken pots to contain their roots, flank the entry to the arbor. Their delicate texture creates a constant play of dappled sun and shade. Dwarf papyrus, or umbrella palm in the pond itself; ferns; iris; and other plants add to the lush and varied textures.

Gloria follows standard practice in keeping her water garden plants containerized. This helps keep the pond clean and prevents rampant growers from getting out of hand. Medium-sized river rocks around the stem of her water lily keep the fish from eating its roots.

“Gardening is my life, my exercise,” she says. “It’s what I do. It keeps me young. ” She has gardened avidly in Florida for 12 years.

A dry stream on one side of the water garden ties it in with the surrounding landscape. Though the “stream” appears to feed into the pond, it actually drains in the opposite direction so that it does not flood the pond during summer downpours.

A red enameled garden bench completes the scene, but is more than decorative.

“We sit out here every night ,” she says with a smile. “It’s perfect with a glass of wine. We just sit and watch the water.”

George Uding and his late wife Rose approached water gardening from another angle. They bought their house in Naples because it had a fish pond.

“My wife loved critters,” Uding muses fondly. They had the pond renovated by Driftwood Nursery, which also installed biological filters and a waterfall. Through the years they added fish, which became tame enough to hand-feed. The pond itself is left largely to the fish, but its edges are planted lavishly with heliconias, alocasias, and ferns.

Annual plantings along the margins add seasonal color. The fish pond is an integral part of the larger park-like garden. A bench facing the pond to allows comfortable, quiet viewing. This garden, too, is sited to be enjoyed from ground level and a second-story balcony, and the Udings loved both views. They later added a smaller pond, devoted entirely to fish, on another side of the house.

In addition to koi the Udings added albino catfish, goldfish and bottom-feeding plecostomus, another catfish species. George Uding named the albino catfish Scooper I and Scooper II for the way they seem to “vacuum” up their food. Last November, while he was away for a few days, something — he suspects an egret -— took care of the goldfish.

Uding reminisces about “Bruiser,” a large butterfly koi that they bought from Driftwood Nursery. Nobody knew exactly how old Bruiser was, but he had been in stock more than 11 years, and Driftwood was not his first home. He lived three more years as a pampered pet. When he got sick there was no aquarium large enough to transport him. The Udings treated him in consultation with a veterinarian specializing in fish, but alas, poor Bruiser expired.

Purists think that plants distract from the beauty of the fish. George Uding, however, loves the way the fish’s bright colors flash as they swirl about in the pond, and he also is a skilled gardener. Any visitor would agree that he has achieved the best of both worlds.

Creating your own water garden

If you treasure the rush of water and love good landscaping, a water garden could be in your future.

Just as in real estate, location, location, location is the primary need. Gloria Oddo of Bonita Springs chose a corner that had both some sun and shade to transform into her water garden.

Once the location was chosen, the right depth and circumference needed to be determined because this pond was meant to be seen from a second story of the home as well as from the yard. Next challenges were finding and installing a leakproof liner or material to keep the water in the pond, setting the rocks for a maximum of waterfall effect and a minimum of splash outside the pool.

The right size motor to power the waterfall, and, of course, the landscaping that would show it off were the last hurdles. Oddo now enjoys improving on the water garden’s landscaping, when she’s not relaxing and listening to it.

There are a few things to remember about installing a water garden in your yard:

1. It will require electricity to run the pump. From four to six hours a day your pump will have to run to aerate the water -- and of course, to create that tinkling rush over the rocks that you built it for. This will impact your monthly bill.

2. Where there’s water, there are mosquitoes, particularly here, on the doorstep of the Everglades. If your water garden has fish, make sure there are breeds that will consume mosquitoes. If your garden does not have fish, make sure its surface doesn’t welcome mosquito larvae by adding one of the organic treatments, such as Mosquito Dunks, that contain Bacillus Thuringiensis israelensis - Bti.

3. If you are planting in the garden itself, be extremely careful what you add. In the subtropical climate of Southwest Florida, plants like water hyacinths get out of control so quickly they are banned.

For more information on what these plants are, go to this Web site:

plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/invplant.html

Click on the topic, “Invasive aquatic and wetland plants” under “Non-native Invasive Plants: An introduction.”

Or call the Master Gardener Clinic of the Collier County Extension Service at 353-2872.