Pond Tours Coming Up – MPKS and Aquascapes

A beautiful pond eludes us. We try. Really we do. Mike put in a pre-fab pond several years ago, complete with a small stream and headwater. But we can’t seem to really get ‘there’.  By ‘there’, I mean it just doesn’t look like a miniature version of this one that we saw on a pond tour several years ago.

To see ponds like this one, you need to go on a pond tour. It just so happens that the Midwest Pond and Koi Society (MPKS) has not one, but four, pond tours coming up.

Saturday, July 23, 2011: Southwest & West – Aurora, Batavia, Bolingbrook, Downer’s Grove, Geneva, Lisle, Naperville, Oswego, Plainfield, St. Charles, Warrenville, Wheaton, Woodridge.

Sunday, July 24, 2011: South – south side of Chicago, Indiana, Joliet, Lemont, Lockport, Mokena, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Tinley Park, and Willow Springs.

Saturday, July 30, 2011: North/Northwest – Arlington Heights, Addison, Carol Stream, Elgin, Des Plaines, Glendale Hts., Glenview, Kildeer, Mt. Prospect, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook, Palatine, Prospect Hgts., Roselle, Schaumburg, Streamwood.

Sunday, July 31, 2011: Central – Berwyn, Brookfield, Chicago, Countryside, Elmhurst, Hinsdale, La Grange Park, North Riverside, Oak Brook, Oak Park, Riverside, River Forest, and Westmont

The tours are open to all, with guidebooks being sold at a variety of places. You buy the book, then make the rounds at your own pace. 

Mike and I were members of MPKS for a while. Learning about ponds seemed like a good idea before building one. Mike was interested in the technical end. He needed to know what to do to make it work without spending a lot of money on equipment, and of course he wants to do it without chemicals.  

See this picture we took on the pond tour in 2005? See the water flowing through the stream, down the waterfall, and into the pond? See the equipment that makes it happen?  See anything cleaning the water? Appropriately, yes, you see the picture, and yes, the water is flowing. Also appropriately, no, you don’t see the equipment that makes it happen or the filter.

I was interested in the aestetics. I don’t want to see pond liner. I don’t want the pond to look like it was plopped down in the middle of nowhere. I don’t want it surrounded by an avalanche. I want it to look natural, like it has always been there. That’s how this one looks. This stream flows from somewhere unknown. Is there a liner? I don’t know, and that’s how it should be. Lots of groundcover. Natural grading.

The ponds on the Midwest Pond and Koi Society tours have been done with a variety of expertise – everything from ‘I did it ALL myself’ to ‘This was done professionally’. If you want to see water features of the professional caliber, Aquascape is a Chicagoland design and installation company who sponsors mini-tours. Like MPKS, there will be a group of ponds to see in one area. 

July 16th, 2011
City: Palatine
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

August 20th, 2011
City: Downers Grove
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

September 17th, 2011
City: St. Charles
Self-Guided Tour Times: 10:00AM – 5:00PM

This might just be the way to up your game if you’ve been considering a pond. Or maybe its just a way for you to enjoy someone else’s pond. Either way, plan a day or two to visit.