What is a Flo Garden?
A Flo Garden looks like it has always been there…
A Flo Garden looks like it has always been there…
Where there is water there is life
Rocks + Native Plants + Native Fish + Quality Pond Products
A Flo Garden is a natural ecosystem, replicating our local endemic creeks and streams. A new home for endangered fish species and native plants who’s ecosystems are threatened by continual development.
How does the water stay clean?
A mechanical (skimmer) and biological (waterfall, natural healthy bacteria, fish, plants) filtration system. Water is constantly flowing/ being pumped through the system so that it is continually passing through the filtration system and over the falls - cleaning and aerating the water. ‘Moving water’ benefits include: no mosquitoes, clean & clear water.
A Flo Garden is fast to construct, cheap and easy to maintenance and chemical free. An inexpensive, almost instant way to transform your backyard into a thriving ecosystem.
A Flo Garden supports life and reflects a healthy ecosystem.
A Flo Garden natural pool is relatively inexpensive when compared to construction cost of other swimming pool designs. One major difference in our construction method is that Flo Gardens don’t use concrete in any of their builds. This cuts cost down dramatically in comparison to other pool companies that do. The use of concrete does not fit our ethos as not only is the manufacturing process resource heavy, concrete contains chemicals that leach into the ground and everything that enters the soil eventually end up in our waterways.
Flo Gardens are passionate about biodiversity and protection against habitat loss. We stock our natural pools, ponds and water features with species native to this region. Plants are an important part of the ecosystem and are not only functional (shade, food, habitat etc.) and aesthetically pleasing but are essential for the water purification/ filtration process in our Flo Gardens.
Flo Gardens staff are highly qualified Horticulturists and Bush Regenerators (native plant and ecosystem experts) and plant selection and placement is one of our specialities. We select plants according to your region/ climate, soil type and how you intend to use the space. In addition to native plants, we also grow other species suitable for inclusion in your Flo Garden - medicinal plants, a wide variety of bromeliads, herbs and vegetables.
We stock our natural pools, ponds and water features with endangered or threatened local fish species native to this region. Fish are am important part of the ecosystem and are not only aesthetically pleasing but are an essential part of the water purification process in our Flo Gardens.
A pond is not just a pond
It all begins with an idea.
A pond is not just a pond.
Ever since I can remember, I have always loved ponds and waterfalls. They are like gazing into a fire, a glance is never satisfying. Ponds and waterfalls are timeless, ever changing, a form of meditation that is engrained and can never fulfil our animal instinct of living by them forever.
Like fire, flowing water is the reason humans exists on this plant.
Where there is water there is life.
My first real connection with ponds was in spring 3 years ago.
My own pond is the result of years of trial and error. I have now created a pond I’m truly proud of. It’s far from perfect however after a couple of years it works well and grows spectacular fish and veggies.
If that was all that it did, that would be awesome.
The Spring of 2015 was particularly dry following on from a very dry winter. All the usual puddles and causeways were all bone dry, not a mozzie for months!
Everything was very quiet. It was the first rain for some months and I arrived home early one morning after a good night out and attempted to sleep.
But no, mother nature was not going to let me sleep! The sound was deafening. RIBITS of all descriptions. As we had the only body of water for quite some way, every frog migrated to our backyard from what seemed to be from all over South Golden Beach!
There were hundreds of mating frogs on every surface in our backyard. There were so many different frogs that I had to move them to walk around the pond. They were only inches apart everywhere, even on every vertical surface! I have never seen this before and maybe never will again;
where all the stars aligned
and all the frogs so divine,
in all their glory, singing for what seemed just for me.
This memory keeps me going.
A pond is not just a pond, it is a source of life. I have made it my life’s challenge to create the perfect pond. One that has flowing oxygenated water throughout the whole body of water, replicating a bubbling creek. My years spent rehabilitating Riparian zones and chasing waterfalls has given me a life time of pond and waterfall designs ingrained into my imagination.
A pond is not just a pond. It shouldn't just have a pump in the middle of it which is turned on and forgotten about, turning it into a boggy mess in a couple of years. We can grow all the veggies and seafood we need from our backyard pond. We can gaze into it for eternity with the comfort of knowing this perfect ecosystem is looking after us and everything that surrounds it, nourishing us all with the most nutritious food on the planet.