Heres where your creative instincts kick in. This is where you make your pond your own. Basically, its landscaping, but with a pond it can really become an artistic endeavor.

Sandstone, bricks, slate, field stone, crushed bricks, stream pebbles, mulch, you name it. Let your imagination be your guide. And thats just the beginning. Once you get a base down then you can start thinking about how you want to work in flowers, and plants. You can integrate annual flowerbeds with perennial beds. That way you can add something different each year for variety and still have the permanence of the flowers that come up year after year. In the perennial beds for example you could plant some early spring blooms like daffodils, and then in the same bed plant mid summer and fall bloomers to keep the color going. Of course there are so many different varieties of annual flowers that youll never run out of ideas for your annual beds.

Maybe you like the little ceramic figures that can be set in among the plants. The garden centers have loads of that kind of stuff. You can even get a ceramic toad or two if you like, but Ill guarantee you that you will have plenty of real toads around your pond.

As for lights, the garden centers and places like Lowes and Home Depot have great selections of yard lights. Youre sure to find something just right for you. The new solar powered lamps are especially nice for use around water because there is no wiring needed at all.