The Hill Country Water Gardens located in Cedar Park has to be one of the top locations to anyone interested in water gardening or in fact, any sort of gardening.
The owner, Steve Kainer opened the business back in 2000. You can read about his very interesting background by clicking on the link. They have recently expanded and are now on five acres which is beautifully laid out and maintained and has a very large inventory of everything for the pond enthusiast including lilies and lotus of all varieties, many other water plants, statuary and fish and ideas. Lots and lots of ideas to really get you thinking.
Usually, every Saturday morning, they hold regular classes on how to build your own pond or install a disappearing fountain among other things, and then when you are through and ready to take the plunge, they have all of the necessary materials including pond liner, skimmers, filter material, disappearing fountains and other accessories required in the building of a water feature. They also carry an inventory of some of the hard to find items such as lily pots and plant containers.
There are two shops the oldest and smallest of which has a large assortment of pumps along with other mechanical gadgets that make a ponders life a little easier plus a large selection of wind chimes, fish food and all kinds of other goodies. The other shop has gifts ideas, smaller statuettes, vases and many other interesting things.
Even though as the name implies, they do not restrict themselves to just ponds and water features as they have a very large inventory of regular landscape items such as plants and materials for the regular gardener among us.
The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable and know when to leave a person alone if they don’t need the help. Some people have no intention of buying and are there for the sheer beauty of the grounds and to look around. Who knows, even those sort of customers will buy the next time they visit as they are sure to pick up some ideas.
I wandered around and took over a hundred pictures and could easily have taken another hundred more. Watch the video below and then go take a look for yourself. http://hillcountrywatergardens.com/index/
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