RE: water garden
- To:
- Subject: RE: water garden
- From: V* M*
- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 15:12:57 +0100
- Importance: Normal
Hello Nancy,
We constructed our pond about 18 months ago. It is an informal pond,
constructed with wildlife in mind. We have a gently sloping 'beach' of
gravel, pebbles and cobbles at the front, with two ledges at the sides and
back. The lower ledge is for plants in containers. The higher ledge has
aquatic soil, supported by rocks, in which I grow moisture loving plants.
There are rocks behind this to prevent ordinary garden soil falling into the
pond. We used a butyl liner and do not have a pump or moving water, nor do
we have fish - just frogs and toads.
The main mistake I made was not putting enough oxygenators in the pond
immediately nor having enough floaters to shade the water. This resulted
in a prolific growth of blanket weed etc. I also had problem with leaves
from a nearby tree last autumn - I could not fish them all out and when they
rotted in the water, the caused extra algae growth. The tree has now been
removed.
It is said that if you can get even just a jar full of water from an
established pond this helps to get the pond off to a good start.
If I had to start again, I would add one or two underwater lights so that I
could see what was going on in their at night. Also, having seen Sheryl's
pictures, would line it as they have with rocks etc. It looks terrific
Sheryl.
The advice we had about timing, was to build and plant up in early spring.
The book I found most helpful was The Water Gardener by Anthony Archer-Wills
(ISBN 0-7112-0775-5). It has some very good construction drawings in it,
plus design ideas and planting plans.
I have pictures of some of the construction of our pond and how it has
progressed over the months if you would like me to email them to you, but
they pale into insignificance against Sheryl's.
Valerie,
South Yorkshire, England
Zone 8
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