Ponds
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I cannot now
imagine my garden without a pond, they are hard work to construct, occasionally
murky and smelly, but when they are clear and full of life it makes it all
worthwhile. I enjoy most aspects of gardening (not cutting the grass), but if I
had to choose what gives me the most interest and pleasure it would be my ponds.
They too as with the rest of the garden have evolved and I am sure will continue
to do so. For me nothing can compare with the anticipation of new life in a just
completed pond. Waiting and watching to see what creatures turn up as if from
nowhere, to inhabit this new little world just created. All my ponds are
constructed using flexible liners laid on anything from soft sand to old nylon carpet. My
ground is very stony so it was important to make sure that none could puncture
the liner. The other enemy of pond liners is the sun, causing any liner exposed
to it to go brittle and split after a few years. Usually the more expensive
liners are more resistant to the effects of the sun than the cheaper ones, but
not everyone can afford these.
My own system of construction is to build a layer of
stonework on a shelf in front of the upper sides of the liner. I try to ensure
that when the pond is full there is at least 4 inches (10cm) depth of
water above the point where the liner emerges from below the bottom of the
stonework. This method also means that no liner is on view to spoil the look of
the pond.
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My
largest pond about 12 foot long by 6 foot 6 inches wide (3.7m x 2.0m) is about 3
foot (0.9m) deep in the lowest section and is fed into from a smaller pond 4 foot 6inches long by 3
foot wide (1.4m x 0.9m) and this is about 1 foot 6 inches (45cm) deep. I keep a
mixture of fish in the larger one, goldfish, rudd, ghost koi carp and a couple
of tench. They all seem to get along together and both the goldfish and the rudd
have spawned in there. The smaller pond is home to 6 young goldfish, but could
hold more, as water is circulated from the large pond to a filter box, and then
back through the smaller pond, via a channel in the path, back into the main
pond. This ensures that the water is very well oxygenated particularly as it
passes through the smaller pond.
I constructed the bridge myself in about 3 hours using
tanalised (treated) timber, decking board and galvanised bolts. Total cost of
materials about £70.00.
The sundial was a present and a very nice addition to
my garden it is. Not, I would add, for telling the time of day. At that it
seems to be
just slightly worse than a watch that has stopped. The watch is correct twice a
day, my sundial is correct once a day, about 3.30pm if I remember correctly. I
say remember because I am typing this in February and it won't see any sun until
about April.
This pond is the one that attracts the frogs in
late winter/early spring, and is always the home to some tadpoles a little
later. Many of the tadpoles are eaten by the fish, but always some seem to
survive and make it to young frogs. I do have a lot of pondweed mainly Elodea
Canadensis, which provides hiding places for both tadpoles and fish fry.
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The little feline on the bridge is Lattara, she is my little dog, well as close as a cat will allow
itself to be compared to such a lowly animal. She waits by the door in the
morning until I go out into the garden. Then she follows me around for a while,
until she gets bored and goes off to play on her own, but she constantly comes
back to check on me. She is one of our four cats, I will introduce you to the
rest, as they appear in the photographs, throughout the year. I should mention
that none of our cats bother the fish. They do chase the frogs, but do not seem
to be able to work out an attack strategy for something that jumps, and urinates
in their mouth if caught (sorry if you were just eating/drinking). We do have a
heron around from time to time and that does catch the fish, although the drop
from the stone edging to the marginal shelf does seem to discourage most of them.
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The
photograph above shows Orontium Aquaticum just coming into growth in February, you can see the leaves underwater. They have a silvery appearance due
to a surface that seems to repel water. When they emerge they are a glaucus
(blue/green) colour. They are unusual/useful in that they will grow in water up
to a depth of about 1 foot 6 inches (45cm). The flowers resemble tiny gold pokers
thrusting up out of the water in early spring and continuing to appear for some
time. A very useful if somewhat large, in time, pond plant.
Please feel free to dip your cursor in the water...If
you like what you see, then please visit the site of David Griffiths the
creator of the applet for this, and many other wonderful effects including the
shimmering lake seen at many card sites on the web.
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In
case you are thinking "where can I find room for a water feature?",
check out the photograph to the left. This tiny pond in my front garden is only
3 foot 3 inches long by 1 foot 8 inches wide (1.0m x 0.5m) and only 9 inches
(23cm) deep. Not deep enough to keep fish in over winter in this country, but
will still attract an awful lot of wild aquatic creatures and support the odd
small plant or two. I only constructed it late last year using a bit of left
over liner, so I am waiting myself to see what arrives.
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