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Building our Pond


 

Building our Pond - June 2003

While our house extension was being built, we decided to take advantage of the digging equipment to put a wildlife pond in our garden. This is the story of its construction and maturation in photographs. Please click on the thumbnail to see a detailed image.

The easy way to dig a pond - the digger was here so we took advantage Soil from the pond is taken away in the oversized Tonkatruck :-) Here is the basic hole - needed a bit of profiling but it was basically there We lined it with sand, and then put this underlay in - it's a bit like quilting material Stephen is putting the butyl rubber liner in place - we bought rather a lot!
We fiddled around with all kinds of net and mesh to get the soil to stick to the sides of the pond At last - we started filling it at around 4pm... Still filling..... Almost there - it took three hours! We trimmed off the surplus liner in the meantime The next day we started finishing off the edge with stones and gravel and some stepping stones
That's better - we neatened off the edge and put in a few oxygenators and the water cleared quite quickly The pond is nice and clear now, and ready for more plants And here they are - we bought oxygenators, native marginal plants and ten snails Some of the plants - iris, dwarf bulrish, purple loosestrife, water violet, spiral rush, water mint.... And some more - a couple of sedges, more oxygenators and more snails. This is a week after filling....
     
A few weeks later, and the pond is maturing nicely - the plants have grown and flowered, and the water lilies are becoming established Another view of the plants - Willoughby is snoozing in the background. The snails have reproduced too - I counted 29 one day!      

 

 

 

Copyright © 2004 Dr Sarah Walters
Last updated March 15, 2004