Sunday 17 May 2015

Pond

I've wanted a pond since I was about 6 years old. My mother tells me how at that tender age in 'my' part of their back garden I once dug a small dip, put in a black bin liner and filled it with water then sprinkled some leaves on, you could call this my first pond although I can't imagine it was very successful and only probably lasted 5 days before they discreetly removed it.

So my pond plan has developed a lot over the next 40 odd years - as these things do. I am now going to include a bridge over it, this will allow me to make the pond slightly bigger. I think the view of the little Summer house with a bridge over a pond to it will be rather lovely.
The thought of all that digging is a little daunting, but after all that is just hard work and not exactly requiring great skill. I have, as is my nature, been doing my research and decided that a good quality butyl rubber liner will be the best option for me, both from the point of view of price and versatility, that way I can go to the exact shape that I want.
Today I started the process putting the plan down on paper. The raised bed will come out - it has not been a huge success and as it went in before the summer house, it has always been in a slightly annoying place so I'm not sorry to lose it. So between the pond and the summer house will be a gravel garden making access far better and reducing yet further my lawn area (fine by me, there'll be none left soon at this rate!). Meticulous planning has always been my best way of success in the garden so here is the first draft of the plan (artist I'm not):


These things are always subject to change before the spade hits the soil of course, but I am happy with the look as it stands. The important thing to me is that it looks as natural as possible, I've never been a fan of ponds that don't blend in to the surroundings well, so the planting will be very important and so far I'm no expert on pond plants - far from it.

So now I will think about it for a bit, modify here and there and then off we go. Progress will, of course, be recorded.

14 comments:

  1. Tis looking like a fine plan and the wildlife will benefit from it too. (Though I'd have lost all of the grass)

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  2. What a lovely idea! It will be a great asset to the garden and a wonderful wildlife feature, too.

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  3. It must be 'pond time'. We moved our pond a fortnight ago and will be putting a patio where the original pond was. I am looking forward to seeing yours when it is finished

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  4. Hey!!!! You're back! You have been missed. Funny how synchronicity works, we've been toying with the idea of a pond as well, though it will be a while before we get to it but with the recently cleared spots in the yard, that's been something we've been considering. But I'm with you, if it does'n't look natural, like it was 'always' supposed to be there, I don't want it. I've seem some yards where people just randomly dig a hole and fill it with water and put some plants around it. It just doesn't seem right.

    Can't wait to see what develops with yours!!!

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  5. We did use a shaped pre-formed liner as we needed to cover it when our son was small. As it is sitting in the gravel does look a little odd until the plants surround it each year. Wildlife love it!

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  6. We love the pond that was here when we moved in. It needed some work to sort it out but I love sitting by it watching the wildlife. We rid ourselves of all grass several years ago so that I could have more plants, and so that we could fill the front garden with vegetables. The ' grass' was useless; waterlogged and more moss than anything else so it was no loss. It has now been turned into lovely compost.

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  7. fabulous blog. I love it and have added to follow. :)

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  8. Missing your blogging voice!

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  9. Yes - I second that. Do you have your pond now - and your music studio? I hope that you are well and that you will soon feel able to start blogging again; I'm sure I'm not alone in missing your posts and you! x

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  10. Just checking in, hoping you'll update us sometime. And you have my email, drop me a line too if you have time.

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  11. I keep popping in to see if you're back but no joy. Please come back.

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  12. I'm not giving up!! Hugs from the states!

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  13. Two of us (at least) awaiting your re-appearance!

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  14. Three of us! Please update us on your singing, gardening and life in general. Please! We do miss you, you know. x

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