Period pond

[tobydog]

Although I have several holes in the walls of the house to fix, I decided to make one big one in the garden. Mrs. T was desperate for a pond and I didn't need any excuse to get out in the garden. All hand dug with the turfs creating a new bank, the top soil going to the neighbour for his lawn, and the bulk of the soil being dumped in the field behind the house with the exception of what I used to fill the old pond which is now a bog garden. Luckily the farmer happily came along and ploughed all the soil in without question a week later. Started in mid-March and finished last week.

Joce - please finish yours. They are certainly worth the effort.

 

[worms]

Looks good!

All hand dug

:shock: Wow!

 

[Zebra]

How lovely. What a lot of effort too!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Lovely pond !

 

[88v8]

And no visible liner.
Looks as if it was created by a passing heffalump.
Not easy to make an artificial construct look natural.
Capability Dog?

Ivor

 

[tobydog]

It was hard work and normally consisted of 2 to 3 hours of actual labour each day at the weekends. If I simply had to dump it all straight into a skip it would have been way easier. It was the division of the turfs, top and sub soil that took the time. As you will see from the first photo, our top soil is quite deep!

Regarding the liner, I cocked up and then covered up! When I ordered the liner it was supposed to be dark green. Unfortunately my idea of dark green must be different to the supplier. It was so obvious where is showed. The cover up was achieved by using brushwood screening. I ordered a role 3m long by 1.5m tall and cut it into three lengths of 3m x 0.5m. I then wrapped this around the edge of the pond so the top of it was level with the soil. This was then pinned into the ground. The brushwood lays flat with the contours of the pond marginal edging and is held in place at the bottom by the various plant holders. I then mushed soil into the top so it generally blended in. Where it joins the old brick pond it's obviously just brushwood but it works. The stone beach was easier to achieve because that is the highest / most shallow point. I could trim the liner right down and hold the edge in a vertical position with stones either side. I then just needed to build the stones up high enough to cover the liner. They only get displaced when the dog goes for a swim :roll: The good thing is that even when the water starts to evapourate and the level drops, the liner will not show unless it drops more than about 30-40cm

Even up close the liner is hard to see anywhere, however, I know the brushwood will rot down over time. I'll just keep replacing it in winter when the plants die down. That may be every couple of years or so. The whole thing has to be the single most satisfying job I've ever done.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, how much do you charge? That looks fantastic! So neat!

Ours has been a terrible mess and awful project really from the start until now. We are moving tons and tons of earth by hand to create a level edge, this should have been done at the start not retrospectively. Building a pond on a sloping site is far from easy!

Lovely to see yours, hopefully it will give me the inspiration to carry on and finish.

 

[tobydog]

Joce - my rates? Well, ours felt like it cost me a real arm and a leg as I somewhat underestimated how few shovel loads you can actually get into a wheelbarrow once the soil breaks up. Hiring a mini digger and skip would have have been a logistical headache so we saved there.

I remember seeing how yours was after the digger man left and it's a shame he didn't finish it off for you. I'll be thinking of you even though I've hung up my shovel for now.

 

[88v8]

Regarding the liner...was so obvious where is showed.

I have seen liners concealed at the edge by raising the turf, tucking the liner underneath and then letting the turf hang down into the pond, right down to the bottom in some places. Not sure how well this would last, would the turf rot off and separate and fall in...
Our pond shows a good deal of black liner in the summer, whether it will ever get to the top on my list I somehow doubt.

Ivor

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks for your kind thoughts Toby! Showed Chris your pics and asked him if ours would ever be as neat as yours. He said no nothing we ever do will be as neat as how you do it! :lol:

To be fair to the gardener he tried hard to turn a slope into a flat area but it isn't the kind of thing that can be rushed. He moved to France and buried the liner edge in soil leaving about a foot of exposed liner on three sides -fine at the front edge where the ground is lower. We're now having to unbury the liner and remove all the earth that sits above the water level which is an unfeasible amount of earth! Then I'll need the far "shore" to become a patio which we won't lay ourselves. All masses of work but as yours proves worth it.

 

[Feltwell]

Looks great, very natural, something I'd love to do myself once the kids are a bit older. Other priorities first though!!

Have you put fish in the pond?

 

[tobydog]

Have you put fish in the pond?

We don't intend on introducing any fish to the pond. It will be a 'wildlife' pond because fish in a confined space have a bad habit of eating everything else. It already has a good number of great crested newts that we managed to save from the old brick pond that had become totally overgrown and stangnant. As you can see it's about 6ft across but it had a lilly root clump that was 4ft across. I had to saw it into pieces in situ as it was too heavy to lift out. If mothernature happens to bring along a few sticklebacks on birds feet then that's fine but nothing more.

Thanks for your kind thoughts Toby! Showed Chris your pics and asked him if ours would ever be as neat as yours. He said no nothing we ever do will be as neat as how you do it! :lol:

To be fair Joce, our soil is very good so keeping it neat wasn't that difficult. If I had nothing but flint and clay I'm not sure I would have even started it.

 

[worms]

fish in a confined space have a bad habit of eating everything else...

...including the mosquito larvae!

 

[CliffordPope]

Have you put fish in the pond?

We don't intend on introducing any fish to the pond. It will be a 'wildlife' pond because fish in a confined space have a bad habit of eating everything else.

I've found the exact opposite. It's the fish that get eaten, attracting the attentions of herons, mink, and ducks (do ducks eat fish?).

The only fish that have survived are a few descendants of the original goldfish, by now having reverted by natural selection to their original dull brown/black.

 

[tobydog]

As the pond is at the front of the house and around 100ft from our seating area, we're hoping the mossies shouldn't be too much of an issue. We didn't have a problem with the old small pond. We do have a number of dragonfly larvae and they can make their way through a smorgasbord of pond life but hopefully all will be in balance after a year or two.

We did have fish in the old pond up until a couple of years ago but, after having to restock twice following heron attacks, this lead us towards being fish free going forward. Also less chance of the liner being pierced by sharp beaks.