43 A bigger tiny pond

It’s been a while. The summer has rolled by and the garden has been quiet. I’m confident that quite a few frogs have survived so far, but I only catch sight of them if I disturb the undergrowth. Mostly I have been using my time to redesign borders and prepare for a visit from a tree surgeon who will reduce the size of our beech tree. When we moved in we thought it was fully grown but it turns out it was a relative youngster and after 8 years it’s now taking over the plot.

With the arrival of autumn I can see the first leaves falling from the beech onto a wide swathe of lawn and also onto the tiny pond. When I built the pond I knew this would be an issue but I thought it would be manageable. After last autumn’s relentless leaf-clearing exercise though, I decided that this year I would create a new improved pond in a different (less leafy) part of the garden.

Starting again also gives me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes, which were:

1. The pond was too shallow. A pond needs a section at least 60cms deep to guarantee a safe place for frogs to hibernate.
2. The leaves turned out to be a real pain. Beech leaves take weeks to fall and a large tree has a seemingly endless supply.
3. I surrounded the pond with circular stepping stones set back safely from the edge so nobody would fall in. This meant I had to be very creative with many small pebbles and planting to disguise the liner (see 4 below).
4. I made the sides of the pond either steep and vertical to the bottom or gently sloping beaches. This looked fine but meant I couldn’t properly disguise the liner with artfully placed pebbles because the slightest disturbance, such as a weighty pigeon having a wash, would send the pebbles rolling down the slope. Annoying.
5. Because of 4 (above) I had to suspend plants with wires because I hadn’t added any flat shelf areas to rest them on. I did put a couple of plants on the botton, wedged with pebbles but these were easily knocked over. And with the combination of wires and pebbles to disguise the liner, I inadvertently created a helpful bridge for slugs to reach my pond plants. Also annoying.
6. The pond was mostly in shade apart from a couple of hours each morning. This was fine for the pond but I didn’t get many flowers on the pond plants. I’m hoping that a pond in a generally sunny spot (with plenty of shade from shelving and plants in the pond for the wildlife) will give me a better display.

The moss-covered boulders were recovered from various places in my garden. We’re in a rocky location and these boulders are scattered around the properties in the area. They help to make the pond seem well-established from the start. If I’d bought them from the local garden centre they would have been at least £5 each. The pond liner cost about £35 and I also bought five bags of washed gravel at a total cost of £25 to cover the liner and margins. I spent a further £40 on pond plants with additional planting moved from the old pond.

I finished the pond last Sunday, with shelf areas and different levels, making sure that the deepest section is 70 centimetres deep. Then I filled it from my water butts, using buckets and watering cans. It took nearly four hours to fill it, making sure that the liner was folding neatly as it filled.

The shaping and filling process was quite wet and I managed to kick in quite a bit of sand as I worked, so the final result was a little murky. I’ve been keeping an eye on it in the days since and each day it is becoming clearer. Yesterday I decided to move the remaining tadpoles and waterboatmen from the old pond. I added a little tadpole food too, to make sure they have enough to survive on until the pondlife gets started. I think there are a few more hiding in the old pond, so that will take some painstaking clearing this weekend, to save and transfer them all. Then I can start creating a bog garden on the old site (more on that later). Feeling pretty pleased with the result.