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Hello All,
I hope that you all had a good Christmas and New Year? I'm back to work tomorrow following two weeks off so a bit depressed tonight!
Whilst we have been having this terrible weather I simply haven't been unable to get out in the garden as it is completely water logged! This has however given me the opportunity to think about what I need to add to the garden in 2014 for my beloved wildlife.
Following a lot of head scratching (partly due to Nits that my daughter brought home from infant school YUKK!) I decided that although we have several small bodies of water and water features and of course the (fish only) large Koi pond, I need to include a larger body of water dedicated to wildlife and native planting.
Having just viewed Hazy's impressive pond build I'm not sure how interesting mine will be as it will be on a small budget and completed by me on my Todd with dodgy hips and back!! LOL
Any way my decision to dig up the family lawn was met with a resounding "NO!" from Mrs H so I had to think of another plan to include a bigger pond without losing anything else from the garden. This actually proved quite difficult as the garden is now well developed and planted but fit this in I must!!
So donning wellies and with Choco at my side we squelched out to see how we could fit this impossible plan into my already crowded garden. After much deliberation and more head scratching (damn Nit shampoo doesn't work good job I haven't got much hair!!!) it was decided that I would have to lose about half of my wildflower area! Now this isn't an ideal solution but I've estimated that I can regain the same area if not more by planting wild flower strips in other parts of the garden (Don't tell Mrs H!!)
To try and explain the complete and utter jumble that is in now spinning around inside my head here's a few pictures and sketches of what I'm planning and what I hope will give you a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve!....
1. So firstly this picture shows you where in the garden the pond will be. As you look at it the right hand side of the wild flower area will be similar to the size and shape of the proposed pond. This is however a very old picture and the dry gravel river bed extends right across the garden now. The wild flower area oh the left will remain but here it is only partly de-turfed and is a little bigger now. (This area is in the bottom third of the whole plot)
2. Now you can see where it sits within the garden this picture gives a little better representation of the shape and size of the pond (right) and remaining wild flower area (left)
3. So what does the inside of my head look like?
Well I tend to get an idea and be able to see how it will look almost straight away, I then play around with it in my mind until it looks about right before going outside, getting stuck in and just letting it evolve! However for this purpose I have attempted to draw what is inside my head and what I envisage this to look like!
It's not very often that I put my thoughts down on paper so please do forgive my terrible drawing and obviously it's not all to scale but a fairly accurate representation of the idea I think....
(click on picture to enlarge)
I hope that this scribbled plan makes sense? Basically you can see the edition of the new pond is quite substantial but I feel fits quite nicely into this area with the wild flowers and then the wildlife area behind. You can see that the loss of wild flower planting is made up by further planting of wild flowers around the swing, the fronts and one side of the raised veg beds, along the raised bank in the wildlife area and the addition of more flowers along the bank of the dry gravel river bed. The two areas alongside the pond and next to the seating pod will be planted with extra tall pollinating perennials such as Purple Loosestrife and other native perennials that are good pollinating plants. The secret seating pod will actually be cut off from the rest of the garden and will become only accessible by a small bridge adding to it's secrecy and privacy.
One of the biggest problems with siting the pond here will be getting it to sit naturally into the rest of the garden. A big problem with this spot is that the lowest point of the garden is actually the dry gravel river bed feature and would normally be where the water sits in a natural landscape. This ditch is in fact an old drainage ditch (Known locally as a gripe) When this land was a field the water would naturally sit in the gripes so that the cattle could stand on higher and drier land! This ditch still floods if we get a lot of rain and there is a drainage pipe buried underneath meaning that I can't excavate it or include it in the pond!
To overcome this problem and to make sure that there is a logical relationship between the pond and the ditch I have decided to build an old stone 'damning' wall complete with old rusty iron sluice gate! This will give a natural partnership between the two features and a logical explanation to the pond being on slightly higher ground.
So again attempting to demonstrate what is in my head here's another scribble of what this feature should look like.....
As you can see the wall will be given an 'old' look with planting pockets built in for some native plants that you may find in old stone walls. This will be a feature not a working damn or sluice ( I ain't that good!! LOL) but I'm hoping that it will look OK once overgrown and weathered in.
Again to give you a visual representation of my plans, I hope that this feature will in time look how the 'old stone bridge' feature that I built at the other end of the dry gravel river bed a couple of years ago looks now (over grown and natural)...
Well that's my plans for 2014 and what is currently floating around in my mess of a head! I have posted this up as it will be a long process for me due to my current disabilities and I think quite a challenge. I'm hoping that by having it here it will give me the motivation to get it done and I do hope a few of you will find this an interesting project to follow as it evolves?
It will take quite some time to do and in the first instance a while before the garden is in a dry enough condition for me to start! I will try and post up what I'm doing even if just trying to 'blag' materials (remember I have very little budget for this!!!) to try and keep the interest going.
Let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas that might help me or enhance this project or just anything that I may have missed?...
Best
Higgy
Morning Higgy, the Dicksonia Antarctica tree ferns seem to be quite hardy as long as you pack the crown with breathable straw/fleece for the winter period. We do wrap them the best we can with fleece just in case we get a severe winter like 2010 again. You can cut all the fronds off as they will grow new ones each springtime onwards and look like new again. I was used to these tree ferns in Australia where we lived - I think most of them in the garden centres originate from Victoria (Australia) and each has its own ID tag as they are strictly monitored so forests are not destroyed. You probably know already about these tree ferns - they have no roots, you just plant them a few inches down until they are stable in the ground and as long as you keep the centre of the crown occasionally watered they will survive fine. I bought my two tree ferns at the end of the season 1 and 2 years ago and got them for half price; they have proved amazing value. The taller the tree trunk the more hardy they are; slow growing but as I say you could remove all the ferns and they just keep growing new ones. I left our fronds on last winter period and by springtime a lot had gone brown with wrapping them up in fleece; gradually, I chopped off the fronds and new ones started growing until the tree was looking brilliant again by May/June. They are certainly worth investing in if you like tropical look trees and especially now you are creating a pond area. They are not fussy regarding soil as they don't have roots ! we have ours right at the edge of the edging rocks so they overhang the pond slightly and they look terrific.
a couple of photos from last summer
these are the Japanese Acers/Cordylines by the waterfall/rockery area
and last autumn
_________________________________________________________________________
Regards, Hazel
Apologies Hazy, I thought I had replied to you already but came back on and realised that I hadn't unless the post has disappeared! Most likely me getting confused I should think! LOL
Great pictures! The pond and tropical theme work really well and look wonderful together!!.
I love the tropical jungley look and plants but my concerns have always been how wildlife friendly is it?
With this niggling question in my head I developed my own new brand of planting which I call 'TROPILIFE GARDENING!!' Basically in my 'Jungley' area I plant tropical plants such as Banana, Canna, Bamboo and other 'jungley/tropical' foliage type plants but I then plant between them with hot coloured pollinating plants and wildflowers such as Corn Marigolds, Californian Poppies, Rudbeckias ceonopsis etc etc. This gives the 'big plant' feel but still brings in the pollinators and adds dramatic colour against all that lovely foliage, genius eh?? LOL :-)
Any way back to the project...
It's Saturday tomorrow so I will be picking up my first lot of free rocks! Today I had a another phone call in response to my wanted ad from a lady who has apparently got a great big pile of rocks for me to collect sometime! This seems like all the materials for the wall part of the project will be secure once I've collected them so a good start.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is good so I have some plants and trees to plant but I also hope to at least mark out the shape and area for the pond which will be a start at least!
Hi folks. Really enjoying this thread as I've been having a debate with myself and my wife as to whether or not to put a pond in my garden this year. I have the space in a few places and have been undecided as to building the pond in full sunlight or in the partial shade of the Fir Trees at the Southern side of my garden. I have electrics wired underground to the shed but it would be an added expense to run more armoured cable underground to supply a pump/waterfall. Being a Scot I would much prefer that this would cost me as little as possible.!! A few questions spring to mind.
1: My garden runs downhill therefore the lower end of a pond would be approximately 1 foot below the other end (assuming the pond to be roughly 6 - 7 bathtubs in size). When building a pond do you have to run drainage pipes to a lower area to allow for heavy rains?
2: If I were to place the pond in the shade of the fir trees, are there specific plants available to supply enough oxygen in the water to prevent excessive algae building up (without having to supply a constant supply of running water?)
3: As I live in Scotland the chances of the pond freezing over are good, how deep should a pond be to ensure a decent survival rate for any wildlife?
4: If digging a pond out by hand, is it advisable to use the excavated soil to build up the edges alone or would I need to add more substantial materials amongst the spoils to help contain the water?
5: I have access to a small cement mixer. Do pond liners have any advantages of over a concrete lined pond?
I think that may be enough questions for now although I suspect there are many more lurking in the background.
I do apologise for possibly hijacking this thread with my questions but after hours of looking at information on the web I feel that actually talking to people who have done this would be far more beneficial to me than the masses of confusing information that is out there.
Thanks in advance.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Morning Higgy, Sounds like the start of the big project is imminent so good luck and be careful carting so many rocks around .... straight back, bent knees before you lift LOL !
I know the guys who built our pond laid rope around to get the shape first, then got one of those yellow spray cannisters and drew the outline with it - step one ! They had use of a digger to make lighter work of the soil extraction and we loaned them a sturdy metal garden cart with flat bed so they could lug the rocks from front drop off area to back garden.
Regarding wildlife value, I couldn't agree more higgy, I bought Crocosmia, Lavender, Platycoden to put in pots by the smaller pond/rockery and the bees and other insects just loved them. Would you believe that even the Tree Ferns were of wildlife value ? !! In springtime, the Blue Tits would be busy visiting both tree ferns to extract some of the centre crown fibres to line their nests with so even these tropical looking trees provided useful material for the little birds !! They also picked insects from the fibrous trunk so I would definitely recommend at least one Dicksonia Antarctica !!
Post Edit: I forgot to mention Higgy but I am sure you aleady saw the episode on BBC 2 this week Great British Garden Revival, espisode 7 where they were doing Ponds and Stumperies CLICK HERE
We had a dead oak tree cut down a year and half ago and I managed to save some large slices of Oak stump; I am now inspired to turn these into a Stumpery and add some ferns around it. I thought the bit on growing your own mushrooms was interesting too !!!
Hi Paul,
No worries with hijacking the thread, I was hoping that it would be interactive and provide lots of information to others.
You raise some really interesting questions that will actually get covered during my build and may well raise even more questions as we go along!
I'm a bit limited on time now as I have to go and collect my rocks for building the wall on this project but will address your questions in order briefly with a view of more detailed answers later.
1. This will depend on how well the garden drains generally? If it gets regularly water logged (as mine does) then a drain under the pond can help. I will sketch the plan for my own drain that I will be putting under my pond for you later so watch this space!
2. Not a good idea to locate it too near to fir trees or any trees if it can be helped although this isn't always possible. You do want some shade on the pond as it's the direct sunlight that assists algea bloom. Fir trees dropping needles may prove a bit acidic for the pond also. You could spur off an extension from your current electricity supply with a waterproof socket box, this would be cheaper than a whole new run? The only positive that I get from the fir tees is that generally they have shallow roots so shouldn't cause a problem from a root point of view.
3. for a wildlife pond they say that about 2feet of water at some point is minimum. Personally from my experience and from where you live I would consider a deep area in the middle of the pond of about 2.5-3feet. If you want to keep fish then again they say 3feet minimum but I would advise 4feet. My koi pond as an example is 5feet deep.
The important thing with a wildlife pond is that you want shallow water around the edges with a gentle slope to the deeper water in the middle. This gives better access to wildlife and easy escape for hedgehogs etc. It also allows planting of a better variety of plants.
4. Yes you can do this if it's heavy soil such as clay. What you have to keep in mind is the water pressure which for a shallow wildlife pond shouldn't be too bad. The soil will need to be gently sloped away from the pond to again allow access to wildlife. Both of these considerations would require the piled soil to be spread out over a wide area and gently sloped away from the pond to create the thickness that would be required. (hope that makes sense? I may draw that later for you!) Also remember that if the 'whole' of the pond isn't perfectly level you will have areas where the liner is visible which doesn't look too good.
5. Concrete isn't waterproof so you would need to buy either the right additives to mix in to make it waterproof or you can paint it with waterproof coating/paint. Concrete can also leach harmful chemicals and has the potential to crack but is tough and should last a long time. I would personally go for a liner and my choice is EPDM but you can use Butyl, PVC or Polythene liners and again I will discuss these in more detail later for you and why I choose EPDM.
I hope that this is enough info for now and as stated above I will update with more specifics tonight when I have more time.
I'm off to collect my stones now and then have some plants and trees to plant before the weather changes again tomorrow so will speak later...
Thanks Higgy. I've bookmarked this thread and will be keeping an eye on it to see how your build progresses. Many thanks for the information and if I do decide to put a pond in this year I'll maybe start a thread to document it. (I also have other projects inside the house to carry out).
Hi Higgy, looks like you've got yourself a good project for 2014!! Maybe everyone on the forum should come round with a spade and start digging! Won't take too long to dig that pond lol.... Good luck with it all!
Cheers, Jason
Jason d said: Hi Higgy, looks like you've got yourself a good project for 2014!! Maybe everyone on the forum should come round with a spade and start digging! Won't take too long to dig that pond lol.... Good luck with it all!
That's a flipping good idea Jason, I was in the garden this afternoon and managed to plant two trees and 12 shrubs and I have to say that the old hips and back felt it a little!! - Anyone who lives in North Somerset and like digging give me a shout!! LOL
Well I managed to collect the free rocks this morning and there was a good load in the back of my truck so I'm happy that they will be useful to make a good start! I'm still waiting on the others which I will chase up when back at work Monday as I will need more than I collected today! I also find it's good to have a good range of rocks when building a feature so that you have a choice of different shapes and sizes.
As promised I will try and go over a few points that .Paul A raised earlier in a bit more detail. I do apologise in advance as this will contain some of my 'not so good' sketching skills!!
So to get the sketching bit out of the way here's my plan for a drain under the pond to take excess water away and out into the dry river bed that will sit lower than the pond. My crafty idea is to install a false sluice gate into and old stone wall at the edge of the river bed and then run my drainage pipe out under this sluice gate so that when it rains it will appear as if water is coming under the sluice gates! Or at least that's the theory!!...
So here it is another of my famous sketched plans (not!!)
(Click on picture to enlarge)
I hope that this demonstrates the principles behind this idea? If not just say and I'll try to explain it a little better.
So another question asked was about 'liner vs concrete'
I said earlier that I preferred liner and would choose EPDM over the other materials. Below I will explain what each one is and what they are capable of....
1. BUTYL LINER, The old favorite for most pond builders and still and excellent choice as it stretches which makes it easy to fit, especially if fitted on a sunny day when it has sat in the heat of the sun for a while. This helps mould it into the shape of the pond. It is also strong and you can get different thicknesses. It is UV stable meaning that the sun wont degrade it. It is very heavy and you will need a few people to help get it in the pond square before filling it with water. It's life span will be upwards of 20years so all in all a good choice however it is expensive. (A 2.5x3.5mtr piece will cost about £60)
2. PVC LINER, This is a cheap liner to buy and does stretch making it fairly easy to fit again. Life expectancy is good with about 15-20+ years often quoted. The downfall with PVC is that it can puncture quite easily and is notoriously difficult to repair leading to many PVC lined ponds being started from scratch again. ( A 3x3.5mtr piece will cost about £19)
3. EPDM LINER, This is sometimes listed as synthetic rubber. Basically this has all the same attributes as Butyl except that it is slightly cheaper! Again if warmed in the sun it's easy to lay and fold. It's U/V stable and comes in different thicknesses (0.5, 0.75 & 1mm) Personally for a wildlife pond I'd use the thickest liner as it will be the most robust against a bit of rough treatment from wildlife visiting the pond. Even better is that it lasts longer than butyl at 30+yrs so will be good for a very long time! ( A 2.5x3.5mtr piece will cost about £50)
4. LDPE (POLYTHENE) LINER, Generally one of the cheapest options and it is light and easy to use. In my opinion probably not strong enough for a busy wildlife pond but if torn the tear doesn't 'run' and become bigger. It stretches and is generally U/V stabilised with a lifespan of about 20yrs. (A 3x 3mtr piece will cost about £20)
5. HEAVY GAUGE POLYTHENE, Not suitable for a busy wildlife pond as prone to splitting and getting punctured. Lasts about 10yrs if your lucky enough not to be punctured before this. Very cheap to buy. (A piece 3x4mtr will cost about £10)
Which ever liner you choose, do use the heavy underlay as it is rot resistant and wont tear from weeds and stones. Some pond liner suppliers actually won't refund your money should your liner develop a fault unless you have used a proper underlay during installation. I have used old carpet in the past and this does work well but you have to remember it isn't rot proof so will in time rot away.
I think that is enough from me tonight and I hope this answers a few questions and gives the 'potential' pond builders a bit of an insight into liners etc.
Higgy, I sincerely wish I lived closer to you. I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining! You don't want to move to Suffolk, do you?
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Clare Bailey said:I'm not remotely green fingered but I imagine doing gardening with you would be highly entertaining!