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During last year's end of April holiday, we hired a mini digger to build a pond and dug a rough hole.
We weren't expecting the next step to take over a year to get around to! Having decided that our rough hole in the ground wouldn't really cut it, we bit the bullet and hired 2 men who knew what they were doing with a digger, and who turned the rough hole into this:
They added a shelf along one side and a shallow area at one end which will become a bog garden. We covered the excavation with a layer of sand:
We created a wall to separate the pond from the bog garden:
My parents came over for a pond-lining party:
During the course of last Sunday we got the underlay and liner in place and began to fill the pond.
The bog garden got a filling with water to flatten the liner. This will be pumped out when we create the bog:
The other half and I still have to conclude our argument about where to build up a rockery for a waterfall that will go around/down the middle of/next to the bog garden and I think we need to increase the height of the wall and shore up a low point in the banking, but it's already been idyllic to sit on the edge of the pond in the sunshine, dangling our feet in the water and watching the sky reflected in the water's ripples, and the water reflected on the branches of the willows at the edge of the pond.
It's now payday and my fingers are itching to get out my bank card and splurge on plants! I can't wait to see it planted up and see what moves in!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Lovely pics Maisie, there'll be birds all around your pond all day, you'll never get any work done. You wait until the lillies are flowering, they are just beautiful, and will soon be stretching over the water.
Lot to learn
Wondered when the starlings would turn up lol! Surprised that the sparrows beat them to it! Loving the photo of the blackbird and the starlings:) Poor blackbirds - everytime I see one it's always being stalked by a gang of starlings who always want to jump in and bathe right next to it !! I'm sure starlings must have some duck genes in them somewhere lol.
And Gannet ones for sure!!
lol Wendy, my bird food bill has doubled over the past week!!
Just under a month since we put the plants in, and everything's settling in nicely and growing, especially the water lilies. We've added a couple more to fill in some gaps.
My favourite lily so far is the one with the ribbed leaves that the aquatics nursery owner picked out as being closest to the giant Amazon lily.
The first 'sputniks' have appeared on the reeds in the floating planters
And the whole thing is teeming with life. Chris and I spent a bit of time over lunch watching the whirligig and diving beetles and spotted a few water beetle larvae on the submerged oxygenating plants.
Thanks Alan :) I took my lunch down to the pond today and sat for a while enjoying the sunshine.
Seems our waterlilies have the first bud appearing!
And the first damselflies have been appearing. Azure damselfly?
Look, no hands!!
The lily has popped!!
That's such a pretty water-lily Maisie, ours are refusing to come out until the sun shines ! lol
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Regards, Hazel
Maisie, that's lovely! Looking forward to seeing photos of the others as they appear.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.