Digging a Pond

Another thing I have always wanted but never had a big enough garden for is a pond! I didn't got for anything crazy big, because I wanted it to be part of the border so it blended in, and I also didn't want to lose too much planting space!

So the brief was small, wildlife pond, with lots of room for plants! Once I had cleared the turf I started by marking out the shape with some thick garden twine.

I took a picture of it so I could check the shape once I'd started digging, as you can see I went curvy! One thing I really regret is that I didn't bother to dig this side over to remove the weed roots (mostly nettles!) This was part impatience on my side because I really wanted to start the pond, and part thinking I'd get away with it because I was digging so much out for the pond, but the weeds were noticably worse on this side last year, and were also growing between the liner and the soil. 

Next I started digging! I removed a small amount of soil then reassessed the shape.

You can see here where the photo was really helpful, I could see that I hadn't made the bottom wide enough so I went back and fixed that! The soil in this garden is an absolute dream so I of course saved everything I dug out and put it back into the bags for the manure mulch, I didn't know at the time what I'd use it for, I just knew it would come in handy, and as it happens I'll be using it this year for my veg beds!! Can you believe how much soil had come out already?! 

I fixed the shape and started working on the deeper sections, at this point it started to look very much like an avocado.

The plan was to have shallow sloping beach at the narrow end, and a deep area in the centre of the wide end, with shelves for marginals the whole way round. I also put a special shelf in for my pygmy water lily between the beach and the deep water. I had a plan for one side of the marginal shelves to plant without needing baskets, this is the side at the back in this photo as that's the side that would be most visible. Here's the sketch for how I was planning for it to work.

Don't worry I won't be quitting my day job any time soon! I did even more digging and refined the shelves, helped by my faithful companion, by far the worst bit of this was digging the deep bit, it didn't want to end!! 

Once I was happy with the shelves and had removed all of the sharp stones and shards of glass, I laid the underlay and pond liner. It turned out I'd ordered way more liner than I needed so I actually doubled it up, not sure if that was a mistake but I guess I'll find out in a few years! I also put extra liner under the pebbles for the beach as I had heard stories of larger birds piercing pond liners when they waddle in for a bath!

I rigged up the hose onto my waterbutts, using a random piece of guttering to cover the last bit of distance, and filled up the deep part to pull down the pond liner. Then I put the pebbles for the beach down.

I had a big slate rock which was left over from a very misguided attempt to break it into smaller slabs to use for the edging, needless to say I was unsuccessful, but it did end up making a nice planting pocket and the birds also really like to sit on it to drink from the pond. Next I built up my marginal planting pocket and positioned the baskets.

I definitely should have made the front part of the marginal shelf lower, but it's not too noticeable now everything as grown in, plants wise I went with...

Marginals:

• Pink Flowering Rush
• Brooklime
• Water Mint
• Iris Ensata Hybrid
• Slender Club Rush

 Deeper water:

• Water Starwort
• Hornwort
• Waterlily Nymphaea Rossana Supreme
• Water Smartweed
  

After that I filled it with water, trimmed the liner, and started to place the cobbles around the edge.

After a quick trip to the garden centre for some more cobbles, I added some plants around it in the border, used some logs my neighbour kindly gave me and the other big slate rock I had to create a log pile, and I was done!

That's what it looked like in April, and in this is what it looked like only one month later! (The upturned pots were to stop the naughty blackbirds digging up the plants!)

And here it is in August:

If you are thinking of putting a pond in your garden, now is the perfect time to start planning it out! You can't a bit of armchair planning on a frosty day.