Topic: Planting my pond??

[jewelflower]

I have just dug my very first pod ;D, I dug he hole layed an old carpet, used 1000 gauge damp proof. put some pebbles on the shelf and i have surronded it with some old paving slabs i found on the side of the road(old broken ones).
Happy as larry. Just one problem now, what do i plant in it.
i am not having fish.
please help.

[Margaret]

If you are intending to have it as a nature pond,then you  no way should you have paving slabs round it.It needs to have a gentle slope out of it for amphibians and any unfortunate mammal such as a hedgehog that might fall in ,to enable it to climb out.Slabs all round will prevent anything getting out.They will also be rough,insecure and look very harsh for something you are trying to make natural.

Take the slabs up and grass the edge or better still plant some nice plants that can grow over the side and look natural.Have you put soil in the bottom?you will need this for the plants,there are many you can have that will be suitable.Just look in any aquatic centre and take note of the depth on the labels that will match your pond depth.You need marginals,deeper ones and plenty of oxygenating weed.If you have a friend with a pond,scrounge a bucket or two of her water to get started with some insect life.Then stand back and wait for the creatures to arrive,which they sure will!!

[Shoyu]

We just got a pond, isn't it exciting!!

Ours is currently surrounded by dug out soil which washes into the pond when it rains. Hopefully this will be stemmed when I have planted up the surrounding area. This year I'm going to put in spare plants that I grew from seed and see what likes it there. We have a grassy pond weedy thing in it and I'm after a minature water lily. My dad says to pop a small (very small in our case) net of barley straw in to keep the slimey stuff at bay. He was more technical than that but it's 1.50am and I've had a couple of glasses of wine!!

Even though it is a bought moulded pond it has a wildlife escape route. We are intending to get some taddies from a friend who ahs a huge pond. We are just waiting until the water has been in for a couple of weeks and the nasty chemicals have evapourated.