Topic: Satisfaction..

[wetandcold]

Hi,

I have nothing exciting to report and no questions but I just wanted to re-emphasise how great it is to have a pond. :) I toiled through the winter digging in the mud, battled with a liner in the wind and risked hypothermia filling it with water and now that everything is settled my wife and I marvel every day at the amazing environment we have created (using the term 'we' quite loosly...).

It is a wildlife pond with no fish and we added some frogspawn from a puddle in a football field (yes, seriously) and the pond is overrun with tadpoles. The water is crystal clear with billions of Daphne swimming about amongst a newt or two, strange worm things, dragonflies, snails, beetles, water boatmen - it is absolutely brilliant!

If you are ever in any doubt about making a pond don't worry - it is one of the best things you can do!

[GrannieAnnie]

Ditto. All seasons of the year our pond is interesting to us and the wildlife. I'm half-way sorry I didn't dig mine bigger.

Once at the library we found a book of pond pictures one of a pond in the Netherlands (?) where the homeowners dug up their entire backyard right up to the patio then planted sections of the pond in tall reeds leaving a trail of open water snaking around for their small rowboat. Very cleverly done and surely gave them much enjoyment.

[wetandcold]

Some pics of my new pond if anyone is interested!

[star]

That looks really good WnC :D, the water is lovely and clear too. Its well worth the effort isnt it ;D ;D.

[wetandcold]

Thanks Star! I think the water os so clear because the Daphne have eaten all the algae - there are huge numbers of them and they are actually starting to make the water cloudy just by their very presence!

My neighbor has a pond with fish and his is always much cloudier than mine. The fish ate most of his tadpoles and he has very few daphne etc. floating around either. I keep trying to get him to take a hint when the heron comes for it's monthly feed and leave the fish out!

[GrannieAnnie]

A beautiful job!  How do you tear yourself away from looking at it to go weed?
I'll have to look into Daphne- not sure what they are and if they'd work for us.

[star]

They are also known as water fleas, my pond is teeming with them too. The water was as clear as yours WnC, but I put some plants in that I was given from freecycle and its now like black tea. I hope it clears again.

Im devastated as there was also duck weed in among the plants. I think I saw some water louse too. How stupid can one person get :'( :'( :'(

I did get some water mint from one of our lovely members, it was clean and growing very well. I have removed the freecycle ones now. But guess the damage is done.

[thespade08]

A great job,just hope mine will look as good when i install it.

[wetandcold]

Thanks for all the nice comments!

Although the water is still clear I am starting to get some long stringy algae around some of the plants. I think it is blanketweed (?) caused by too much light so I have ordered some water soldier and bog bean to try and give more surface cover.

[Sinbad7]

Beautiful pond wetandcold.  If you ever get stuck for cover for your pond just go to the supermarket and buy some watercress and throw it in, it works a treat and even flowers and lasts all year.

My heart sank Star when I started reading your post, thinking it coudn't be the mint surely :) Thank goodness it wasn't as my pond is looking tip top this year, loads of lily leaf cover hence crystal clear water.

Sinbad

[star]

Oh not your water mint Sinbad, thats doing brilliant....thank you so much.

Thankfully I took the other freecycled plants out quickly and the water has become crystal clear again. I think it was just sediment from the other persons pond. I just hope there were no real nasties in it.

Having said that though, where there is water everything good and bad will find it eventually. We think we saw a Damsel fly laying eggs the other day too ;D ;D

[wetandcold]

We were very sad yesterday... :( A few of the tiny froglets had climbed out of the water and somehow become crisped on the stones at the side. There is plenty of shaded bits around the 'beach' end with hostas etc. and there are loads of nooks and crannies for them to get into. I have no idea how they managed to kill themselves....

[star]

Oh how sad, I understand how gutted you must feel. They are so tiny that they cant sit on hot/warm stones as the water from them evaporates so fast they become 'stuck' to the rocks, then they dehydrate and die.

It sounds like you may need more shade or try growing 'Mind your own Business' over the stones. I have some if you would like to try growing some round the edges.

Just pm me