Our new bath pond

[manicscousers]

so far, just need flat stones to hide the white sides  :)
excuse the messy paths, needs to be cleaned  ;D

[manicscousers]

[thifasmom]

what are you going to use to plug the overflow holes?

[manicscousers]

ray's sealed ,  a piece of pipe into it, so's it overflows if it gets too full but it's like a snorkel  :)

[thifasmom]

oh yes i think i see it it looks great

[manicscousers]

it will be better when the irises grow, and the butterfly bush. ;D

[thifasmom]

just being nosey but what have you got growing in the grey storage bins to the right of the path?

[Emagggie]

That's fabby Mal, keep the pics coming as it matures. Oh how I wish I had somewhere to put one. :(

[manicscousers]

couldn't you do a half barrel one, maggie, or a half water butt, maybe?

[saddad]

I see you've left a shallow end to allow hedgehogs etc to climb out...  :)

[manicscousers]

yep, Ray has a huge piece of slab in there but he wants big pebbles later, it's more to weigh it down as the water goes underneath in heavy rain  ;D

[shirlton]

I would like to have a water feature on our plot. looks good manics

[elvis2003]

loving your work manics! we have just got one for the plot,only its a double sized belfast sink.have you put soil in the bottom of yours???? OH and i in disagreement about it

[Tulipa]

Hi,

that looks good Manics, can't get used to your new name. ;) 

I have just been looking at our new half barrel pond and am interested in what people think about the soil.  We had saved Geoff Hamilton's Ornamental Kitchen Garden to watch for this and he put a layer of soil in the bottom.  We did this but it was the clay from underneath and made the base of the pond too light that it doesn't reflect the sky enough, so I have taken some out and will cover it with darker soil when the water clears.  I have some seed compost which would be even darker but I am not sure it would be the right stuff to use, although the lack of nutrients I though might be ok.  It was interesting to see your comment elvis2003 as I am not sure about the soil now. :-\

T.

[manicscousers]

no, no soil in it, apart from the bits that dropped in when we planted around it  ;D
think there was something in theretoday, saw air bubbles, we used to get spawn in the old one so, hopefully, the frogs have made their way back  ;D

[Heldi]

I love that  :)

I made a pond with a belfast sink . I didn't use any soil in the bottom. I did use some pebbles to build up a kind've escape route.  There's pictures of it somewhere in this pond section.

I quite fancy another dinky pond for the front garden.

[wetandcold]

I didn't put any soil in the bottom of mine last year and already there is a layer of gunge in the bottom from decomposing plant matter, dead tadpoles etc...

I think that it is critical that no excess nutrients (i.e. from soil, compost) are added into a pond as it upsets the balance - mine was, and still is, crystal clear!

Try and get a few sprigs of Hornwort - it is an oxygenator that is native to the UK and will quickly give you your lovely dark layer to reflect the sky.

[Tulipa]

Thank you for your replies.  I have spent the afternoon emptying and cleaning out the barrel/pond.  It is sunken in the ground so I spent most of my time lying down on the grass!  It looks so much better without the clay and I managed to get some oxygenator too which will help.  I can finish sorting it all out now as I am much happier with it now.

Thanks for your help. :)

T.

[elvis2003]

hi all,very excited today as got given some frogspawn for our belfast sink pond.a kindly plotholder and i did a trade,swapped a very nice lidded bucket(for their night time caravan pees,ahem)for spawn from their garden pond.hope it takes and we soon have lovely froggies hopping about the plot!

[manicscousers]

bit further on  ;D
can't see the frogspawn but it's there  :)

[shirlton]

Nice work manics. lets hope that the frogs and toads eat all your pests