Creating a pond - pt.3

We filled the pond with tapwater. That's not as bad as it sounds because we're not on the mains - we have our own well. So the water isn't chlorinated. (And, thanks to testing, we know it's not full of nitrates, either.)

As the level imperceptably rose, we made a last-minute decision to extend the pond. On one side, we dug away the turf and topsoil in a 'D' shape. Fortunately, we'd bought an oversize liner, so it was able to stretch to cover this. Along the edge of this shallow area, we placed a row of faced granite stones: we have lots of these as our property once had several additional buildings, now ruins, so the land is littered with mediaeval building rubble. The line of stones is there to hold back soil which we piled into this shallow region, and this has now become our marsh area.

A shallow marsh area is good for many reasons. It broadens the range of plants you can use in the pond. And it's one of the richest environments for wildlife.

The whole point of this pond is to encourage wildlife and biodiversity (which is why we've got a 'strictly no fish' policy). So we want to create as many different habitats as possible.

It took around eight hours of running the hose to fill the pond (during which time we had no water available in the house). When it was near-full, we started to edge it. Along two sections we placed railway sleepers which will eventually form the bases for two areas of decking. Along other sections we placed more granite stones (protecting the liner with corrugated card). We brought the liner up behind the first row of stones and held it in place with a second row. This has raised the waterline slightly above the surrounding ground.

The only place we didn't do that immediately was where we'd created the marsh area. Because of the spoil heap, the ground there was higher anyway. So we made the decision that the spoil heap would become a raised bed.

Leaving aside the digging of the hole, the process of lining, filling and edging the pond took a weekend. At this point there was still a lot to do - but we had a pond, after all these years of waiting.

It didn't take the wildlife long to find it, either. We had waterboatmen, pond skaters, grooved diving beetles and dragonflies - southern hawker, red-bodied darter and broad-bodied chaser (or possibly keeled skimmer) - within 24 hours. The southern hawker used the mossy granite to lay eggs. And droppings on the stones tell us that the birds are coming to drink.

The cats (including Rockwell, above) are convinced there should be fish in the pond. We haven't the heart to tell them there never will be any.

Even in its untidy state, we were amazed how much difference the pond made, with its reflections of the sky. It's like turning on a light in that section of the garden. (In the picture above, the section on the right is the marsh area).

It's also great to see water glimpsed from other areas on the garden. Below, for example, it's seen through what will soon become the bamboo grove (that's Pseudosasa japonica on the left).

There's still a lot to do, but all-in-all, not a bad weekend's work.