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Author Topic: Pond  (Read 3822 times)

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Pond
« on: August 29, 2018, 02:34:13 pm »
After spending over a year off and on digging out a small pond at last the liner is in and we have water too so taking shape. As we have newts, frogs and toads I hope it will be well used next Spring. A solar pump is on its way. What are the best plants to put in. Also now thinking it would be nice to have 2 or 3 fish. The deepest part is 18ins. I got a bit of a rooted plant from the local burn which has green leaves and yellow flowers. Masses of it in the burn so must be hardy. I am not planning on any big lilly type plants more small covering i think would be best. Plan to have pots around the edges. Anyone have  pond experience ?


pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Pond
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2018, 07:11:37 am »
Only bad experience here. We have three ponds about 15 metre diameter 2 of which are part of the reedbed system and both of us are getting a tad old for constantly wading out and pulling up stuff... they're all constantly overgrown. We do have frogs and newts but the heron sorted out the fish.

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Pond
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2018, 08:48:59 am »
Sorry to hear that. I have wanted a pond for a long time. Its not very big so should be easier to keep. I hope !

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Pond
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2018, 10:48:03 am »
I'm a bit worried about the yellow flowered plant you have collected from a local burn, for two reasons.  One is that if you bring in plants from the wild, then you will likely be seeding your pond with weeds such as duckweed, which will rapidly cover your pond in a mat of tiny leaves and is hell to try to get rid of. It's worth identifying the plant before you put it in your pond.  If it's in flower now then it's not marsh marigold (which is non-invasive)
The other reason is that if this plant is covering a large area in the stream, think how quickly your pond will be filled with it.


Water lilies come in all sorts of sizes and suitable for various depths of pond, so they don't all cover the whole thing rapidly.  They grow perfectly well in Scotland, and fish love the leaves to shelter under.  For other plants, you will need oxygenators.  These are sometimes floating plants, or sometimes they root into the mud, or some are in pots.  Oxygenators are essential for a pond with fish.  We have found this year that you also need an electric bubbler, which is far more efficient than a solar one.  Fish produce a whole lot of poo, which sinks to the bottom and rots, so plants which can use these nutrients are essential.  Buy your plants from a reputable supplier who is aware of which plants are invasive, and which can spread from a domestic pond into the environment, with sometimes disastrous results.  It's well worth doing some research into ponds, so you get it right first time, rather than doing it on the cheap, with plants from the wild or from friends' ponds.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Pond
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2018, 10:48:24 am »
I did have a small pond - as in one of those fibreglass thingies set into the ground - in south london 8ft diameter jobbie whch was easy enough to maintain (but then i was way younger too). Despite advice I did stick a water lily in it.. grew huge and ended up with some 15 or 20 planst from it. I put  asign up in the driveway 'free waterlilies to good homes' and assorted folk knocked on the door asking if I was serious!!
Actually there is a tiny waterlily variety .. Firestar??? which is practical in a small pond. Here we've got flags, rushes and stuff i dont know around the sides. There's also some kingcups and celandines and watermint.
pgk

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Pond
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2018, 05:44:25 pm »
Watermint and especially yellow flag go berserk and take over.  The mint is easy enough to pull out, but the flags will spread out over the edge into grassy areas of your garden.  Geese are good for getting rid of it, but they destroy everything else in a pond too!
Typha minima (dwarf bullrush) is a good rush to have although you have to reduce it after a few years. It grows to about 18" and dragon and may flies love it for laying eggs.  Yes, you can never have too many kingcups, and there is a small white one too for confined spaces.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Pond
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2018, 10:44:43 pm »
Is it not illegal to take plants from the wild?
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Pond
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2018, 07:06:16 am »
Watermint and especially yellow flag go berserk and take over.  The mint is easy enough to pull out, but the flags will spread out over the edge into grassy areas of your garden. .....
Indeed but control is easy - I just mow around the pond with the rest of the lawn every few days and strim a couple of times a year. The late autumn cleanup usually involves butchering everything to ground zero around the pond and used to include pulling everything out from inside too. It was always back with a vengence next spring.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Pond
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2018, 12:44:51 pm »
That would work  :)   We no longer have a yellow flag problem as the geese destroyed the lot by eating them.


Another pretty little plant which does not run amok is veronica beccabunga.  It lives ok in a submerged pot, in a few inches of water, has small round leaves which contrast well with everything else, tiny blue flowers and a brilliant name !  It is an oxygenator and the fish love it.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Pond
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2018, 09:26:08 pm »
Is it not illegal to take plants from the wild?
I took it from the burn as its almost dry, just a trickle of water after the summer we have had. the council come every year and clear it out of the overgrown plants to stop the road from flooding so I don't think there would be a problem with me taking a couple of pieces.

honeyend

  • Joined Oct 2011
Re: Pond
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2018, 12:32:26 am »
We have a pond, which is fairly big. I did buy some marginals but I 'seeded' it with a couple of buckets of water out of the field drainage ditch.
  I think ponds are very much like the rest of the garden and unless you prune something always takes over, in ours it the seeded rushes, not the dwarf ones I planted and it needs a serious clear out.
  Its been so dry this year its not really been a pond more of a marsh garden. Most of the water off the outbuildings gets channelled in to it and well as water off the garden but we have not had more than one days rain since March.
The front pond is just and old water tank that has a spout that runs the water into a small trough and then its pumped back in to the tank. Its there more to look interesting than to be a pond. There has been two frogs living in it most of the summer. I have to top it up every few days as the dogs keep drinking the water.

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Pond
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2018, 12:23:11 pm »
I just can't get my ponds the way I want them.

I put an ornamental pond in the front garden soon after I moved in her, added oxygenating plants and grasses; and all it has is water beetles and other little bugs.  Tried adding frog spawn once and got tadpoles but never saw any frogs.

The duck pond in the back yard is just that, Tried various plants in it but they just get trashed.  It goes up and down with the water table so I top it up from time to time to stop it going too green. There's a bank round most of it so I've put perennials there like geraniums, ferns, ivys, crocosmia etc  so it does look quite pretty round the outside.

Anyway my ducks and hens are happy  :thumbsup:
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Pond
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2018, 09:54:03 pm »
I've had KOI and golden orfe  in apond for sevenyears .. lovely fish then five moths ago  eiher n otter or a mink got in under the netting an ate the lot . my pal felt sorry for me so purchased four more fish ..

They lasted 24 hrs., the cheeky sods left one fish eyeball & half a tail fin as a tip.

 The tip is:-
Don't leave fish in the pond ever again unless yo have a triple strand electric or 18 inch high electric rabbit netting fence running round it
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

 

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