# Water meadow gardening



## killi69

I guess like many on this forum, I have always been obsessed with water. I grew up in Holland spending most of my childhood fishing when I was not in school. Something about the water’s edge has always fascinated me and to this day, whenever I pass by a pool or a ditch, I just have to make my way over to see if I can spot anything of interest.

I have kept planted tanks for most of my life but have always been dreaming about having a garden where you can walk through drifts of reeds and marginal plants, moving from one pond to the next.

When three years ago I moved into a house with a decent sized garden, I realised I finally had the opportunity to actually plan my wetland garden for real.

My biggest inspiration comes from my visits to the Pond Gardens of Ada Hofman in Holland;




















Ada Hofman is like the Gertrude Jekyll of the Dutch garden-pond world. In the 1980s she started writing books to promote principles of pond keeping based on achieving clear water through the use of oxygenating plants alone, without the use of any mechanical filtration, pumps, UV lights or chemicals.  What always struck me was how her ponds seemed to merge effortlessly into the margins of the garden beyond. No pond liner to be seen nor a surround of cobbles or other 'natural' hardscape materials supposedly hiding the liner. To me, she combined the best of the aquarium world, creating lush submerged planting arrangements to be observed in clear water, with garden design which leaves the visitor feeling immersed in nature;







Before I moved house three years ago, my big passion was my planted tank which I enjoyed blogging about on this forum_ (giant tank for killis)_. The other side to my hobby is keeping fish in outdoor tubs.  In these, I keep killi fish and other species from places like Iran, North America or China which can be held outdoors all year round.  After moving house, I made a painful decision to let my fish tank go and focus all my efforts on the water garden which will eventually provide a home for all the fish I have been keeping in tubs for all these years.




 




After a year in my new house, I found a small preformed pond dumped out in the street nearby which I repaired, painted black and dug in a corner of the garden close to the patio.  I planted some grasses and perennials around it and in a way created a mini template for how I would like the whole garden to look one day;






Apart from this and my ‘tubbing’, I have not had ponds before nor attempted to garden on a scale like this. However, I have been reading up a lot over the years while day dreaming about this concept. I hope that this passion, together with my knowledge from keeping aquariums and outdoor tubs, and any help I can gather along the way, will be enough to see this project through.


To start with, let me share some pictures of what the garden looked like when I moved in;







My garden is around 35m long and 13m wide. It took a few years to clear the site and get ready for the project. Last year, I took down the garage and built a shed next to the house to still have some storage space. This spring all the concrete from the drive was removed, alongside all the brickwork and remaining pathway. By the mid-June the garden was clear and ready for the works to start.







I drew up some very rough sketches for my concept of the garden. A wooden walkway will wind through the garden and cross a series of ponds. The ponds will be visually connected through planting arrangements which suggest marshy conditions in between them. At the end of the pathway, towards the back left of the garden where there is a side gate, there will be a jetty over the water with an existing collection of fruit trees behind, which will become an orchard area. Everything else in the garden will be covered with perennials and grasses which either originate from water meadows/ wetlands or which resemble such habitats.




 






For a number of years, I have been reading up on the naturalistic gardening movement and in particular liked the work of Nigel Dunnet from the University of Sheffield. Nigel is well known for creating loose and intermingled high density planting arrangements which evoke the look of wild natural settings. In autumn last year, I came across some posts on Instagram from a young garden design company called Plantology. They were reviewing books from the same designers I had been following and one of their posts offered a discounted fee for engaging them during that period.

Even though I need to do the garden on quite a tight budget and will be propagating many of the plants needed myself, I know that making mistakes also costs money. While I have some plant knowledge and experience of growing many of the perennials on my ‘wish list’, I still have much to learn, in particular about the way different species combine and intermingle. I decided that given the overall cost of the project, spending an extra few hundred pounds to help me think through the design properly – especially the design of hard landscaping – could be worthwhile. After speaking to Hayley Hughes at Plantology, I knew I had found the support I needed to make the most of my ideas and resources. Hayley sounded as passionate as I was and was especially interested in working with me on the ecological aspect of things - putting together planting communities to represent the wetland theme. Icing on the cake was that she studied at the University of Sheffield and mentored by Nigel Dunnett.

Hayley translated my sketch into a proper design and we agreed on a masterplan based on five separate ponds which will hopefully appear as three ponds separated by the wooden walkway at two points:




 




By stroke of luck it turned out that a labourer I had engaged for a couple of days during lockdown to remove the last bit of remaining concrete had some landscaping experience. Aldis has never built ponds before but knows how to lay decking. I have never built ponds either but have read up a bit and feel confident enough that we can get this done between us. I found a man with a digger who agreed to help out for three days and Aldis agreed to help me for three weeks to build the ponds, pathway and decking.

I am super excited to get started albeit a bit daunted by the sheer scale of the project at the same time. Through this blog, I hope to share some moments and experiences of creating my 'water meadow garden’ - of maintaining ponds using the ‘Ada Hofman’ method, of keeping fish outdoors from temperate and subtropical regions, as well as my efforts in creating an overall ‘wetland’ feel to the garden mainly through the use of perennial plants and grasses. I am also interested to what extent it will be possible to create underwater landscapes, like we try to achieve in our planted tanks, but viewed from above instead, and experiment with using 'aquarium plants' in and around the pond.

I am keen to learn from others and as part of this will try to share my joys and challenges with you all during this journey.


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## Wolf6

Amazing garden and a great plan, I'm looking forward to the pictures already  I wish you luck! Some lessons learned from my own foray into gardening over the past 3 years: 

One of my biggest pitfalls in my own garden, was planting plants too close to eachother. They looked amazing year 1, and then year 2 they strangled eachother and it just looked messy. The lovely pictures of plants mixing happily are usually made out of much larger groups then you first think and usually are a few years in, and it might take a few tries to get it right. 
Dont be afraid to replan and replant at the end of summer or start of spring. Plants grow larger, shade changes over time as trees and other plants grow, and so on. Perrenials can take quite a few hits most of the time. 
Use grit or bark to cover up visible soil to keep moisture in, especially with our summers last few years. Saves watering a LOT. 
And another thing I did wrong was that I wanted ALL the plants. Less really is more. Select a few plants that you keep repeating, and add a few dashes of another type. It really is like aquascaping  but there are just so many pretty plants.
Get a simple watering system on the sunniest/driest border, because watering gets increasingly tedious. Leave it spraying for an hour or so once or twice a week tops, no more, during dry periods. My garden is about a third of yours, and I already got sick of watering it during the dry spells we've had. I paid 80 euro for a watering set for just the dry border, and it made my life so much easier. Borders in shade or semi-shade need far less watering, so thats less tedious. 
If one species isnt working out in your garden after a few tries in different locations, ditch it and get something else. And dont be afraid to use some fertiliser, like aquascaping plants need a good feeding to stay pretty. But with grasses, dont overfeed or they will get too tall and flop over. 
What always annoys me is height predictions on the cards or on the internet. They rarely make a difference in leaf hight and flower hight. I had some grasses that looked the right look, card said '120cm' so that was perfect. Turns out the leaves stay 40cm and its just the 'flower' that is 120cm. So then I went and got other grasses, that wont happen to me again! This time the card said 150 cm. So yeah, the leaves got 150cm, and the flowers went up well over 200cm. Internet is no help there either. Best is to visit places like 'de hessenhof' in Ede, where you can see the actual size of the plants in the 'motherbeds' before you can buy them. 
Buy from places like that to get plants grown without herbicides, resistent to mildew and disease. Plants from garden centers are often pretty weak. Summers like this one are harsh on many plants, making them vulnerable for disease like mildew. 
If you dont have the funds to fill the garden completely yet, use seeds to add colour and life to parts you will get to later. Its cheap and provides a lot of happiness  Stuff like cosmea, phacelia, nigella are easily sown directly into the earth, grow fast and will flower a long time. Even wildflower mixes are great too. 
Good luck, and please keep us updated on how it works out  Glad to see more people into this hobby  and dont be afraid to mess up, I am still making tons of mistakes. Plants in the garden are a lot more forgiving, no algae there


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## killi69

Thank you Wolf for your comments and tips. While intending to have some drifts and block groupings of certain perennials, on the whole I am quite keen to experiment and try to create some intermingled planting communities. It will be a question of research, trial and error and seeking guidance to find out which of the plants on my wish list can be planted individually mixed up in a matrix and which ones are better placed in smaller groups together. Definitely agree with you on needing to limit the number of different plants – that will be challenging because there are so many I like! I love visiting gardens and nurseries when I am in Holland. I must go to the ‘Hessenhof’ nursery you suggested. I have been to ‘Esveld’ in Boskoop a few times which have a similar set up. A huge range of plants and much cheaper than over here. What is great is that for E20 or so extra, they will post a huge box of 50 plants back to the UK, so that is super convenient also!


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## killi69

On the question of plants for the garden, as mentioned, I have put together a list of plants which fit in with the 'wetland' theme of the garden (or 'woodland' for around the edges)  and will hopefully do well in my clay soil.  Back in spring, I went through my wish list to identify which of the plants I might be able to grow from seed without too much difficulty. I narrowed this down to about 20 different plants or varieties, including a few grasses. A few failed, but most succeeded.  Again, lockdown was a real blessing as I could water the seedlings daily or even twice daily when needed.  I sowed them in cell trays and later transplanted them into 9cm pots.  Unfortunately, the garden is still not ready for them to be planted, so they needed to be potted on again into 2L pots about four weeks ago – 800+ of them!  A lot of work but really pleased to have built up some stock.


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## Wolf6

Which plants did you select?  and what color theme?


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## killi69

Wolf6 said:


> Which plants did you select?  and what color theme?


Plants on my list include different varieties of Eupatorium, Sanguisorba, Filipendula, Veronicastrum,  Lythrum, Molinia, and Miscanthus to name a few.  Pinks, purple and white will be the main colours.

In order to create the impression of deep pond margins and the gradual transition between water and land, I am also really keen to identify some plants which can grow both in water as marginals, as well as in garden soil, if necessary playing around with different varieties or different species of the same genus to make that possible.  Also, I will be digging in some of my tubs so that I can have some reeds/ bulrushes etc growing among the planting close to the ponds to help achieve the same effect.

Plants which might qualify for both water and soil include;
- Lythrum
- Physostegia virginiana,
- Iris
- Carex muskingumensis
- Lobelia siphilitica (Alba)
- Ascepias incarnata (Ice Ballet)
- Arondo donax

and possibly;
- Lychnis flos cuculi
- Hesperantha coccinea
- Tulbaghia violacea

I would be interested to hear of any other suggestions or experiences people have of plants which can cope with being planted both as marginals with feet in water, as well as in the ground (and I don't mean bog garden).


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## killi69

I spent a few days digging up existing plants and finding temporary homes for them to save them from the digger. The next step in preparing for the pond installation phase was to mark out on the ground the location of the ponds and pathway.  I used spray paint on the grass and bricks on the soil to show the outlines:






With the plants out of the way, the digger arrived and dug five ponds in four days, starting with the pond closest to the house.








 





 





The sheer volume of soil removed was staggering.  Some of my neighbours were not too impressed either as the huge piles of clay  prevented them from gaining access to their garages for a few days.  It took three of these huge lorries and one regular sized skip to remove all the soil.





After looking at the plans for so long, it was really exciting to see the design begin to literally take shape at last.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





killi69 said:


> Arundo donax


It combines being enormous and rampant with not being fully hardy. I'd definitely add a couple more Sedges, _Carex elata_ "aurea/Bowles Golden" and _Carex pseudocyperus._


killi69 said:


> Lychnis flos cuculi - Hesperantha coccinea


They are both good .

cheers Darrel


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## MWood

killi69 said:


> I would be interested to hear of any other suggestions or experiences people have of plants which can cope with being planted both as marginals with feet in water, as well as in the ground (and I don't mean bog garden).



Really enjoying this project- much envy! 

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well off cuts from my aquariums have done in my admittedly sheltered garden- heteranthera zosterifolia particularly seems bizarrely hardy,  but I’m sure there are others that would work to soften edges in the same way. 

I have to ask- what fish species are you keeping outside, and what are your plans with the new layout?


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## killi69

Thanks MWood!  Great to hear about your experiences re Heteranthera zosterifolia.  I read that H. zosterifolia can take it down to 5C .  Have you overwintered it and how do you grow it in your pond?  Is it submerged and in in what substrate does it grow?

Trying out some some 'aquarium plants' in the pond is definitely part of the plan! I already grow vallisneria gigantea in tubs all year round which will benefit from the extra sun they will receive in the pond. Keen to intoduce sagittaria subulata and other types of vallis also. Also plan to grow different Potamogeton species.

The fish I am keeping are white cloud minnows, roundtail paradisefish (Macropodus occelatus) and a few killifish (Fundulus julisia, F. catenatus and Aphanius mentho).  I will continue to keep breeding groups in tubs for most of them as well as introducing some to the ponds and will be writing about this later on.


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## Wolf6

Myositis pallustris can fill up any gaps and grows in damp soil as well as with wet roots. I have grown marsilea hirsuta from my tank in the swamp of my pond and it has survived there for several years now, including some frost.
Stachys palustris and mentha aquatica also love both it in the swamp and soil around the pond, fitting your colour scheme and easy growing. They can turn thuggish though, have to keep them in check  bees love them.
I see luzula nivea on your list too. Love that plant as it's one of few grasses thriving in my shadowy woodland part of the garden. 
Good choices all in all this far


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## Wookii

Fantastic project, looking forward to seeing it develop - subbed!


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## Tim Harrison

Wow, this is amazing  Also been a dream of mine too since childhood, but we've never settled in one place long enough to realise it.
Please keep the updates coming 👍


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## zozo

Very beautiful project...  Reading your posts it all familiar to me, same childhood, always at the water edge after school almost every day. And I never got over it, now at 55 years of age, if I see any water whatever it is, pond, ditch, or creek and I'm drawn to it to see what's going on. I wish a had such a garden to create ponds and I would. 

For now, I don't and keep it small with tubs and such... 

Anyway, some rather easy perineal plants you might like :

Potentilla palustris, grows equally well inside as outside the water. It's a Rosaceae, the leaf and even its fruit resemble Strawberry with abundant pinkish-red flowers. Hence our common name is Water Strawberry.

 Thelypteris palustris  - Bog fern also in and out of the water, very beautiful and easy to grow fern, it also can grow rather big. 

Eriophorum angustifolium - cottongrass, a delicate  Cyperaceae that stays relatively small.


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## killi69

dw1305 said:


> It combines being enormous and rampant with not being fully hardy



Thanks Darrell for your feedback. I have had this Arundo donax in a pot for about 5 years now.  Previous I kept it in one of my tubs, just above water level.  It survived but never did that well (only one or two stems and not as tall).  This year with all the works going on around the garden, I placed it on a tray and it did so much better (see photo). 

It probably prefers to sit a bit drier and also appreciated it when I gave it some plant food via the watering can.  I remember visiting wetlands in Mallorca where they grow absolutely huge, like 4m+, and how satisfying it was to walk through clearings of them.  As you say, they are not fully hardy so they would probably not reach that height here while still looking pretty.  But through cutting them back each year, you can still achieve a height of at least what is shown in the picture here, which still can look good, no?  When you say it can grow rampant, would that be when growing in garden soil and/or growing in a bog?  I would still like to find a space for it, cut it back each year and grow it in away which is manageable, like in a pot or tub, if necessary. 



dw1305 said:


> _Carex elata_ "aurea/Bowles Golden" and _Carex pseudocyperus._ They are both good .



Thank you and great you can confirm Lychnis flos cuculi and Hesperantha coccinea work as marginal plants also.  I have some Carex elata "aurea/Bowles Golden" already growing in my tubs and agree.  With their striking colours, they could be great accent plants in and around the ponds.



Wolf6 said:


> Myositis pallustris can fill up any gaps and grows in damp soil as well as with wet roots. I have grown marsilea hirsuta from my tank in the swamp of my pond and it has survived there for several years now, including some frost.
> Stachys palustris and mentha aquatica also love both it in the swamp and soil around the pond, fitting your colour scheme and easy growing. They can turn thuggish though, have to keep them in check  bees love them.
> I see luzula nivea on your list too. Love that plant as it's one of few grasses thriving in my shadowy woodland part of the garden.
> Good choices all in all this far



Great stuff Wolf. Marsilea hirsuta added to the list of submerged /immersed plants I will be trying out!   Stachys palustris and mentha aquatica grow in my tubs already and will be going into the ponds also.  I love the S. palustris especially although for some reason its runners in the water seem to attract blanket weed algae. Funny how blanket weed can choose particular plants to cling onto.  Good to hear Lazula nivea does well with you in the shade.  They were quite easy to grow from seed and I might do more of them next year.


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## killi69

Wookii said:


> Fantastic project, looking forward to seeing it develop - subbed!





Tim Harrison said:


> Wow, this is amazing  Also been a dream of mine too since childhood, but we've never settled in one place long enough to realise it.
> Please keep the updates coming 👍


Great, Wookii and Tim. Looking forward to sharing progress with you.



zozo said:


> Very beautiful project...  Reading your posts it all familiar to me, same childhood, always at the water edge after school almost every day. And I never got over it, now at 55 years of age, if I see any water whatever it is, pond, ditch, or creek and I'm drawn to it to see what's going on. I wish a had such a garden to create ponds and I would.
> 
> For now, I don't and keep it small with tubs and such...



Oh yes... cycling around with a net or fishing rod in one hand and a bucket hung onto the steering wheel...  those were the days, Holland was such a great place to grow up.  Every now and then when I am back home I do still venture out with a net to see if the local waters still contain the same fish as they used to.  Where about in NL are you based?



zozo said:


> Potentilla palustris, grows equally well inside as outside the water. It's a Rosaceae, the leaf and even its fruit resemble Strawberry with abundant pinkish-red flowers. Hence our common name is Water Strawberry.
> 
> Thelypteris palustris - Bog fern also in and out of the water, very beautiful and easy to grow fern, it also can grow rather big.



Great feedback, thank you!  Potentialla palustris, added to the list of plants to grow both in pond margin and garden .

Thelypteris palustris, a fern as a marginal plant.  That is so interesting and great potential with other ferns grown nearby in regular garden soil...  All the main ponds are sited in full sun though, so not sure of it will work there but perhaps I can find some space later for a 'woodland edge' mini pond for this concept. Sounds great!!


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## mort

I can confirm lynchis flos cuculi and hesperantha coccinea are good marginals as Darrel said. I've had both for years and the hesperantha has done very well in deed propagating itself including several revisions back to the original colour. I also see ragged Robin all over the broads in the margins. 
A smaller plant that's nice in the spring and good in the margins or pond edge is sisyrychium californicum, the similar purple species does ok as well ime but isn't as happy.
Geum rivale is also good in the margins or on the bank as is caltha paulustris.

Not so much marginal plants but plants that can cope with periods of wet feet judging by my walks through our local broad are yellow and purple vetch, birds foot trefoil, impatiens capensis (amazing flowers that I thought was an orchid to begin with but believe it's a non native invader), teasels and various thistles including creeping thistle (not 100% sure of the id's on thistles yet but they are very abundant in the areas I walk and do add a nice diversity, perhaps others could advise).

One plant that will do well in the margins or on the bank and one I'll always have is Osmunda regalis, the royal fern. I've always loved that plant especially when combined with delmera peltata (but that's more exotic).


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## mort

Just saw your fern in sun concerns, Regal fern is fine in direct sun as well ime if it has moist feet.


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## zozo

killi69 said:


> Oh yes... cycling around with a net or fishing rod in one hand and a bucket hung onto the steering wheel... those were the days, Holland was such a great place to grow up. Every now and then when I am back home I do still venture out with a net to see if the local waters still contain the same fish as they used to. Where about in NL are you based?



I'm from what nowadays is called Park City, i live in Heerlen - South Limburg. As a kid, we have a number of local ponds within walking distance...  As youngest of 6 siblings, they took me fishing from a very young age, actually as long as i remember. My most favourite spot was an old abandoned castle ruin a stone throw away from my home. It had a ditch fed with water from about a 1-acre marshland, lush and green. For a small kid that is a massive area with the feeling, you could get lost in there. I always went there with a bucket and a net searching all the pools and puddles for aquatic wildlife. Leeches, beetles, spiders, sticklebacks, salamanders, name it could be caught there and I took it home to study in my aquarium in the garden. And I'm hooked ever since. 

Indeed those were the days... I kinda feel sorry that I can't share it and take the kids out to do the same. Today about nothing of it is left, back then early 70's a lot was left to its own devices, it was simply nature taking its cause. But then later on urban infrastructure became more popular and all are turned into tidy manicured parks, Hence Park City, controlled green, more destroyed than added. Nothing much natural to find any longer, unfortunately.  But that's progress i guess... At least I'm happy to have those memories.


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## zozo

And yes, also Bog Fern grows well in the full sun as long as it gets water. Well, it's a bog fern, it will creep its rhizome out of the water and grow on land too. What's still in the water will also feed what's on land as long as the rhizome aint cut. It grows rampant in the full sun. No problems.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





killi69 said:


> I remember visiting wetlands in Mallorca where they grow absolutely huge, like 4m+, and how satisfying it was to walk through clearings of them


I've seen big ones locally, and it isn't warm here. I might be tempted to cut the old canes down in the spring.





killi69 said:


> Potentialla palustris, added to the list of plants to grow both in pond margin and garden .Thelypteris palustris, a fern as a marginal plant.


I've got these, the _Thelyptris_ actually came all the way from Marcel in the Netherlands, after my plant expired in the drought (while I was away from home).

_Ranunculus lingua_ and _R. flammula_ (Greater and Lesser Spearwort) are also good value (and native). You <"can see them"> (and _Eriophorum latifolium, Osmunda regalis, Eleocharis palustris, Iris pseudacorus, Myosotis scorpioides, Mentha aquatica,  Hippurus vulgaris, Galium palustre, Mimulus "guttatus" & Lysimachia nummularia_) in the pond and margins. 

The pond dried out completely in 2018, but some plants survived, _Hypericum tetrapterum, Stellaria palustris, M. guttatus, Onoclea sensibilis, Juncus ensifolius, L. nummularia, M. aquatica, P. palustris, Carex remota, C. pseudocyperus _and probably a few more .

cheers Darrel


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## Paul27

What an epic project this is going to be. Looking forward to all the updates that will come and the end result. 

Good to hear that other people can't help being drawn to streams, lakes, rivers, a ditch with water in etc just out of curiosity to see what life exists in there. Thought I was the only one😆


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## lilirose

Paul27 said:


> Good to hear that other people can't help being drawn to streams, lakes, rivers, a ditch with water in etc just out of curiosity to see what life exists in there. Thought I was the only one😆



I don't know about everyone else, but it was specifically this that got me into the hobby. My first aquarium was bought for goldfish-from-the-fair, but I brought home many, many jars before that- first I wanted to raise tadpoles, then I became fascinated by all the things that would emerge into the water of a jar with a layer of mud at the bottom.

I am really envious of this project, "life goals" as they say!


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## Paul27

lilirose said:


> I don't know about everyone else, but it was specifically this that got me into the hobby. My first aquarium was bought for goldfish-from-the-fair, but I brought home many, many jars before that- first I wanted to raise tadpoles, then I became fascinated by all the things that would emerge into the water of a jar with a layer of mud at the bottom.
> 
> I am really envious of this project, "life goals" as they say!



I think it's going to look stunning when done!. Imagine when this is complete sitting outside on a nice day right next to it, relaxing would be an understatement. 

I definitely agree with you from where it all starts, there was a park very near where I grew up that had a stream running right through it, very shallow.  Used to always fine stickle back in there, even found a small perch in there once. That's how it all started for me, then I discovered rock pools which fascinated the life out of me!. Then when I was older and I discovered takashi amano my brain when it to complete overdrive.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





Paul27 said:


> What an epic project this is going to be.


It is absolutely fantastic in scope and vision. I want to sign myself up for a visit in 2022? _Right here, right now._

cheers Darrel


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## killi69

Let me write a bit about the construction of the ponds.

In terms of the pond size, instead of going for one or two huge ponds, I went for a multitude of smaller sized ones, offering more space for gardening with marginal planting at the edges.   I planned the maximum width of the ponds  so that at the widest points, the space in the middle is still just about accessible with a net or a rake or whatever.

In terms of depth, about one third/half of each pond is 80cm deep, with shelves at 50cm and the upper shelf between 20-35cm.  I am still not sure what depths of baskets to work with for my marginals so I left upper shelf a little bit deeper than normal, so I can use deeper containers in the future if I choose to.  If I decide on shallower containers, I will just have to use bricks to raise them to the right level.

One of the biggest criteria for the visual success of ponds for me is the edging; how well the pond liner can be hidden, both when viewed from the side, along the waterline (so how level is the edge of the pond) as well when as viewed from above; how 'thick' is the edge of the pond and how can it be camouflaged.

While I have seen some excellent examples of pond edges hidden by rocks, achieving a natural looking finish using this method requires a lot of skill and the right placing of the right materials (eg sourcing matching rocks in a range of sizes, including very large pieces and repetition in and around the margins of the ponds, if not further into the garden, not just literally placed around the edge).   I read somewhere that peoples' tastes for their gardens is heavily influenced subconsciously by what they have witnessed in the natural environment around them. Maybe that explains why so many people choose stones and rocks (apart from practical reasons) to hide the edges because it reminds them of scenes in nature they have enjoyed with boulders or rock formations exposed along streams. To me, more often than not this method does not end up looking convincing but that could just be down to taste of what someone experiences as 'looking natural'.

My inspiration comes more from places where the water is still, like pools found in marshes or fens or the margins of ditches where reeds and marginal plants blend land and water.  Rocks and stones do not really feature much in those places, so I want to find a different way of hiding the liner.

I have chosen the raised pond edge method, using strips of flexible edging attached to stakes.  The edging is attached in such a way that it sticks out 5cm above the stakes.   The big advantage of this method is that the liner can then be folded over a very thin edge and tucked away into the soil of the garden.  I think this method is more popular in Holland and Germany than it is over here.  I could source rolls of recycled plastic edging (14cm high, 7mm thick) marketed as lawn/ border edging in the UK. The same material is sold as pond edging in Europe.  I used 60cm stakes produced by the same company (Ecolat) but needed to get these shipped from France as over here they only sold shorter stakes (for border edging).







The idea is that when digging the pond, you don't dig all the way to the intended edge.  After its dug, you then drive the stakes along the intended edge, attach the edging and then dig straight down along  the inside of the edging down to the depth of the first planting shelf in the pond. We used a laser level to drive the stakes into the ground down to the right level.  No easy feat with clay soil and when stakes are 60cm long and there are 160 of them!  On the other hand, clay soil works very well with this method of pond digging as it holds the sides well and no further re-enforcement is needed. Having said that, the edges of the holes, after some expose to the sun, did begin to dry out, crack and crumble away and needed to be protected with sheets of plastic when we were not working on them. When digging one pond, this would not have been such an issue but when there are five ponds to be finished off at once after the initial work of the digger, the longer went by, the more challenging this became. I spent many hours watering the sides of the holes most evenings during the hot summer in a drawn out battle to prevent the sides from drying out and collapsing.

In hindsight, I should have got more out of the digger.  I was lucky that the operator came with his own laser level.  I had not thought through this process enough and achieving the same water level across most of the site required some skills, which fortunately came with the digger but it could have easily gone wrong if I had engaged the wrong person.  I regret not having the digger work an extra day after doing the ponds.  I did get him to do some landscaping on the last day but a digger can achieve in 30 minutes what can take a person a whole day.  What at the time, I thought were 'finishing touches' which could be done by hand turned out to be weeks' of work!  For example, the operator of the digger was skilled enough to make straight cuts where I wanted yet at the time, I thought I would play it safe and not let the digger come too close to the intended levels, in case he went too far.   As a result, there was still a lot of work left before the ponds are ready for the liner.  In the picture below, you can see the clay around the pond cracking up.  We used sheets of plastic to try to reduce them drying out.





In places where the existing level was low or where the sides underneath the edging had crumbled away too much, we needed to apply some strips of plywood to support the edging. After the edging, we applied a layer of sand, protective fabric and finally the liner.  We started with the smaller ponds, building up our experience before tackling the larger ponds at either end of the garden.

The first pond we dug was the fourth one from the house (3.5 m3):


 

 



It was incredibly satisfying to see the first pond filled with water.





The second pond from the house was next (2 m3) and then the middle pond (5 m3):


 

 




The pond at the back was the largest and took a few more weeks prepare. On the final day, I needed to bring in a few extra people to help move the liner.  The tap was on all day long filling this one (12m3):


 

 




The final pond was most challenging. As part of the dig, we had to remove some of the foundation of the patio, so this needed to be rebuilt.  Also, I changed my mind a few times about the layout of the shelves so these had to be reconstructed also. Next year I will put decking onto the patio, so hopefully create a bit of a 'house on the waterfront' effect (7 m3):


 

 




These pics were taken two days after filling the final pond.








To give an idea of how long this all took from when the digger started work, it took three weeks before we could fill the first pond and then a further five weeks before the last pond was filled.  The edges will be tucked away as the garden or paths next to the ponds are worked on.  In my next post, I will share a bit more about those few weeks of the ponds settling in and some of the challenges encountered.


----------



## Paul27

Have to say its an absolute joy reading through your progress and getting to see this from the very start, all the time and effort you are putting in is going to be hugely worth it!. You are going to have one amazing garden when this is all complete.  Definitely agree with @dw1305 about a visit.


----------



## killi69

Much of this project is about the margins.  Plants which can grow in boggy conditions but will also thrive in clay soil.   Plants that can live with their roots in and out of the water. Aquatic plants that can both live submerged or emersed.  Garden - Pond - Aquarium.  I find it quite exciting to to find out about plants which straddle these 'genres' and think there is scope for the horticultural/ aquatic word to bring these closer together.  How designs under water could link in with the margins and even the wider garden.  How marginal planting inside the pond can literally connect with the plants in the 'border'. Information out there can become aimed at one target group of hobbyist, as can the plants themselves be also.   So its great to hear from Mort that regal fern (known as a garden plant) and Marsilea hirsuta (known as an aquarium plant) can both be grown as a marginal pond plants.   Also I find it really interesting to see which aquarium plants can be grown all year round in the pond in the UK.

So I am really pleased with the feedback I am receiving here.  Amazing knowledge is already building up (for me anyway). In such a short space of time, my list of "plants suitable for both pond margin and garden" has doubled and this blog is becoming a valuable way of pulling together information.  At first, I was not sure where to blog (pond forum/ garden forum?) but I am glad to have stuck with UKAPS so many thanks for your encouragement but especially for sharing your experiences;




mort said:


> I can confirm lynchis flos cuculi and hesperantha coccinea are good marginals as Darrel said. I've had both for years and the hesperantha has done very well in deed propagating itself including several revisions back to the original colour. I also see ragged Robin all over the broads in the margins.
> A smaller plant that's nice in the spring and good in the margins or pond edge is sisyrychium californicum, the similar purple species does ok as well ime but isn't as happy.
> Geum rivale is also good in the margins or on the bank as is caltha paulustris.
> 
> One plant that will do well in the margins or on the bank and one I'll always have is Osmunda regalis, the royal fern. I've always loved that plant especially when combined with delmera peltata (but that's more exotic).
> 
> Regal fern is fine in direct sun as well ime if it has moist feet






zozo said:


> And yes, also Bog Fern grows well in the full sun as long as it gets water. Well, it's a bog fern, it will creep its rhizome out of the water and grow on land too. What's still in the water will also feed what's on land as long as the rhizome aint cut. It grows rampant in the full sun. No problems.






dw1305 said:


> _Ranunculus lingua_ and _R. flammula_ (Greater and Lesser Spearwort) are also good value (and native). You <"can see them"> (and _Eriophorum latifolium, Osmunda regalis, Eleocharis palustris, Iris pseudacorus, Myosotis scorpioides, Mentha aquatica, Hippurus vulgaris, Galium palustre, Mimulus "guttatus" & Lysimachia nummularia_) in the pond and margins.
> 
> The pond dried out completely in 2018, but some plants survived, _Hypericum tetrapterum, Stellaria palustris, M. guttatus, Onoclea sensibilis, Juncus ensifolius, L. nummularia, M. aquatica, P. palustris, Carex remota, C. pseudocyperus _and probably a few more .






Wolf6 said:


> Myositis pallustris can fill up any gaps and grows in damp soil as well as with wet roots. I have grown marsilea hirsuta from my tank in the swamp of my pond and it has survived there for several years now, including some frost.
> Stachys palustris and mentha aquatica also love both it in the swamp and soil around the pond, fitting your colour scheme and easy growing. They can turn thuggish though, have to keep them in check  bees love them.


----------



## killi69

zozo said:


> I'm from what nowadays is called Park City, i live in Heerlen - South Limburg. As a kid, we have a number of local ponds within walking distance...  As youngest of 6 siblings, they took me fishing from a very young age, actually as long as i remember. My most favourite spot was an old abandoned castle ruin a stone throw away from my home. It had a ditch fed with water from about a 1-acre marshland, lush and green. For a small kid that is a massive area with the feeling, you could get lost in there. I always went there with a bucket and a net searching all the pools and puddles for aquatic wildlife. Leeches, beetles, spiders, sticklebacks, salamanders, name it could be caught there and I took it home to study in my aquarium in the garden. And I'm hooked ever since.





Paul27 said:


> Good to hear that other people can't help being drawn to streams, lakes, rivers, a ditch with water in etc just out of curiosity to see what life exists in there. Thought I was the only one😆





lilirose said:


> I don't know about everyone else, but it was specifically this that got me into the hobby. My first aquarium was bought for goldfish-from-the-fair, but I brought home many, many jars before that- first I wanted to raise tadpoles, then I became fascinated by all the things that would emerge into the water of a jar with a layer of mud at the bottom.
> 
> I am really envious of this project, "life goals" as they say!



Great to connect with like minded people and know I am not the only one obsessed then. It can feel that way sometimes  🇳🇱



dw1305 said:


> It is absolutely fantastic in scope and vision. I want to sign myself up for a visit in 2022? _Right here, right now._





Paul27 said:


> You are going to have one amazing garden when this is all complete. Definitely agree with @dw1305 about a visit.



Wow, thank you both for the vote of confidence. I really hope I can pull it off and would love to host your visit.


----------



## zozo

Some other small marginal plants you might like to look into...

Bog pimpernel, my old-time favourite, it loves to grow on wet clay at the margins. It's a very small creeper and likes to trail over rocks into the water with small reddish/purple flowers. It can grow quite bushy and cover quite some area if planted in rich soil. But it's also a delicate plant, if not planted in the correct spot it might not survive the winter it's an absolute sun worshiper. I don't know for the rest of Europe but the wild form in the Netherlands and Belgium is on the red list and hard to find in nature. 

Mazus reptans, a tad bigger and lovely mainly purple lip flowers with a white heart with yellow dots. Also wants sunny spots that stay rather wet. I'm not sure about its soil preference, it originates from the Himalaya growing near mountain streams. It might also grow lithophytic near streams in the splash zone among the mosses.

Creeping Jenny of course again a tad bigger, as the name says it's a prolific creeper with nice yellow flowers.

To feather some pond edges the Myriophyllum aquaticum red stem, goes in the trade often as M. brasilliensis.
It stays a lot smaller than the true M. aquaticum, it doesn't come out of the water but will grow dense nice coloured floating maths and stays in the shallows. I gave a bit last year to my neighbour who has a larger pond and it really took off and looked really nice. It's actually a tropical, but it easily survives mild frost.


----------



## killi69

zozo said:


> *Bog pimpernel*, my old-time favourite, it loves to grow on wet clay at the margins. It's a very small creeper and likes to trail over rocks into the water with small reddish/purple flowers. It can grow quite bushy and cover quite some area if planted in rich soil. But it's also a delicate plant, if not planted in the correct spot it might not survive the winter it's an absolute sun worshiper. I don't know for the rest of Europe but the wild form in the Netherlands and Belgium is on the red list and hard to find in nature.
> 
> *Mazus reptans*, a tad bigger and lovely mainly purple lip flowers with a white heart with yellow dots. Also wants sunny spots that stay rather wet. I'm not sure about its soil preference, it originates from the Himalaya growing near mountain streams. It might also grow lithophytic near streams in the splash zone among the mosses.


These both look great Marcel, two more to add to the list of plants suited to either side of the pondliner.  I can see why you like Bog pimpernel so much. Definitely going to try that!  I am also on the lookout for different plants to use to hide the edges of marginal baskets which stick above the waterline and these both would probably do great.  As would Creeping Jenny, thank you.

Myriophyllum red stem also looks interesting Thanks again.


----------



## BigD

One plant that is normally grown as a pond plant but is equally at home in a garden border is Equisetum japonicum, the Horsetail.  I used to grow this in a previous garden where it grew quite happily amongst restios and did not look out of place.  It did not even need watering.


----------



## Wookii

killi69 said:


> Let me write a bit about the construction of the ponds.
> 
> In terms of the pond size, instead of going for one or two huge ponds, I went for a multitude of smaller sized ones, offering more space for gardening with marginal planting at the edges.   I planned the maximum width of the ponds  so that at the widest points, the space in the middle is still just about accessible with a net or a rake or whatever.
> 
> In terms of depth, about one third/half of each pond is 80cm deep, with shelves at 50cm and the upper shelf between 20-35cm.  I am still not sure what depths of baskets to work with for my marginals so I left upper shelf a little bit deeper than normal, so I can use deeper containers in the future if I choose to.  If I decide on shallower containers, I will just have to use bricks to raise them to the right level.
> 
> One of the biggest criteria for the visual success of ponds for me is the edging; how well the pond liner can be hidden, both when viewed from the side, along the waterline (so how level is the edge of the pond) as well when as viewed from above; how 'thick' is the edge of the pond and how can it be camouflaged.
> 
> While I have seen some excellent examples of pond edges hidden by rocks, achieving a natural looking finish using this method requires a lot of skill and the right placing of the right materials (eg sourcing matching rocks in a range of sizes, including very large pieces and repetition in and around the margins of the ponds, if not further into the garden, not just literally placed around the edge).   I read somewhere that peoples' tastes for their gardens is heavily influenced subconsciously by what they have witnessed in the natural environment around them. Maybe that explains why so many people choose stones and rocks (apart from practical reasons) to hide the edges because it reminds them of scenes in nature they have enjoyed with boulders or rock formations exposed along streams. To me, more often than not this method does not end up looking convincing but that could just be down to taste of what someone experiences as 'looking natural'.
> 
> My inspiration comes more from places where the water is still, like pools found in marshes or fens or the margins of ditches where reeds and marginal plants blend land and water.  Rocks and stones do not really feature much in those places, so I want to find a different way of hiding the liner.
> 
> I have chosen the raised pond edge method, using strips of flexible edging attached to stakes.  The edging is attached in such a way that it sticks out 5cm above the stakes.   The big advantage of this method is that the liner can then be folded over a very thin edge and tucked away into the soil of the garden.  I think this method is more popular in Holland and Germany than it is over here.  I could source rolls of recycled plastic edging (14cm high, 7mm thick) marketed as lawn/ border edging in the UK. The same material is sold as pond edging in Europe.  I used 60cm stakes produced by the same company (Ecolat) but needed to get these shipped from France as over here they only sold shorter stakes (for border edging).
> 
> 
> View attachment 154771
> 
> The idea is that when digging the pond, you don't dig all the way to the intended edge.  After its dug, you then drive the stakes along the intended edge, attach the edging and then dig straight down along  the inside of the edging down to the depth of the first planting shelf in the pond. We used a laser level to drive the stakes into the ground down to the right level.  No easy feat with clay soil and when stakes are 60cm long and there are 160 of them!  On the other hand, clay soil works very well with this method of pond digging as it holds the sides well and no further re-enforcement is needed. Having said that, the edges of the holes, after some expose to the sun, did begin to dry out, crack and crumble away and needed to be protected with sheets of plastic when we were not working on them. When digging one pond, this would not have been such an issue but when there are five ponds to be finished off at once after the initial work of the digger, the longer went by, the more challenging this became. I spent many hours watering the sides of the holes most evenings during the hot summer in a drawn out battle to prevent the sides from drying out and collapsing.
> 
> In hindsight, I should have got more out of the digger.  I was lucky that the operator came with his own laser level.  I had not thought through this process enough and achieving the same water level across most of the site required some skills, which fortunately came with the digger but it could have easily gone wrong if I had engaged the wrong person.  I regret not having the digger work an extra day after doing the ponds.  I did get him to do some landscaping on the last day but a digger can achieve in 30 minutes what can take a person a whole day.  What at the time, I thought were 'finishing touches' which could be done by hand turned out to be weeks' of work!  For example, the operator of the digger was skilled enough to make straight cuts where I wanted yet at the time, I thought I would play it safe and not let the digger come too close to the intended levels, in case he went too far.   As a result, there was still a lot of work left before the ponds are ready for the liner.
> 
> View attachment 154773
> 
> In places where the existing level was low or where the sides underneath the edging had crumbled away too much, we needed to apply some strips of plywood to support the edging. After the edging, we applied a layer of sand, protective fabric and finally the liner.  We started with the smaller ponds, building up our experience before tackling the larger ponds at either end of the garden.
> 
> The first pond we dug was the fourth one from the house (3.5 m3):
> View attachment 154774 View attachment 154775 View attachment 154776
> 
> It was incredibly satisfying to see the first pond filled with water.
> View attachment 154786
> 
> 
> The second pond from the house was next (2 m3) and then the middle pond (5 m3):
> View attachment 154787 View attachment 154783 View attachment 154784
> 
> 
> The pond at the back was the largest and took a few more weeks prepare. On the final day, I needed to bring in a few extra people to help move the liner.  The tap was on all day long filling this one (12m3):
> View attachment 154788 View attachment 154789 View attachment 154790
> 
> 
> The final pond was most challenging. As part of the dig, we had to remove some of the foundation of the patio, so this needed to be rebuilt.  Also, I changed my mind a few times about the layout of the shelves so these had to be reconstructed also. Next year I will put decking onto the patio, so hopefully create a bit of a 'house on the waterfront' effect (7 m3):
> View attachment 154791 View attachment 154792 View attachment 154793
> 
> 
> These pics were taken two days after filling the final pond.
> View attachment 154794
> 
> View attachment 154795
> 
> To give an idea of how long this all took from when the digger started work, it took three weeks before we could fill the first pond and then a further five weeks before the last pond was filled.  The edges will be tucked away as the garden or paths next to the ponds are worked on.  In my next post, I will share a bit more about those few weeks of the ponds settling in and some of the challenges encountered.



Looks great. What are you doing/have you done re filtration - or are you just letting the ponds look after themselves in that regard via the plants?


----------



## killi69

Wookii said:


> What are you doing/have you done re filtration - or are you just letting the ponds look after themselves in that regard via the plants?


I am not planning on using any filtration. The plan is very much lots of plants in there from day one, hopefully with a good enough ratio between deeper water (80cm) and shallower shelves with marginal plants and, above all, a low bio load of fish.  Definitely no gold fish, or other fish which disturb the plants.  The fish going in there will be tiny in comparison. On top of that regular maintenance and being prepared to empty and clean out the ponds every few years.


----------



## killi69

BigD said:


> One plant that is normally grown as a pond plant but is equally at home in a garden border is *Equisetum japonicum,* the Horsetail. I used to grow this in a previous garden where it grew quite happily amongst restios and did not look out of place. It did not even need watering.


Really, Equisetum japonicum in the garden?  I did not know that Fantastic, I will definitely add that to the pond&garden list. Thank you for sharing the experience.  Do you happen to know it Equisetum is happy with its crown below water?  I have read different accounts and if you say it grows well in the garden also, might  that suggest it prefers its crown out of water, I wonder?  A visually amazing plant which could really add to the concept and help create a 'boggy' feel to the rest of the garden. Does it behave as a garden plant?

Also, I wonder whether Equisetum hyemale can be grown the same way (in pond and in garden) as I already have some of these.


----------



## dw1305

Hi all,





killi69 said:


> Equisetum hyemale can be grown the same way (in pond and in garden) as I already have some of these,


I would be very wary of any of these bigger _Equisetum_ spp.

I had _Equisetum fluviatile, _and once it gets going it is almost impossible to control, the rhizomes go very deep and can penetrate through Water-Lily rhizomes etc. and any fragments grow.  Because it has a relatively frail stem I thought it would be easier to control than _E. hymale, _but it didn't work quite like that.

cheers Darrel


----------



## killi69

dw1305 said:


> I would be very wary of any of these bigger _Equisetum_ spp.
> 
> I had _Equisetum fluviatile, _and once it gets going it is almost impossible to control, the rhizomes go very deep and can penetrate through Water-Lily rhizomes etc. and any fragments grow. Because it has a relatively frail stem I thought it would be easier to control than _E. hymale, _but it didn't work quite like that.


Thanks Darrel, that's really good to know.  Stick to  Equisetum japonicum then.


----------



## BigD

Equisetums can be planted with the crown underwater but in shallow water, about 6 - 10cm.  I have one in a half-barrel in a pond basket.  It is surviving but does appear to be too deep .

Looking up E hyemale, this plant seems to need a wet soil but does not need to be submerged.  It is recommended for containers to control its spread.


----------



## MWood

killi69 said:


> Thanks MWood!  Great to hear about your experiences re Heteranthera zosterifolia.  I read that H. zosterifolia can take it down to 5C .  Have you overwintered it and how do you grow it in your pond?  Is it submerged and in in what substrate does it grow?
> 
> Trying out some some 'aquarium plants' in the pond is definitely part of the plan! I already grow vallisneria gigantea in tubs all year round which will benefit from the extra sun they will receive in the pond. Keen to intoduce sagittaria subulata and other types of vallis also. Also plan to grow different Potamogeton species.
> 
> The fish I am keeping are white cloud minnows, roundtail paradisefish (Macropodus occelatus) and a few killifish (Fundulus julisia, F. catenatus and Aphanius mentho).  I will continue to keep breeding groups in tubs for most of them as well as introducing some to the ponds and will be writing about this later on.



I have overwintered it for the past 3 or so years, though I do admit that my garden is pretty sheltered and in London, I've chanced my arm with a lot of tender plants with some success (and some failure), mostly because of laziness. It did make it through the cold in 2018 though. It's in a basket with Darmera peltata, about 15/20 cm or so under the surface, in some Velda pond soil capped with gravel. However it often escapes and floats freely, or sinks and roots into whatever. In your setup I imagine it would be quite a sight! I've also got some Rotala, Hygrophila and Crypt wendtii in similar conditions out there, so we shall see...  Potamogeton gayi also did well this summer come to think of it. 

Great fish, A. mento very much on my list - do you have any problems with the rain making the water less hard than I understand they like? 

Here's one of my tubs - a half whiskey barrel -  in rather poor shape in comparison to a month or so ago but you get the idea. Probably should do something about all the duckweed. 

Looking forward to hearing about further progress.


----------



## killi69

At the start of the journal, I mentioned that I am following (more or less) the pond keeping principles of Ada Hofman who is known in Holland for advocating the use of oxygenating plants instead of filters in order to achieve clear pond water. I will post more another time but one of her basic principles is that enough plants must go in within 24 hours of the pond filling up.

Using lots of oxygenating plants to help keep algae at bay is of course something lots of us do already in our aquariums.  When setting up a tank I try to pack it with plants from the outset, especially fast growing ones which can always be removed once the slower growing plants have taken off. With my ponds, I really wanted to try to do the same. With the ponds sited in full sun and set up during the height of summer, I felt it was even more important to get as many plants in there as possible from the outset. The challenge of course is the huge amount of plants that would be required. I could not really afford to buy the quantity needed of those small bunches of oxygenators in order to achieve the same effect.  To get around this challenge, I had made contact with the owner of a fishery whose lake was filled with hornwort. I was told I could come and help him ‘weed’ the lake and take however much I needed, which was great and solved that problem.

The pond build took so much longer than expected and by the time I tried to make contact again with the fishery, I could not get hold of the person I spoke to.  With the clay sides of the ponds crumbling away under the hot sun, I needed to get them lined and filled asap and could not wait for my free pond plants to become available. At first,  I was amazed at the staggering amount of spare hornwort, Elodea and Vallisneria I was pulling out of my little mini pond and the tubs on my patio. Incredibly, I would say it was enough to stock the first two smaller ponds we had completed.





By the time the middle pond was nearing completion, I had still not heard back from my contact at the fishery so I ordered 200 bunches of milfoil online to tie me over in the meantime.  The milfoil arrived a few days later but in a sorry state, possibly the parcel had been out in the heat for too long. Most of the bottom part of the stems had melted.  Normally I would have sent them back but desperate for more plants to go in straight away (especially in the full summer sun), I removed the soggy stems and planted the tops which still felt solid.  All I could do was thin out the plants from the first two ponds and share among all three, along with the new baskets of milfoil. As about a week and a bit went by, the water started turning green:



 

 



By now, I was not feeling good. The project was costing me so much more time and money than anticipated. The sides of the holes for the large ponds were crumbling away and the ponds that had filled up were turning green and the water was getting darker by the day. There was no going back yet I began to question whether I actually had the knowledge needed to take this on. I double checked her books and green water was definitely not part of the ‘Ada Hofman’ plan. At least not the type of green water I was experiencing in the middle pond – dark green with lots of bubbles;

_Middle pond, 6 August_





All I could read in Ada’s books was that if you follow the correct steps, you should not get green water.  Not the pea soup type. If you do, and if it does not go away, then her only advice is to empty and start all over again! Now I was in desperate mode. It was the start of August and the sun was shining hard on the water. Probably the worst possible time of the year to be at this stage of my project. My Dad and uncle in Holland both have ponds and each sent me over a packed box of oxygenating plants. Still I needed more as the back pond was not far from completion and this one was bigger than the other three combined.  I tried buying daphnia but all the stores locally had sold out. I ordered some online but with the heat there was practically nothing left of them when they arrived.  The milfoil I had planted had almost completely melted away.



 

 



By now I had started going out on my bike and with my net, searching for ponds or waterways with oxygenators and/or daphnia.  I felt I needed large amounts, of both or either, in order to save the day. For the first few trips I did not have much luck.  Then I struck gold.

Outside some houses I spotted a pond totally and utterly choked with Elodea and I was allowed to take what I wanted. I made a few trips back and forth and in total collected 6 bin bags full. All ponds received a generous helping and by the time the large pond at the back was being filled, I was chucking in armfuls of the stuff.


 




In the meantime, my replacement daphnia had arrived, alongside shade netting I had ordered. With large poles and lots of string, we made a construction so that each pond could be shaded out with the 50% shade cloths for at least part of the day.





One morning I woke up and decided I was just going to empty the middle pond and fill her up again but this time with plenty of oxygenators.  When I looked into the water it seemed like I could see down a bit more than before.  I was not 100% sure so I waited to see if there might be an improvement. The next day, yes, definitely an improvement. By day three, I could see the first shelf again.  My confidence was restored.

From here things were looking up. My contact at the fishery got in touch and invited me round one evening and told me I could help myself to whatever I wanted.  Apart from hornwort, this beautiful lake was also packed with Water soldier which the owner was also keen for me to take.  I did restrain myself but still packed a solid bag. Having already filled the ponds with Elodea, I only took a modest amount of hornwort in the end. Just to be safe, as these plants came from a fishery, I disinfected them all before adding to the ponds.



 




So the final two ponds had plants and netting from the very start (start and mid-August). At first I just chucked in all the plants and then spent what time I could planting up pond baskets with Elodea, anywhere from 5 to15 in one evening.  Also, by this time, I had daphnia blooms in my other ponds so could seed the new ponds with generous amounts of daphnia at regular intervals (not knowing at what stage they would actually take hold in a new pond). The water in both these larger ponds remained crystal clear. Then about 4 weeks after they were filled, a green film appeared over the water with bubble ‘spit’, gradually thickening into a floating, slimy layer.





At first,  I was concerned that this could happen despite the many plants and netting in place from the start. When I looked into it further, I read that it was to do with protein bacteria or something but definitely not algae.  I skimmed off what I could with a net, which made a difference for a day or so but the it came back.  After a few more days, however, it just disappeared and everything was clear again.

Although not a pretty sight, I will leave the netting in place (rolled up over winter) until late spring next year, to give the oxygenators a head start over the algae.  Hopefully after that, with marginal planting and pond lilies more established and casting shade of their own, the netting will not be needed any more.

Having built a few ponds in succession, it is so interesting to observe the phases they go through.  First the mosquito larvae infestation (I was scooping net loads out the size of tennis balls, can you imagine if I let them hatch?) - definitely the favourite stage of the fish in my tubs. Then the green water. And then, crystal clear water with a second windfall (daphnia) for my tub fish.

I know there is a lot more hard work ahead but after months of toil and stress, now that the ponds were finally planted and clear, at last, the garden was starting to give me back some moments of pleasure.  Actually, of sheer excitement.

_Middle pond, 8 September _


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## killi69

MWood said:


> I have overwintered it for the past 3 or so years, though I do admit that my garden is pretty sheltered and in London, I've chanced my arm with a lot of tender plants with some success (and some failure), mostly because of laziness. It did make it through the cold in 2018 though. It's in a basket with Darmera peltata, about 15/20 cm or so under the surface, in some Velda pond soil capped with gravel. However it often escapes and floats freely, or sinks and roots into whatever. In your setup I imagine it would be quite a sight! I've also got some Rotala, Hygrophila and Crypt wendtii in similar conditions out there, so we shall see... Potamogeton gayi also did well this summer come to think of it.


Thanks MWood for sharing the info. Love to see those pond tubs. Really like the plants growing on your wall behind as well.  I am certainly going to look out for some H. zosterifolia now and will definitely try it in my ponds.


MWood said:


> Great fish, A. mento very much on my list - do you have any problems with the rain making the water less hard than I understand they like?


I have had A mentho outside for years, in tubs not much bigger than yours. And in huge numbers for such small tubs.  They have a pond to themselves now. Hopefully next year I can catch some adults to breed and I can get you some eggs or fry.  Yes, they prefer hard water and I cover the tubs with plastic in the winter which helps keeping the water from getting too soft because of the rain.  I will post more about my fish soon.


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## killi69

Along the edges of the lake where collected some of my plants, I found this marginal, which I quite liked the look of.  I planted it a couple of baskets to try out. Does anyone know what it might be? Its pretty vigorous from the look of it.


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## Wolf6

Lesser water parsnip I believe, I have it too. Vigorous growth the first year or 2, then decidedly less so, at least in my pond. I still have a little bit of it, but most of it has vanished.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





killi69 said:


> Does anyone know what it might be? Its pretty vigorous from the look of it.


It is almost certainly "Fool's Water-cress" (<"_Apium  ( Helosciadium)  nodiflorum_">). Have a look at <"Native plant ID">.

You can't entirely discount Lesser Water-parsnip  (<"_Berula erecta">_) from the photo (<"they are very similar">), but I'm pretty sure it is _A. nodiflorum._

cheers Darrel


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## killi69

Wolf6 said:


> Lesser water parsnip I believe, I have it too.





dw1305 said:


> t is almost certainly "Fool's Water-cress"





dw1305 said:


> You can't entirely discount Lesser Water-parsnip (<"_Berula erecta">_


Thank you both! They do look similar.  Hopefully we will find out next year when they flower. Just reading up on them, and apparently both can grow submerged as well.


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## mort

I think it's fools water cress as well and I'd advise caution with it. It's a great plant and I'm happy to have it but you need to be really strict. I have it in my pond with fish and also in my brothers wildlife pond and it's rampant in both. The wildlife pond is fed via rainwater so the nutrient levels are much lower than with the fish but it doesn't seem to inhibit the growth at all.
It's very good at sending out runners and they often root to the bottom of the pond or in neighbouring plant baskets, to the point of smothering other plants. I'd advise keeping it in an area you can easily get to and removing any plants that stray from that area otherwise it might dominate your pond to much.


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## not called Bob

nice looking project, id expect the water to clear as the intended plants start to grow, if possible avoid too much topping up with tap water, 

only advise is id be wary having living plant matter shipped in from mainland EU or beyond. if you buy a plant that was grown outside the UK on the label there will be its passport number, we at the moment have a few bad diseases brought onto this island and with out good biocontrol we will end up with more,


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## killi69

My fishkeeping hobby used to be all about killifish in aquariums. At an auction years ago, I bought some Aphanius mentho which had been bred outside in tubs over the summer.  This got me interested and I began researching various forums (mainly Dutch and German) and finding out about people’s experiences of keeping temperate/ subtropical fish outdoors.  I put together a wish list and was able to build up a small collection six years ago. I have kept breeding groups going of these ever since.   They are mainly killis but also a few other types.

Here I am going to share a bit of that side of the hobby and write a little about the different fish I have kept this way, and my plans for keeping them in my new ponds. I know it is not everybody’s cup of tea but having experienced how little information there is out there, hopefully this might be of use to someone looking into this niche way of keeping fish.






I don't use any filtration in any of the tubs, I just pack them with lots of oxygenating plants. The tubs contain at least one basket of giant vallisneria and as well as free floating hornwort and Elodea. At water level (on bricks or on a submerged crate), I have baskets of reeds or bulrushes, the roots of which provide more cover and some water mint and other marginals which float across the surface. I keep the water 10cm from the rim of the tub. Once a year, in preparation for winter, I clean out the tubs, mainly to get rid of the debris built up on the bottom. It is also an opportunity to examine all the fish before the winter.

The location of the tubs is important and ideally they should not be in the sun all day. As they contain only small bodies of water, temperatures would rise too much.  Digging them into the ground would be best although I have managed to keep them above ground grouped together, with some shading others and marginal plants also helping provide some cover.  It also depends on the fish. Some of my fish naturally occur in shallow pools which heat in the sun while others of mine come from rivers which stay cooler.

From mid-October/early November, I group all my tubs together and cover them with a couple of layers of plastic.  The plastic provides insulation but also has the benefit of protecting from falling leaves and against excess rain water which could make the water too acidic.  At this point, I have removed the marginal plants and only the oxygenating plants remain. The tubs then stay untouched until March next year. I would add a note of caution to this approach as the winters over the last few years have been mild.  Digging them in would offer more protection.





Keeping fish this way requires a lot less effort than in aquariums. Many subtropical fish actually benefit from being kept outdoors for at least part of the year. Of course different subtropical fish have different temperature tolerances and only a very few available ‘aquarium fish’ can be kept outdoors all year round.  The seasonal temperature changes, including winter rest, are good for them, as are changes between day and night.  Exposure to sunlight is another benefit. Their diet will be much more varied (insect larvae and critters among the debris) and they do not need much additional feeding. No filters to clean, just topping up the water every now when the weather is really hot. Half the year, they hibernate and need even less care.  To raise fry, I set up smaller tubs packed with plants and place any baby fish I come across in there, for them to grow on over the summer without any further input needed. Collecting fry needs to be done before the winter clean-out as it will otherwise not be easy to find them among the mud when emptying the tubs.


MACROPODUS OCELLATUS



Into my middle pond, I have introduced this paradise fish seldom seen in the hobby.  The location is from the Yangze river in China and this strain is fully hardy. 
I had two 250L tubs with about 20 of them in each.  In addition, for breeding, I had a group of about 15 in a large but shallow tub (approx 40cm high and a diameter of around 1m) which heats up fast in the sun and this seems to be beneficial for breeding, although I have bred them in larger and deeper tanks in the past also.  These fish do not live long, about four years, so it is important they breed while they are two and three years old.  I place about five males in the breeding tub with a higher number of females.




The male builds a nest underneath a floating plant leaf or algae pad.  You can sometimes spot the bubble nests when lifting a lily pad. In September, I scoop out the young fish as much as I can. With lots of plants in the tubs I could still collect enough fry each year at the end of the season. The adults I leave outside but the young fish go inside for the first winter.  In previous years, I raised loads of young by setting up another tub just for them and regularly scooping baby fry from the breeding tub throughout early summer and let them grow up for the rest of the summer in this dedicated tub.  This nursery tub will be full of fish by the end of the summer using this method.  Baby fish can be scooped from June onwards or even May if we have hot spring weather.

Over the last few years, I raised enough of the M. occelatus to stock my middle pond with about 30-40 of them.





WHITE CLOUD MINNOW




For the last three years, I have kept four white cloud minnows in a small preformed pond in my garden.  I never found any fry, perhaps because this pond is always full of dragonfly /damsel larvae and baby newts. The fish originate from my uncle’s pond in the east of Holland, where winter temperatures are a lot colder than here. He has kept them like this for over 5 years.
The WCMs have joined the occelatus in the middle pond.


APHANIUS MENTHO


This feisty little killifish comes from the Turkey/Iran region. I do not know the exact location of mine.  A. mentho has a reputation for being aggressive. In the past, I was able to sell excess stock of my other outdoor fish to a LFS which has reasonable collection of temperate fish but they would not take the menthos as they had previously experienced males wiping out each other.  Strangely, I have never experienced any trouble in the 90L tubs I keep them in, or at least, they multiplied in large numbers overall. For a few years, my mentho tubs became over-crowded as a result.  In the end, the tubs became overgrown by the reeds and available space reduced and the population became smaller accordingly. The fact that the tubs were packed with plants and roots from the reeds might have helped so many males to co-exist. Or maybe the sheer number of males in one small space made them give up on keeping a territory. Anyway, I found this to be a really easy fish to keep outdoors.  In the early years, I used to collect their tiny eggs from the algae pads but I stopped doing this when I realised this was not necessary. The menthos have gone into the second pond from the house.


FUNDULUS JULISIA


Last month, I cleaned out three 250L tubs containing Fundulus julisia. Known as Barrens Topminnow, this handsome killi occurs in only a handful of locations in Tennessee USA and is on the Red List of endangered species.  I keep groups of about 15 in large tubs of 250L all year round. Out of the fish I keep in tubs, these are the least shy, though they still make a dive for it when I approach.



 

 


They breed over quite a long season, from about May onwards. They like to lay their eggs in filamentous algae.  The picture of the egg was taken in late September, which goes to prove they lay at least until start of autumn. To collect baby fish, I scoop a jug or bucket into the floating plants from time to time and locate any I catch into a separate smaller tub I set up just for them.  The nursery tub is full of plants and I leave them to their own devices until October, when I take the youngsters inside for their first winter. When I was trying to raise fry in greater numbers, I would regularly clean out the algae pads from the big tubs and place the eggs in another tub or just chuck the algae pads into a bucket with water and remove the fry from there. This year I did not scoop out fry as the months went on. I only started looking for fry over the last couple of weeks and only collected 7 young fish which is a shame.

I placed about 30 adult fish in the large pond near the house and hopefully will reproduce there. I held back 15 and kept them in a tub to breed further next year.  Compared to other fish which I have recently released into my new ponds, I see F. julisia most often.



It seems a bit strange that a fish which is so easy to keep and breed is on the brink of extinction, although huge efforts are underway to save the species.  Out of the killis I still maintain, F. Julisia is my favourite which is why I decided they can have the large pond near the patio.


FUNDULUS CATANATUS



The Northern Studfish from southcentral United States can grow up to 15cm. I think might be the largest killifish there is and males are stunning in the summer months.  I was able to buy five young fish back in 2016 but they have not grown larger that 10cm in my tubs. Breeding them involves a bit more effort.  In the wild, they lay their eggs in the gravel of river beds and I did not see any young appear I the first few years in the tubs.   Last year, I tried placing a pair in an aquarium with flowing water and gravel on the bottom.  Unfortunately, the tank sprung a leak and I had to put the fish back in the tub outside.  A few weeks later, I noticed eggs in the gravel of the tank. They had fungus on them but at least I knew the system worked. This year, I placed a tray with gravel near the water surface inside the tub with a pump providing some directional flow.  I scooped six small fish over the course of the summer and am raising them indoors. 





It is a shame it has taken so long to work out a way to breed them as given their size, it would have been great to be able to release these into the ponds also.  I am keeping the adults in a tub however, in the hope they might breed again for one more season, despite their age and the fact I only have one remaining female.







Since becoming so busy in the garden, I know I won't have the time to keep the tubbing project going and with the ponds this side of the hobby must culminate.  Just because the fish did well in tubs however, does not mean they will thrive in a pond.

First of all, pond water is more likely to become increasingly soft due to the heavy rain in the winter months (in contrast, the tubs are covered for six months of the year).  This could become an issue for the Aphanius and Fundulus species which prefer harder water.  I need to learn a bit more about ways to maintain a certain level of hardness in the pond – any advice would be much appreciated.

Secondly, the Aphanius and Macropudus live naturally in shallower pools of water which heat up considerably in the summer sun. This may not happen in a pond as much as in a tub and might also affect their breeding potential.

Finally, I am afraid the biggest risk is going to come from herons, which may well put an end to my journey of keeping of at least some of these fish.  I have seen them fly over occasionally so visits will be inevitable. One of the reasons for holding back some of the breeding stock in tubs is so that I can still pass on these rare fish if I cannot maintain them in the ponds.  For the large pond right at the back, where herons I assume will be most comfortable, I am thinking of introducing minnows next year, which would hopefully multiply and cope with the visits. I am not going to mess around with nets or plastic lines etc and would rather put up with the consequences of heron visits.   If that means I will only end up with sticklebacks and minnows, so be it.  But after keeping them going all these years, it would be nice if at least some of my populations could sustain themselves in their new homes.

Pond number four (second from the back) I am hoping to keep fish free, as a wildlife pond.


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## mort

Amazing update and really useful for many of us that would like to expand our hobby outdoors with different fish choices. Seems a shame we can only give one like


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## Tim Harrison

Great write up, thanks for sharing 👍


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## killi69

Thank you Mort and Tim!


mort said:


> useful for many of us that would like to expand our hobby outdoors with different fish choices.


I found this resource quite useful: a list of fish suitable for outdoors (not all of them all-year round) with indicative lower temperature tolerance ranges compiled by Martin Tversted from Denmark. Especially if you are prepared to take them indoors over winter, the choice is huge.  It is a great starting point from which to do further research.

If I were to add any other fish to one of my ponds outdoors (year round), it would be some US shiners; Cyprinella lutrensis and Notropis chrosomus.


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## not called Bob

how’s it all looking now as it starts to settle down and get ready for winter?


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## PARAGUAY

What a epic journey must catch up on this So much to learn for me


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## killi69

Let me share a very brief update on progress with the pathway and decking.   Work on this part of the project started in September, after the ponds were constructed. Here are some pictures of my builders in action.





















I realised I needed more access to the ponds for maintenance and so I decided to also have some boardwalks built.   I like the idea of boardwalks as they will help create a wetland feeling, an impression hopefully of walking through a marshy area. Later on, when the builders have finished, I will bury some of my tubs around the boardwalks so I can grow bulrushes or reeds outside of the ponds to help further create this effect and make the pond margins seem far deeper than they really are.  On the picture below, I have drawn in orange where the boardwalks will go.  The idea is that on either side, they will end inside the ponds, as mini jetties.  The boardwalks are being built at the moment, see video below.  The second picture underneath shows what the boardwalks will roughly look like when finished (image from internet).



 



It is taking a long time to get completed because the builders had to start another job and can only do bits and pieces in between but not long to go now...


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## frederick thompson

Great project. Great build. Great thread.
Just read it all from start to finish.
Love it.
Fred

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## louis_last

killi69 said:


> View attachment 154712
> I guess like many on this forum, I have always been obsessed with water. I grew up in Holland spending most of my childhood fishing when I was not in school. Something about the water’s edge has always fascinated me and to this day, whenever I pass by a pool or a ditch, I just have to make my way over to see if I can spot anything of interest.
> 
> I have kept planted tanks for most of my life but have always been dreaming about having a garden where you can walk through drifts of reeds and marginal plants, moving from one pond to the next.
> 
> When three years ago I moved into a house with a  decent sized garden, I realised I finally had the opportunity to actually plan my own wetland garden for real.
> 
> My biggest inspiration comes from my visits to the Pond Gardens of Ada Hofman in Holland;
> 
> View attachment 154714
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ada Hofman is like the Gertrude Jekyll of the Dutch garden-pond world. In the 1980s she started writing books to promote principles of pond keeping based on achieving clear water through the use of oxygenating plants alone, without the use of any mechanical filtration, pumps, UV lights or chemicals.  What always struck me was how her ponds seemed to merge effortlessly into the margins of the garden beyond. No pond liner to be seen nor a surround of cobbles or other 'natural' hardscape materials supposedly hiding the liner. To me, she combined the best of the aquarium world, creating lush submerged planting arrangements to be observed in clear water, with garden design which leaves the visitor feeling immersed in nature;
> 
> 
> View attachment 154719
> 
> 
> Before I moved house three years ago, my big passion was my planted tank which I enjoyed blogging about on this forum_ (giant tank for killis)_. The other side to my hobby is keeping fish in outdoor tubs.  In these, I keep killi fish and other species from places like Iran, North America or China which can be held outdoors all year round.  After moving house, I made a painful decision to let my fish tank go and focus all my efforts on the water garden which will eventually provide a home for all the fish I have been keeping in tubs for all these years.
> 
> 
> View attachment 154716View attachment 154717
> 
> 
> After a year in my new house, I found a small preformed pond dumped out in the street nearby which I repaired, painted black and dug in a corner of the garden close to the patio.  I planted some grasses and perennials around it and in a way created a mini template for how I would like the whole garden to look one day;
> 
> 
> View attachment 154732
> 
> Apart from this and my ‘tubbing’, I have not had ponds before nor attempted to garden on a scale like this. However, I have been reading up a lot over the years while day dreaming about this concept. I hope that this passion, together with my knowledge from keeping aquariums and outdoor tubs, and any help I can gather along the way, will be enough to see this project through.
> 
> 
> To start with, let me share some pictures of what the garden looked like when I moved in;
> 
> 
> View attachment 154721
> 
> 
> My garden is around 35m long and 13m wide. It took a few years to clear the site and get ready for the project. Last year, I took down the garage and built a shed next to the house to still have some storage space. This spring all the concrete from the drive was removed, alongside all the brickwork and remaining pathway. By the mid-June the garden was clear and ready for the works to start.
> 
> 
> View attachment 154723
> 
> 
> I drew up some very rough sketches for my concept of the garden. A wooden walkway will wind through the garden and cross a series of ponds. The ponds will be visually connected through planting arrangements which suggest marshy conditions in between them. At the end of the pathway, towards the back left of the garden where there is a side gate, there will be a jetty over the water with an existing collection of fruit trees behind, which will become an orchard area. Everything else in the garden will be covered with perennials and grasses which either originate from water meadows/ wetlands or which resemble such habitats.
> 
> 
> View attachment 154725 View attachment 154726
> 
> 
> View attachment 154728For a number of years, I have been reading up on the naturalistic gardening movement and in particular liked the work of Nigel Dunnet from the University of Sheffield. Nigel is well known for creating loose and intermingled high density planting arrangements which evoke the look of wild natural settings. In autumn last year, I came across some posts on Instagram from a young garden design company called Plantology. They were reviewing books from the same designers I had been following and one of their posts offered a discounted fee for engaging them during that period.
> 
> Even though I need to do the garden on quite a tight budget and will be propagating many of the plants needed myself, I know that making mistakes also costs money. While I have some plant knowledge and experience of growing many of the perennials on my ‘wish list’, I still have much to learn, in particular about the way different species combine and intermingle. I decided that given the overall cost of the project, spending an extra few hundred pounds to help me think through the design properly – especially the design of hard landscaping – could be worthwhile. After speaking to Hayley Hughes at Plantology, I knew I had found the support I needed to make the most of my ideas and resources. Hayley sounded as passionate as I was and was especially interested in working with me on the ecological aspect of things - putting together planting communities to represent the wetland theme. Icing on the cake was that she studied at the University of Sheffield and mentored by Nigel Dunnett.
> 
> Hayley translated my sketch into a proper design and we agreed on a masterplan based on five separate ponds which will hopefully appear as three ponds separated by the wooden walkway at two points:
> 
> 
> View attachment 154729 View attachment 154730
> 
> 
> By stroke of luck it turned out that a labourer I had engaged for a couple of days during lockdown to remove the last bit of remaining concrete had some landscaping experience. Aldis has never built ponds before but knows how to lay decking. I have never built ponds either but have read up a bit and feel confident enough that we can get this done between us. I found a man with a digger who agreed to help out for three days and Aldis agreed to help me for three weeks to build the ponds, pathway and decking.
> 
> I am super excited to get started albeit a bit daunted by the sheer scale of the project at the same time. Through this blog, I hope to share some moments and experiences of creating my 'water meadow garden’ - of maintaining ponds using the ‘Ada Hofman’ method, of keeping fish outdoors from temperate and subtropical regions, as well as my efforts in creating an overall ‘wetland’ feel to the garden mainly through the use of perennial plants and grasses. I am also interested to what extent it will be possible to create underwater landscapes, like we try to achieve in our planted tanks, but viewed from above instead, and experiment with using 'aquarium plants' in and around the pond.
> 
> I am keen to learn from others and as part of this will try to share my joys and challenges with you all during this journey.


Where did you get those large black plastic half barrels from? I have one exactly like that but I'd like to buy some more.


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## killi69

louis_last said:


> Where did you get those large black plastic half barrels from? I have one exactly like that but I'd like to buy some more.


I was able to buy six large tubs through Ebay but also added a number of disused loft tanks/ cold water tanks to the collection which I found in skips over the years.  The larger loft tanks are the same size (50 gallons). Depending on where you live, you may come across them in skips outside older houses having loft conversions done.  You can buy them new for just over £50 delivered; Kingspan Ferham 227L Circular Cold Water Storage Tank | PlumbNation.co.uk | Cylinder Accessories

They make nice little mini ponds. I use bricks to build a wall on the inside of the tubs to place marginals on. Last year, I began to make more use of black plastic crates as these did not decrease the water capacity like the bricks do, although I think that bricks might play a useful role in providing habitat for insects and surface area for bacteria etc.  Here is a video of one of the 50 gallon loft tanks;




Smaller tubs up to 90L are much cheaper, I think you can get a 90L tub through Ebay (search horse feeding tub) delivered for just over £20.  I have kept and bred fish in these sized tubs also, without any filtration, but obviously there is less margin for error.

Last week, I emptied a smaller 60L tub which was full of bricks and had some marginal plants on top.  To my surprise, there were still some Macropodus ocellatus in there;






I must have used the tub last year as a nursery to grow fry on in and these somehow got left behind.  Towards the end of last autumn I filled the tub with bricks and covered the surface with baskets of marginal plants. When I emptied it last week, the tub had turned anaerobic. It was smelly and full of mud. Unbelievably, there were six fish in there, looking healthier than their siblings I had grown on indoors over winter.  They had spent the whole winter outside in this small tub, which was unprotected and obviously had frozen over a number of times.  A testament to the hardiness of this species and suitability to be kept outdoors.


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## louis_last

killi69 said:


> I was able to buy six large tubs through Ebay but also added a number of disused loft tanks/ cold water tanks to the collection which I found in skips over the years.  The larger loft tanks are the same size (50 gallons). Depending on where you live, you may come across them in skips outside older houses having loft conversions done.  You can buy them new for just over £50 delivered; Kingspan Ferham 227L Circular Cold Water Storage Tank | PlumbNation.co.uk | Cylinder Accessories
> 
> They make nice little mini ponds. I use bricks to build a wall on the inside of the tubs to place marginals on. Last year, I began to make more use of black plastic crates as these did not decrease the water capacity like the bricks do, although I think that bricks might play a useful role in providing habitat for insects and surface area for bacteria etc.  Here is a video of one of the 50 gallon loft tanks;
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Smaller tubs up to 90L are much cheaper, I think you can get a 90L tub through Ebay (search horse feeding tub) delivered for just over £20.  I have kept and bred fish in these sized tubs also, without any filtration, but obviously there is less margin for error.
> 
> Last week, I emptied a smaller 60L tub which was full of bricks and had some marginal plants on top.  To my surprise, there were still some Macropodus ocellatus in there;
> 
> View attachment 164945View attachment 164946
> I must have used the tub last year as a nursery to grow fry on in and these somehow got left behind.  Towards the end of last autumn I filled the tub with bricks and covered the surface with baskets of marginal plants. When I emptied it last week, the tub had turned anaerobic. It was smelly and full of mud. Unbelievably, there were six fish in there, looking healthier than their siblings I had grown on indoors over winter.  They had spent the whole winter outside in this small tub, which was unprotected and obviously had frozen over a number of times.  A testament to the hardiness of this species and suitability to be kept outdoors.



Nice! Those are really cool fish too, I'd never heard of them before. I have a really nice and very strong giant black barrel that originally held salt lick for livestock and it's been frustrating me that it seems cheaper to buy a whole barrel of animal feed or salt lick just for the tub than it is to buy the same kind of plastic tub sold as a 'preformed pond' or 'barrel pond'. Your garden is going to be breathtaking.


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## killi69

On the subject of tubs, now that I am scaling down the number of tubs I am going to be using for outdoor fish breeding, I will briefly share how I will be utilising them in this new project.




I have dug in a number of large tubs along a length of the board walk.  The idea is to plant reeds (Phragmites australis variegatus) in the tubs, as well as in the ponds (also in tubs to protect the liner) to help create that wetland feel and visually extend the marginal planting beyond the actual pond.







 



Here I have sketched the look what I hope the tubs will help create.  Overall, I am aiming for a repetition of plants growing in the water and on land. When I start planting over the next few months, I will initially focus on this plant community which stretches across a number of ponds and will be visually dominated by drifts of purple loosestrife with accents of reed beds dotted around.  Other plants growing in and out of water will include Juncus inflexus, Carex elata Aurea and Phyostegia virginica and on land these will be growing among a mix of Filipendula vulgaris/ F. ulmaria, Molinia Moorhexe, Sanguisorba sp and a few others .  Growing next to the reeds on land will be Eupatorium cannabinum.  I plan to do something similar with bullrushes (Typha sp), perhaps with a few tubs dug in here and there running along the right of planting drawn below.



I will try to post a few pictures soon to show you where we are with the build of the board walks.


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## killi69

Great to see the ponds coming to life again.  I have spotted newts in all of the ponds and frog spawn has started hatching today.



 



There is a lot of blanket weed in all the ponds.  I need to get more marginal plants in there and more plants which grow earlier in the season, including Potentilla palustris. I have pulled out what I can and hope that the blanket weed will reduce as the aquatic plants inside the ponds take off.  Also hope that the blanket weed will become less as the ponds mature over the years.



 

 



I have removed lots of blanket weed and with it out also out came lots of free floating Elodea which was totally tangled up in blanket weed.  I am not sure if I have done the right thing here.  If my plants were growing healthily, I was thinking that I would not have as much blanket weed.  There was a very large amount of Elodea in all of the ponds, both floating and in baskets.  I was thinking that maybe there were too many plants and too little nutrients left for all of them?  Maybe this is too early in the season for this scenario and the Elodea would not have not even have started growing properly anyway and I need to look for a remedy with alternative plants? There was no way of separating the floating Elodea from the blanket weed so it was a question of removing both or leaving it be.  With newts breeding in the ponds and frogspawn hatching, I thought now would be the time to remove blanket weed before risking tadpoles/ baby newts getting caught up with blanket week I remove in a few weeks' time. 

There are still plenty of baskets left in each pond of both giant Vallisneria and Eleodea.  Also most ponds contain some hornwort and water soldier.

I have started to fertilise the pond plants with Osmocote slow release fertiliser tablets (Osmocote for pond plants). I bought a nice big box of tabs which should make it more economical for me to feed the hundreds of baskets which will be in the ponds by next year.





So far I have fertilised the Vallis and water lilies.  What do people think about fertilising the Elodea baskets?  I wonder whether Elodea really take up that many nutrients from the soil or whether their roots are more for anchorage?  

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!


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## mort

I wouldn't worry about fertilising the elodea. I think you are right and the roots are only really for anchoring. 

The algae is likely due to plant mass in a new "ish" pond. My wildlife pond took a couple of years to get going to a point where no algae was visible throughout the year. This winter I had a plant clear out as it was really overgrown and it's upset the balance and there is alot of algae growth for the first time in years. I know it will go when the plants catch up but it's been quite bright here but no that warm, so algae has had a foothold.

Jealous of the newts. We had some when I was a kid but not seen any since then. Did they just find the pond this quickly or did you already have them in the area?


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## dw1305

Hi all, 


killi69 said:


> The idea is to plant reeds (Phragmites australis variegatus) in the tubs,


I think even variegated _Phragmites_ might be too vigorous? 

A sedge might be better, something like <"_Carex riparia">, <"C. elata">_ or <"_C. pseudocyperus">. Carex riparia _is also a rampant grower. _Cyperus longus_ would be another "Sedge" option. 

cheers Darrel


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## killi69

mort said:


> I wouldn't worry about fertilising the elodea. I think you are right and the roots are only really for anchoring.


Thanks Mort, I won't bother fertilising the Elodea baskets then.



mort said:


> The algae is likely due to plant mass in a new "ish" pond. My wildlife pond took a couple of years to get going to a point where no algae was visible throughout the year. This winter I had a plant clear out as it was really overgrown and it's upset the balance and there is alot of algae growth for the first time in years. I know it will go when the plants catch up but it's been quite bright here but no that warm, so algae has had a foothold.


That is what I was thinking also - not enough active plant mass.  So in my case, I did have plenty of plants in there (masses of Elodea), so either the Elodea is not actively growing this time of the year or they are not performing well (lack of nutrients?) which was causing the blanket week to flourish?



mort said:


> Jealous of the newts. We had some when I was a kid but not seen any since then. Did they just find the pond this quickly or did you already have them in the area?


They were already in the garden.  I set up a mini pond (maybe 300L or so) which always had lots of baby newts in it.  I am a bit surprised to see the newts appearing in all ponds as I was expecting them to avoid the ponds with fish in it (3 out of 5 have fish).  The frog spawn was a gift from one of my neighbours.  I have not seen any frogs in the garden for years and none have appeared in the ponds so far.


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## killi69

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I think even variegated _Phragmites_ might be too vigorous?
> 
> A sedge might be better, something like <"_Carex riparia">, <"C. elata">_ or <"_C. pseudocyperus">. Carex riparia _is also a rampant grower. _Cyperus longus_ would be another "Sedge" option.
> 
> cheers Darrel


Thanks Darrel for the suggestions.  I grow variegated Phragmites in tubs on my patio (you may be able to see them in a pic earlier in the thread) and they do not grow much larger than this when in pond baskets. probably because they did not get any extra feed and they were not in a pond with many fish. Anyway, inside the tubs set in the border behind the ponds, I hope they will grow more vigorous than they did when planted in baskets because I want them to be noticed and stick out above the surrounding plants.  The purpose of these tubs is just to accommodate the reeds, so there is nothing for them to outcompete.  

Carex elata  is on my list.  I could not find the species for sale anywhere, only the 'aurea' variety.


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## Tim Harrison

@killi69  great to see you taking up the thread again and updating us on progress.  Can’t wait to see how it all develops over the spring and summer 😎


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## dw1305

Hi all,


Tim Harrison said:


> Can’t wait to see how it all develops over the spring and summer


Same for me, I think it is just brilliant. 


killi69 said:


> I could not find the species for sale anywhere, only the 'aurea' variety.


_Carex acuta _is very similar to _C. elata _and Devon Pond plants sell <"_C. acuta">. Carex acuta, C. elata, C. riparia_ and _C. acutiformis _are all pretty similar in look. <"_C. pseudocyperus"> _is distinct in leaf colour (paler yellow green) and in fruit.

cheers Darrel


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## mort

killi69 said:


> That is what I was thinking also - not enough active plant mass.  So in my case, I did have plenty of plants in there (masses of Elodea), so either the Elodea is not actively growing this time of the year or they are not performing well (lack of nutrients?) which was causing the blanket week to flourish?



Hopefully Darrel will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming its more where the plant is than the nutrients this time of year. The marginals aren't in fast active growth yet so algae can take advantage of the light in the upper layers of the pond to out compete any plants in the bottom layers. The elodea might help if it was floating or near the surface but lower down its slower to get going. I personally don't fertilise my plants and have never seen any known signs of growth inhibition but I am going to start with my lillies. It will be interesting to see how you get on with your fertiliser regime as my pond is much more modest than yours are, so would be nice to improve it. 
Water hawthorn is a nice plant that covers the surface this time of year and I'm sure you probably already have it but it's a favourite of mine. My issue was with fools water cress, which had blocked the whole surface of my pond because it's so rampant, and I wanted to remove it to see the hawthorn. I think I've mentioned on here before but be very wary of fools water cress, it's a lovely plant but possibly the most invasive species of plant I've ever kept. It just swamps everything and covers the surface.


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## killi69

Tim Harrison said:


> @killi69 great to see you taking up the thread again and updating us on progress. Can’t wait to see how it all develops over the spring and summer 😎





dw1305 said:


> Same for me, I think it is just brilliant.


Thanks Tim and Darrel! I am really excited after being out around the ponds this afternoon.  I can see the fish much better than last year when they were in the tub. I did release them into the ponds at the end of last summer but it might have taken them a while to gain confidence but today with the sun shining on the pond, they were out to be seen, which was great.  I saw loads of newts later in the afternoon as well.



dw1305 said:


> _Carex acuta _is very similar to _C. elata _and Devon Pond plants sell <"_C. acuta">. Carex acuta, C. elata, C. riparia_ and _C. acutiformis _are all pretty similar in look. <"_C. pseudocyperus"> _is distinct in leaf colour (paler yellow green) and in fruit.


Cheers for that Darrel, I will check it out.


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## killi69

mort said:


> Hopefully Darrel will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming its more where the plant is than the nutrients this time of year. The marginals aren't in fast active growth yet so algae can take advantage of the light in the upper layers of the pond to out compete any plants in the bottom layers. The elodea might help if it was floating or near the surface but lower down its slower to get going. I personally don't fertilise my plants and have never seen any known signs of growth inhibition but I am going to start with my lillies. It will be interesting to see how you get on with your fertiliser regime as my pond is much more modest than yours are, so would be nice to improve it.



Some of the Elodea growing near the surface looks super healthy with a dark, almost purplish colour whereas a lot of the Elodea elsewhere is pale, thin and all covered with blanket weed. I have a few bowls in the back ponds planted up with Nuphar lutea. I had planted Elodea around the edges of the bowls, away from the tubers but the Elodea here had really taken off;






Planting them in the same bowl as the Nuphar was clearly a mistake and I removed them this afternoon. These Elodea seem thicker and healthier than the others and not covered in blanket weed either. So I wonder whether maybe the fertiliser I had put in the bowls with the Nuphar last August might have boosted the Elodea's growth after all. They also seemed to have a decent root system.  I potted some tops of these Elodea into new baskets and stuck some tabs in there, just to see if I can notice any difference in a few months' time.





I also discovered that underneath all that blanket weed, I had 12 baskets of Potamogeton crispus which are starting to emerge. I gave them a good clean and added some tabs to their baskets.  They disappeared last summer.  I think I read that P. crispus does die back in the summer, so hopefully they might do OK after all.  



 

 





mort said:


> Water hawthorn is a nice plant that covers the surface this time of year and I'm sure you probably already have it but it's a favourite of mine. My issue was with fools water cress, which had blocked the whole surface of my pond because it's so rampant, and I wanted to remove it to see the hawthorn. I think I've mentioned on here before but be very wary of fools water cress, it's a lovely plant but possibly the most invasive species of plant I've ever kept. It just swamps everything and covers the surface.


Great to know that water hawthorn covers the surface in spring.  I will certainly be getting some then. Thanks for the warning about fools water cress.  That plant I found has still not re-emerged but I will keep an eye on it!


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## Maf 2500

Lovely project, looking forwaed to seeing it once fully grown in.

Agree that water hawthorn is a good floating leaf option, iirc from when I used to grow it, it does best with about 30 cm or slightly more of water above the soil level. Good for putting in areas that are too cramped for water lillies like small bays etc.

One note of caution - the Nuphar Lutea may be too large growing and invasive. By all means give it a go but you will probably find yourself having to remove it sooner or later.


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## killi69

Thank you Maf.

I am keen to try Nuphar lutea for their submersed leaves, which are larger and more wavy than the floating ones.  They are quite a common sight in canals in many old Dutch city centres where the underwater leaves make a great display, resembling crops of lettuce. Here are some pics I found of the submersed leaves on Google;



 




 



I have never grown them before but would like to try to see if I can have a group growing submersed together, with perhaps some baskets of Vallisneria in between.  I found a few references on Dutch websites to needing to remove the floating leaves regularly in order to maintain the submersed form.  Below left is an old picture from Ada Hofman's book, showing her with the submersed lutea in a pond.  On the right you can see a couple of bowls containing the plant in my pond with the first leaves emerging (spot the newt).  Fingers crossed they might be submersed leaves... If not I will remove the leaves and see what happens next. Will keep you updated.


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## Maf 2500

Interesting @killi69, I never imagined you were growing them for the submerged leaves but that makes perfect sense - I too like the effect in nature of the submerged leaves (and find the flowers and floating leaves a bit meh).

Keeping the leaves submerged would also help to keep root and rhizome growth in check by limiting the access to carbon dioxide and sunlight, smart move. Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it - I see much pruning involved!

 And again, great project, absolutely love what you are doing there.


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## killi69

A brief update.  I am still seeing a lot of newts in all the ponds.  A pair of crows have nested in a tree next door and they visit many times each day.  They remind me a bit of what I used to do as a child with a net.  They walk along the water side, tracing the contours of all the ponds and drag out tufts of thread algae hoping to catch what is within it. They also scoop up tadpoles swimming near the surface and leave some mess behind, but I do not mind.


 



I was super excited to see a toad in one of my ponds.  Quite plump, so I guess a female.  She was always near the bottom and seeking out spots where the sun would reach her.  After about a week, I could still not spot any other toads in any of the ponds.  Then, one evening in the pond right at the back, I spotted another toad.  It was smaller, so very possibly a male.  I went to grab a net but it was gone by the time I returned.  I left the net by the pond and the next day I spotted it again.  I managed to catch it this time and introduced it to the pond with the female.


 



The next morning, I had high hopes and went searching for strings of toad eggs. Instead, I found the female upside down, lying on the bottom, dead.  I took some pictures and went online searching for possible causes of death.  I had heard about infectious diseases killing large numbers of amphibians and I wanted to see whether any external symptoms might be visible.  I came across the Garden Wildlife Health project which asks people to contact them if they find a dead amphibian, bird or hedgehog in their garden.  I filled in a contact form and after 20 minutes someone from London Zoo called me and asked me to post them the dead toad for examination.  A week later, I received a post mortem report!  It appears the toad died of starvation because of a condition where its internal organs are displaced and block the digestive tract.  They found a large amount of spawn inside her and said it was likely the fatal internal displacement could have occurred as a result of mating causing increased pressure.  I do feel a bit sorry now for interfering and introducing the other toad to her pond.   What an amazing project though, who would have thought you could obtain a cause of death examination report for a dead toad.  One week later, I am now hearing toad calls in the pond at night, so maybe there still some hope for toad spawn this year



 



I dug in some more tubs.  The plan is to have a drift of plantings running diagonally across the garden and ponds with low marsh plants, such as juncus, carex, iris and Schizostylis. To either side of these, there will be low meadow plantings dominated by Lythrum, Molinia grasses and Sanguisorba species.  Flanked on either side of these drifts will be a series of tubs with Phragmites on one side and Typha on the other.  Below you can see a couple of tubs I dug in for the Typha sp.




The builders are almost finished, finally. To tie in the decking paths in the garden with the house, I decided to replace the tiled patio with decking:


 

 



I also decided to extend the boardwalk at the back by building another pond right alongside the other one and have support posts in either pond, so that the board walk will hide where both ponds meet.  Hopefully, this will then create the illusion of walking across one large pond. I plan to sink tubs with tall Scirpus species on either side later on.


 

 



With the building work complete, I hired a rotavator to prepare the soil for planting. I will update more about the planting soon.






​


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## Tim Harrison

Great update as usual. I was just wondering when we were going to get another. Already looking forward to the next 👍


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## Cat

You are living the dream! When I moved into the current house I wanted to make the whole thing a water garden and just have walkways that led from the house to the garage but I was vetoed by the other half and then we had my daughter and then my son and the large-ish pond I had built had to be netted to make it safe for the little ones. My son is three now so it wont be too long til we can take the nets off. My pond was split into two, one half that had fish and another side the fish could not access. I was hoping for newts but I've never seen one just a crazy amount of frogs every year, always wondered what the newts would need that I didn't have? Anyway it looks wonderful well done!


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## ourmanflint

How fantastic, and reassuring that we all run into the same problems with ponds, no matter the size. I think you have covered everything in great detail, I have learned quite a bit. 
I had very similar problems with a smaller pond and blanket algae that I couldn’t fix until I put in a small 1 litre pot of water cress, after a month the water cress was growing madly and the water was crystal clear, have decided that in my new garden pond I am having all the filtration done by water cress in a separate container, with the added bonus of an edible crop.


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## Tom Michael

What an awesome, inspiring project- thanks for sharing!


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## killi69

Thanks all!


ourmanflint said:


> blanket algae that I couldn’t fix until I put in a small 1 litre pot of water cress, after a month the water cress was growing madly and the water was crystal clear


Sounds interesting, I should try some water cress.  I still have a lot of thread algae. First I thought I would just leave it, in order to minimise losing newt eggs which would inevitably be included among the Elodea which would come out with the thread algae.  I was also too busy preparing the garden for planting and for weeks did not have time for clearing the algae.  After a while though, the thread algae was really taking over and I regretted not having taken action sooner. I find that removing it with a garden rake works quite well.  I 'comb' the baskets with Elodea and Vallisneria and this way can separate the thread algae from the plants without too many problems.   I did lose a huge mass of floating Elodea, which formed a significant proportion of the oxygenating plants in the ponds, but they were totally entangled.  There are still hopefully enough baskets left for me to be able to get rid of the free floating oxygenators. I do try to save as much hornwort as I can.









Cat said:


> I was hoping for newts but I've never seen one just a crazy amount of frogs every year, always wondered what the newts would need that I didn't have?


I had actually read recently how frogs and newts can have a boom-bust relationship and bookmarked the articles, so here they are.  "A complex predator-prey relationship between frogs and newts may develop over the years, with their numbers varying".  I hear toads in my ponds every evening but so far I have not spotted any mating couples or eggs.



Cat said:


> I wanted to make the whole thing a water garden and just have walkways that led from the house to the garage but I was vetoed by the other half and then we had my daughter and then my son and the large-ish pond I had built had to be netted to make it safe for the little ones.


As you say, now your children are getting a bit older, maybe you can start thinking about your water garden again? Could still be dangerous for them for a little while longer though.... There are advantages in doing things bit by bit and expanding your water garden one small pond at a time perhaps?

I was fortunate to have free reign in being able to convert the entire garden. Luckily because of lockdown I have been around to manage the project but trying to do it all in one go has been a bit of a nightmare at times, to be honest.  At key stages in the project, a lot of work needed to be done all at once which has been super stressful.  Recently, after the builders completed the walkways, the entire garden needed to be prepared for planting which was a lot of work and involved moving hundreds of pots backwards and forwards as I needed to work the soil underneath them. Right now, I am right in the middle of the most exciting phase, and most daunting at the same time - putting in the plants!

There are close to 2000 plants which need to go in, including the 800 I grew from seed last year.  After a lot of research, I set myself up with DEFRA as an importer in order to be able to bring in plants from abroad and ordered a large consignment from a Dutch wholesaler which also offered a good selection of aquatic/ marginal plants.  A heck of a lot of hassle and a lot more expense because of Brexit (phytosanitary inspection/ import duty/ custom clearing agent's fees) but on the whole it was worth it for me because of the numbers I needed. I also ordered some garden plants from other sources.  Neighbours think I have totally lost the plot, which to be honest, I probably have. Hopefully before too long I can actually use my garden to relax in. In the meantime, I have some planting to do. This was taken the day they all arrived;



I had booked in the support of Hayley and Sam from Plantology (who helped me design the garden) for three days to lay out and plant as many as we could in that time.  Unfortunately, in the end we only had one day and then our 2021 rain season began.  I have not been able to do much planting since.  Only a fraction of the plants are laid out/ planted but the results after day one of planting were transformational:



Since then, I have focussed on sorting out the aquatic plants.  Out of all the plants, the most exciting species for me to obtain was Potamogeton lucens. In her pond books, Ada Hofman describes this as the most important oxygenating plant and recommends that it should make up 75% of oxygenators in any pond.  Not surprising then, that in Holland, this plant is commonly available at garden centres and aquatic retailers. Hofman claims P. lucens produces biochemicals which inhibit the growth of algae (allelopathy).  Stems are brittle and in the past I have bought P Lucens from Holland (pre Brexit) with mixed success and only a small proportion took hold after planting.  The ones I bought this time don't look like much at the moment. I have left them in their pots for now and hopefully they will start to grow.






Here is a picture I took of the plant at Ada Hofman's pond gardens a few years ago;




For most marginal plants, I am using 8L pond baskets (24 x 24 x 14cm) lined with weed membrane, with John Innes No3 soil as substrate and capped with sharp sand. With cable ties I made handles so that I can use a rake to move the baskets in and around the ponds. First to be planted up are Persicaria amphibia.  I have also ordered Persicaria affinis which I think looks very similar and will be planted in garden soil on the other side of the pond edge later on.


 



Unfortunately, I did not wash the sand first. I should have known better and as you can see in some of the shots, all that rain we have been having washed out all the dirt from the sand and most of my ponds are now milky coloured.  I really hope this will settle eventually.

I am also quite excited that I was able to buy a number of umbellifer flowering type marginal plants.  Especially around the pond at the back, the planting in and around the pond will be dominated by umbellifers. Below are Oenanthe aquatica, Oenanthe fistulosa and Sium Latifolium. I also had Peucedanum palustre on the order list but unfortunately that one did not arrive.



 

 




Towards the back, where one of the ponds is closest to the row of conifers, I am going to try try create a  woodland type planting. I bought a few Marsh ferns, Thelypteris palustris, which I hope will grow nicely in the water. I spent an afternoon playing around with the stump of a conifer tree I dug up last year, and some of its roots, which I had kept for this purpose. It reminded me of moving pieces of redwood around in my planted tank. I think the ferns could look great around the stump.


 





 



I also planted up two of tubs  (45 / 65L) with Phragmites australis variegatus and placed both in the pond near the house.  These were plants I already had growing in tubs, so they were used to growing submerged.  I plan to sink the tubs a little deeper later on when they have grown a bit more.




The weather is really frustrating and holding things back but at least I have now found some time to write this update. Hopefully, I will be back soon to write a bit more about the other plants.


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## Tim Harrison

Wow, simply amazing. You're right planting is a transformational process. So many plants give instant impact. I'm sure they will fill out somewhat during this season and the following seasons will look increasingly spectacular.


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## shangman

It looks amazing already, you've done an incredible amount of work! Even though the weather is annoying, it's great for those new plants to get established quickly and look great even in this first year. A lot of plants have been looking pretty parched for most of the month, but the 2 weeks of rain has really perked everything up and had it looking lush again. Hoping for a UKAPS tour in years to come, it's going to be so so beautiful once the plants have really got going in a year or two. 😍


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## LondonDragon

WOW that is impressive! That is a lot of plants indeed but looking great already, you can charge the neighbours a fee afterwards when its done if they want to see it  (we need to do a UKAPS tour of it next summer  ) 
Look forward to seeing more updates on this one


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## zozo

Really amazing!!  Are the ponds connected in one way or another?


killi69 said:


> I bought a few Marsh ferns, Thelypteris palustris, which I hope will grow nicely in the water.



It will and they grow quite large easily 50cm and propagate via runners like mad. It's a wonderful plant. They grow inside and outside the water. They even can grow epiphytic on wood on the water surface and above. The rhizome is quite a bushy root wig hanging in the water. You can cut off the creeping runners to replant if you like more in different locations.

All tho they are not evergreen, old-growth dies off in the winter but it comes back twice the size year after. If it gets really big you want to cut away dead material after the fall not to organically load the water too much.

In my garden, it also grows epiphytic to a wooden tub with a lily. Still small new growth this time of year.


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## killi69

Thank you Tim, Shangman and Paolo. UKAPS members most welcome! I would be more than happy to hosts any visits.



zozo said:


> In my garden, it also grows epiphytic to a wooden tub with a lily. Still small new growth this time of year.


Marcel, that looks great! Thanks for all that information.  Will definitely try to grow marsh fern on the tree stump. Growing ferns on wood... did not think I would be doing that again after getting rid of my tank...


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## killi69

zozo said:


> Really amazing!!  Are the ponds connected in one way or another?


Thanks Marcel! It looks like the decking walkways go over the ponds but it was far easier to just construct separate ponds.  There are six in total.  One advantage is that this does help keep the fish separate.  Three ponds contain fish. Just have to remember not to move plants from one pond to another and transfer fish eggs by accident!


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## zozo

killi69 said:


> Thanks Marcel! It looks like the decking walkways go over the ponds but it was far easier to just construct separate ponds.  There are five in total.  One advantage is that this does help keep the fish separate.  Three ponds contain fish. Just have to remember not to move plants from one pond to another and transfer fish eggs by accident!



If you would like to connect a few, you could use water bridges...  With for example 110mm or 125mm PVC tubing and 45° knees. Then both ends should be underwater, then glue a clamp saddle T with a ball valve to it corresponding with a water vacuum cleaner hose diameter to be connected. Or a smaller metric thread hose connector in a hole with taped thread and an adapter for the vacuum cleaner. Then suck out all air and it vacuums the tube, it fills with water, close the valve when filled and it stays filled as long as the ends are underwater.  Covering the tube with a coconut fiber sheet you can also grow plants and ort mosses to it, looking like a fallen tree trunk. Open the valve and the tube will empty and it can be taken away again, or at least be empty which would be needed in the wintertime because if it freezes the PVC will crack. 

Fish and other critters will happily use the bridges to travel back and forth.

Spreading fish eggs from pond to pond, you might get a surprise, birds, and frogs, maybe even hedgehogs etc. will do that for you.   Fish eggs are very sticky, stick to paws, etc travel around and let go again in the water somewhere else... Daphnia etc. travels around in the same fashion with other bugs.


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## killi69

zozo said:


> If you would like to connect a few, you could use water bridges...


I might try that, especially where I extended the big pond at the back. The board walk there hides where both ponds meet.  As the extension is a lot smaller than the large pond, and will have a far higher proportion of reeds and marginal plants growing in there, it might be possible that water levels in the summer drop more than in the pond the other side of the board walk and become noticeable.  There is a small gap between the planks and the tops of the pond edging to fit a tube/ a few tubes.  More like 2cm diameter max but they should still do the trick.  Thanks for the tip!


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## zozo

Now you mention dropping water levels I forgot to mention it, I thought it's obvious physics, but it might not be. Or it is and that's why you mention water levels. You got me doubting a bit now...  Connecting via a water bridge functions also with the law of communicating vessels. Meaning it keeps both water bodies at the same level as if it was one.

Could be problematic if the whole project is on a sloop... But if it is level ground, then both ponds will always level out the water surface equally over the tube. You could actually pump water from one pond to the other, and the water flows back over the bridge to the originating pond.


----------



## killi69

zozo said:


> Now you mention dropping water levels I forgot to mention it, I thought it's obvious physics, but it might not be. Or it is and that's why you mention water levels. You got me doubting a bit now...  Connecting via a water bridge functions also with the law of communicating vessels. Meaning it keeps both water bodies at the same level as if it was one.
> 
> Could be problematic if the whole project is on a sloop... But if it is level ground, then both ponds will always level out the water surface equally over the tube. You could actually pump water from one pond to the other, and the water flows back over the bridge to the originating pond.


All the pond edges are at the same level, except for the pond bordering the patio, which is a bit lower.  As I mentioned, it could be a good way to make sure water levels at either side of walkways remain at the same level, to keep up the illusion the wooden paths are built over larger stretches of water.


----------



## mort

I went through a really bad algae stage this year because I stripped out to many plants over winter. It looked exactly the same as yours did and although I knew that once the plants got going it would remedy itself, I was worried about the tadpoles getting trapped in it. My pond is more mature than yours and I'm not sure if that means it's more balanced, or bounces back quicker, but it's all completely algae free now. I'm not sure if it's because it is plumbed in to my garage roof, so has had hundreds of liters of rainwater flushed through it over the last two months, or if it's because I added an air pump to circulate the water.
I don't know the practicalities of even attempting the same for you but maybe you could trial it in an easily accessible pond. My thinking was that water movement would open up the waters surface and keep it algae free but not at the cost of any tadpoles or other life (they easily get sucked into even tiny pumps). I did it for about 20 quid and it seems to have worked really well. I don't know if the algae was breaking up anyway but with the air it seemed to thin to a point where it was easy to remove without bringing anything with it.

I must say though that this is an amazing project on a scale that non of us would even dare contemplate. I'd love something even a small fraction of what you have achieved and it's a real credit to your vision that we all love it so much.


----------



## killi69

mort said:


> I'm not sure if it's because it is plumbed in to my garage roof, so has had hundreds of liters of rainwater flushed through it over the last two months, or if it's because I added an air pump to circulate the water.


Very interesting Mort! Do you have any pictures? I am trying to imagine how an air pump can create enough movement across a pond.

This evening I cleared thread algae from the pond next to the patio and the middle pond (with a rake). I removed algae about two weeks ago, so this was more about staying on top of things and removing all the floating Elodea this time. Last time I thought I better remove the floating mess of algae covered plants gradually in case I shocked the pond system by removing too many plants at once, even if they were entangled with algae.  One of the smaller ponds has tadpoles in it, like yours, and I am also very wary of not wanting to destroy tadpoles when pulling out the algae.




I understand that tread algae is a problem especially during early spring, before oxygenating plants really start growing and that later on the algae often recedes as the oxygenators kick in.  I have heard a few people talk about plants in general being four weeks behind because of the weather (eg tulips still flowering this late/ plants from nurseries normally available by now being delayed). I was wondering if the same might apply to our oxygenators and therefore perhaps the thread algae are having more of an advantage this year?

Your feedback today has given me some thoughts.  Before the rain fall over the last couple few weeks, the water levels in the ponds had dropped quite a bit.  I know it had not rained for long time but neither has it been very warm.  The picture below was taken at the end of April.  I was thinking about what might happen when the weather does really warm up. Topping up these ponds will take all day, will be expensive and of course not very environmentally friendly.  So not really sustainable but the ponds look a lot less attractive when the sides are exposed like this.




So what you were saying about the water flow from your garage roof being connected to your pond made me think - and also Zozo's earlier suggestion of linking a number of my ponds... Perhaps there is a real benefit here to link one of the drain pipes from my house to flow into the middle pond and connect this pond with the ones at the back with tubes in the way you suggested🤔  This would really make the most of any rainfall during the warmer months. All the selected plants for the garden are moisture loving.  Nigel Dunnett, the Sheffield garden designer I mentioned previously in this journal, has done the same with his front garden, although he does live on a slope, so he has more like swales, dips through which the water can flow on the way down his garden.  Not sure what the impact would be of the water from my roof flowing over the combined surfaces of my ponds? Would it be spread out enough to dissipate over a wide enough surface? Perhaps in the winter better to just re-connect the flow from the roof back to the drain? Such an exciting idea... Maybe I should stop dreaming here, enough radical change for one year! Something to consider though...



mort said:


> I must say though that this is an amazing project on a scale that non of us would even dare contemplate. I'd love something even a small fraction of what you have achieved and it's a real credit to your vision that we all love it so much.


Really appreciate your feedback Mort.  Most days, there are times when I feel really excited and fortunate to experience what is unfolding. There have also been many times over the last few weeks when I looked at the garden and felt my energy levels drop before I even stepped outside. Hopefully the planting is the final hurdle - so why am I even talking about a rain garden?!! Doing this journal, and sharing with people who have a similar passion, does help me reflect so thank you all for making me feel a bit sane again.


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## Tim Harrison

killi69 said:


> I have heard a few people talk about plants in general being four weeks behind because of the weather


That's my feeling as well.


killi69 said:


> Perhaps there is a real benefit here to link one of the drain pipes from my house to flow into the middle pond and connect this pond with the ones at the back


It's probably what I'd do. Not only will the water budget be affected by evaporation, but also transpiration from marginals etc.


killi69 said:


> Doing this journal, and sharing with people who have a similar passion, does help me reflect so thank you all for making me feel a bit sane again.


We're so glad you did, it's a remarkable project. And anyway, sanity is overrated...


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## shangman

I think the final hurdle is living with it and managing it over the years! As with all projects things will change and develop and need new interventions, even with the best planning. And really, it seems like you've done the best planning and executing possible!! Think about the rain and water management once the planting is done (Planting on a big scale is EXHAUSTING, I also have experienced 😂) and you have had a rest so you can properly reflect and appreciate the beautiful garden you have. We've enjoyed the journey immensely from afar!

Looking forward to that visit 😍


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## mort

I think that most of your problems are because the ponds are still new. As they mature over the next couple of years I would wager you get very few problems with algae unless you have to really clear a lot of the plants. I think my problem isn't so much the weather, although lots of bright but cold weather doesn't help, but because I took to many plants out.  

I have the air just bubbling out of two air lines. I was going to put a sponge and airstone on it but it basically just bubbles to the surface and because the bubbles are large they push a decent sized area of the pond clear. It's hard to get a picture because luckily there isn't any algae in there now and it just looks like bubbles. Tbh I would say the rainwater is probably what did the biggest reduction of algae but the air certainly helps when it was algae covered.

It was zozo who's the water bridge expert. I've never used them myself but anything to help keep the ponds topped up is a great idea. I like the rainwater as it's natural and free and the way it works for me is half the garage goes straight to the pond and the other half goes to water butts that then overflow into the pond. I live in the driest county and really struggle for rainwater in the average summer, so the water butts come in handy. If you had to top up with tap water then letting the rain flush it out over winter might benefit, so if you did go the drainpipe bypass route I wouldn't necessarily turn it off in winter.


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## killi69

Thanks so much Tim, Shangman and Mort!


mort said:


> It was zozo who's the water bridge expert.


So it was! I just amended and corrected above.  

I will definitely think a bit more about connecting the drain pipe from the roof to some of the ponds.


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## killi69

I have been planting almost every day since my last update.  While I still could, I dug in one final tub to add the collection (ten sunken tubs in total now) to maximise the amount of Phragmites I can grow outside of the ponds.




The thread algae is still an issue but I have been weeding it our more regularly, making it easier to manage in the long run.




Ragged Robbin added a nice splash of colour towards the end of May and during the first weeks of June.  I grew these from seeds last year. They were originally meant to go right at the back of the garden, in front of my fruit trees behind the ponds.  In the end, I could not order the purple loosestrife variety (Lythrum virgatum 'Dropmore Purple') in the quantities I needed, so I planted the Ragged Robin as placeholders instead. They look so great and add so much colour this time of the year, I must find some space to keep them in permanently.













By the time the above pics were taken (early June), the main planting had been done. In the two weeks since then, I have been planting the edges of the garden, along each side. Each day I laid out and planted a different species which intermingled together will hopefully form a nice woodland edge planting underneath the conifers on the left and hedgerow on the right.  These included ferns, grasses (Anemanthele lessoniana), Anemones, Thalictrums, Tellima, Alstilbe, Astrantia and Valerian.  These had either been grown from seed or were dug out from holding beds I had created for existing stock plants.







To protect the clay soil from drying out and cracking in the sun, I mulched the garden after planting.  I am trying to make good use of the algae pads and plant material I pull from the ponds when cleaning and add these to the mulch in between the plants.  These are the lighter bits and pieces you can see in the pic below.




I was lucky that I finished the planting just before the rain started again last week and the ground became too wet to walk on or dig.  Absolutely perfect timing and great for the plants which I think are growing taller by the day, both in the garden and inside the ponds. It was great to see my ponds fill up again to the rim.  Although the speed at which this happened (10cm+ within 24 hours), was perhaps a bit too rapid and there was a bit of flooding going on at the back pond.  No problem if it was water over flowing from the pond into the garden but I did notice the pond water had turned a bit darker, so it may have been water coming down the slope and into the pond.   Hopefully this will not become too much of an issue in the future as the rainfall was exceptional and this is the first time I have noticed anything like this since the ponds were built last summer.


 



There is so much going on and it's a shame I have not been able to record the progress in more detail.  At least today, while it is pouring with rain, I can bring this journal up to date again. As the Ragged Robin finished flowering, Filipendula vulgaris has taken over the show, alongside Valeriana officinalis along the edges and right at the back.




Over the last few days, I have turned my attention to the pond plants as I still have a few crates of marginal plants and oxygenators which need to be planted up properly.  I will try to come back again soon with updates and pictures.

Picture taken around 8pm this eve;


----------



## Tim Harrison

killi69 said:


> Picture taken around 8pm this eve;


Wow spectacular, you really have planted for instant impact, and already have created the illusion of one large continuous stretch of water and meadow. Now a sticky thread


----------



## Wookii

A supreme amount of effort, it makes setting up an aquarium looks like child’s play! It really is a stunning creation! 😍


----------



## zozo

killi69 said:


> I understand that tread algae is a problem especially during early spring



Yes, that slimy filamentous one definitively is, when the water warms up the bioload in the water column becomes active favoring this ancient grow form before the plants kick in. I see this in my own garden but also in some natural pools in my neighborhood. And then it disappears again as quickly as it came and then the plants start to grow. In fishless environments, it stays a tad longer. If well stocked with omnivorous fish it might not show up at all. At least I never see any in my goldfish tub, they likely eat it.  

Last winter was a little disaster and this year all is indeed behind, the Irises and Eriophorum in my garden didn't flower at all and the Potentilla barely survived and only grew a few leaves. And these are usually the very first to grow and flower in the spring.


----------



## dw1305

Hi all, 
It just looks incredible. 


killi69 said:


> alongside Valeriana officinalis along the edges and right at the back.


I'd fairly ruthlessly dead-head it, it is the most incredible self-seeder.

cheers Darrel


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## JeffK

What an awesome project and inspiring thread. Keep up the good work!


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## mort

It's interesting how far ahead your ragid robbin and filipendula are ahead of my local broad. The rr is still flowering but reaching its end and the filipendula is barely knee high at the moment.

It is really amazing what you have done, it's so well executed and looks stunning already.


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## Tim Harrison

Now moved to Featured Journals, where this epic journal belongs


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## killi69

Wow, what an honour, thank you🙏. I hope to keep the updates coming and share my learning as the project progresses.


Tim Harrison said:


> Wow spectacular, you really have planted for instant impact, and already have created the illusion of one large continuous stretch of water and meadow.


Thank you Tim. I did order a lot of plants but it actually worked out far more economical to do a large order on wholesale prices. I still have to plant into pond baskets a range of species which are already in the garden, but I held back a number to place in the ponds to further help connect the water and land. These are Juncus effesus, Acorus gramineus, Carex elata and Schizostylis coccinea. Plus I still need to plant Persicaria affinis bisorta next to where P. amphibia grows in water.



JeffK said:


> What an awesome project and inspiring thread. Keep up the good work!


Thanks Jeff!!



mort said:


> It's interesting how far ahead your ragid robbin and filipendula are ahead of my local broad. The rr is still flowering but reaching its end and the filipendula is barely knee high at the moment.
> 
> It is really amazing what you have done, it's so well executed and looks stunning already.


That must look lovely. Maybe because my plants were only recently planted, they heated up faster while in pots which might have spurred them on to flower faster than if they were already growing in the soil? Thanks for the feedback, Mort.



dw1305 said:


> It just looks incredible.
> I'd fairly ruthlessly dead-head it, it is the most incredible self-seeder.


Cheers Darrel👍
Thanks for the advice, I will deadhead the Valerian after flowering then! I do love this plant and it really adds a wild touch:







Wookii said:


> A supreme amount of effort, it makes setting up an aquarium looks like child’s play! It really is a stunning creation!


Thanks Wooki! A bit more physical but otherwise so similar. One of my favourite parts is the corner where the water meets shade planting near the conifers.  Marsh ferns growing in the water with terrestrial ferns on the other side.  This reminds me so much of an aquascape. I am sure many of you feel the same when you see a large root structure in the woods or somewhere.






zozo said:


> Yes, that slimy filamentous one definitively is, when the water warms up the bioload in the water column becomes active favoring this ancient grow form before the plants kick in. I see this in my own garden but also in some natural pools in my neighborhood. And then it disappears again as quickly as it came and then the plants start to grow. In fishless environments, it stays a tad longer. If well stocked with omnivorous fish it might not show up at all. At least I never see any in my goldfish tub, they likely eat it.
> 
> Last winter was a little disaster and this year all is indeed behind, the Irises and Eriophorum in my garden didn't flower at all and the Potentilla barely survived and only grew a few leaves. And these are usually the very first to grow and flower in the spring.


Let's hope the plants will start to grow at last to help the thread algae disappear.  Most aquatic plants in the ponds are not yet growing.  One plant which does grow well and from early in the season is Potamogeton crispus. It has long strands with leaves touching the surface and a favourite place for damselflies to lay their eggs. I must propagate these so I can have more of them across my ponds to hopefully help stave off the thread algae next spring.


 



Some ponds only have Elodea and giant Vallisneria as oxygenating plants. Across the ponds, the Vallis still need to take off, despite having had fertiliser tabs added two months ago. Below is a pic of the middle pond. None of the plants in the middle pond seem to be doing well. Hopefully, it is just because it is early in the season.  Over the last couple of days, I have started potting up Potamogeton lucens and added a few of those to the middle pond:




For the P. lucens I use clay topsoil as the substrate, capped with some sand.




The Elodea definitely does better with some feed.  Below, in the large pond at the back, you can see on the left good strong growth while on the right they are much weaker and smaller.  A couple of months ago, I already noticed the Elodea growing stronger in the tub with Nuphar lutea which has slow release fertiliser tabs in it.  I then cut back the Elodea in these tubs and replanted the tops in a couple of new baskets with fertiliser tabs added.  These are the baskets you can see on the left below (and the Elodea in the Nupar tub has also regrown with vigour).  I think I am going to cut back the Elodea baskets and add fertiliser tabs to all of them.




Interesting that Water Soldier, Stratiotes aloides, seems to be doing better in some ponds than others.  In one pond (1st pic below) there is a large group of them still fully submerged but intact. In another pond (2nd pic), they are almost ready to submerge. In the middle pond, the Stratiotes have almost completely disintegrated and there is hardly anything left of them.


 



Nuphar lutea is doing well. I have five tubs (washing up bowls) of them in total and they have been growing slowly but steadily over the last two months.


----------



## zozo

That wood looks really nice!.. Is that the Potentilla I see there?

I've also had some issues with P. crispus and the P. perfoliatus i never was very successful with growing them both. They do not like Ph above 8, it seems to slow them down, and while the light increases they will form limescale on their leaves making it even harder on them. That's something you might want to check on a sunny day in the afternoon. Then the pH will be at its highest, if it goes above 8 then those 2 Potamogetons are not the best choice. The pH in my tubs is standard pH8.5.

The floating P. natans is very easy to grow for me and also the South American P. gayi grows unstoppable and like mad in my garden. Already have it for 7 years and till now it even survived -12°C. It originates from Argentina I guess it also grows there in the deep south antarctic regions.


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## killi69

zozo said:


> That wood looks really nice!.. Is that the Potentilla I see there?


Yes, indeed, that is Potentilla palustris. Thank you for introducing me to this plant!  It is starting to take off with runners climbing over the wood and making their way onto land, which is really great:



I have it growing in several ponds.






zozo said:


> I've also had some issues with P. crispus and the P. perfoliatus i never was very successful with growing them both. They do not like Ph above 8, it seems to slow them down, and while the light increases they will form limescale on their leaves making it even harder on them. That's something you might want to check on a sunny day in the afternoon. Then the pH will be at its highest, if it goes above 8 then those 2 Potamogetons are not the best choice. The pH in my tubs is standard pH8.5.


I have limescale on the leaves of both Potamogetons also, as you can see from the pics below.  I used to have P. lucens in some of my tubs and would just rub the leaves every now and the limescale would come off easily.  They survived in my tubs but never really grew into large clumps.  Hopefully, now they are planted in bigger baskets with fertiliser tabs added they will do better in the ponds.


 



I must really do a pH measurement. I filled the ponds with tap water which is quite hard over here. Although rain water would have lowered the pH by diluting the water when the ponds overflow during heavy rain, I would guess that overall the water will still be hard rather than soft.  The Fundulus and Aphanius fish in two of my ponds would also prefer harder water.  Does anyone know a good way to harden the water, if necessary?  I know in Holland a product called Mearl is used for this but I do not think that is available over here.



zozo said:


> The floating P. natans is very easy to grow for me and also the South American P. gayi grows unstoppable and like mad in my garden. Already have it for 7 years and till now it even survived -12°C. It originates from Argentina I guess it also grows there in the deep south antarctic regions.


Really, P. gayi is hardy?!! Amazing. I used to grow gayi in my planted tank.  Would love to give it a go in my pond then. Another interesting recommendation, cheers Zozo!  I would worry a bit though about how brittle gayi is as I can imagine loosing strands whenever they get caught up in threaded algae.

I took some Potamogeton natans cuttings last year and they have taken hold:


----------



## zozo

Looking really good the Potentilla...


killi69 said:


> Really, P. gayi is hardy?!! Amazing.



Obviously, it is, also to my surprise... I did put it about 7 years ago in the garden and it's still there. In a wooden tub now and last year it was -12°C for about 10 days and P. Gayi is still in there doing great. Pic bellow is this afternoon.




Put it in a shallow sunny and warm spot and it gets dark red and grows like mad and very rampant, sticking flowers out... I never saw any algae in it, not once.


----------



## mort

Can I just ask you guys about the potentilla. When I walk along the dykes at my local broad there is a plant that I always catch out of the corner of my eye, it looks like the leaf shape of the potentilla but it's leaves look very silvery (whether thats new growth or the fact its always sunny when i go because its where my dog goes swimming). I've never got close to have a decent look as it's always just a few leaves sticking out from the grassy banks. I guess I've just subconsciously thought it was a buttercup and moved on but now I'm wondering if it could be something arguably nicer.


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## zozo

mort said:


> Can I just ask you guys about the potentilla.



I never noticed or don't know what you mean with silvery...  But Marsh Cinquefoil is a rather easy plant to determine plant. It actually should already be flowering, with a deep red purplish star-shaped flower. The centre of the flowers bears fruit looking like a strawberry also the leaves resemble strawberry very much. That's why our comen name for it is Water Strawberry. But it's a Rosacea shrub and it grows long wooden stems when mature.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 


mort said:


> When I walk along the dykes at my local broad there is a plant that I always catch out of the corner of my eye, it looks like the leaf shape of the potentilla but it's leaves look very silvery


_Potentilla anserina, _unsurprisingly known as "Silverweed".

cheers Darrel


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## Chrispowell

Stunning garden and great achievement staying true to your original plans

Chris


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## mort

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> _Potentilla anserina, _unsurprisingly known as "Silverweed".
> 
> cheers Darrel



That's the one thanks. Doesn't look much like potentilla when you look closely but still I'm normally being pulled at lightspeed by the dog, desperate for her swim.


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## LondonDragon

WOW this project is just stunning, love the flow down the garden, looks like a giant pond when it is not, this is going to look so amazing after a couple of years, you should really be proud of what you have achieved so far, epic project and thanks for sharing it with us


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## killi69

My main focus over the last couple of weeks has been catching up with the pond plants which have been sitting in crates in the ponds waiting to be planted up.  The ones I had already planted are establishing themselves and as more are going in, the marginal plants are really coming into play.



The water dropworts (Oenanthe), planted a number of weeks ago, are taking off and sending out runners.  I can see they will be taking over if I am not careful.  O. aquatica (above) are flowering.

Below are large tubs planted with Schoenoplectus (Scirpus) albescens. This variant has a thin yellow stripe running along its leaf, giving the whole plant a bright appearance.  Planted right at the back where the pond(s) end, I think they will help accentuate the depth of waterway running through the garden, draw attention to the board walk in front of them and, hopefully, together with Oenanthe fistulosum and Menyanthes trifoliata also help disguise the exposed edge of the pond extension (second pic below)



 



I planted the remaining Butomus umbellatus last week (first pic below).  Amazing to see them placed next to the ones I planted about four weeks ago (second pic). They are dwarfed compared to the more established plants, which are already sending out purple flower stems (third pic).  I planted them in heavy clay topsoil (topped with sand), which they clearly seem to like.


 

 



As a side note, as mentioned in an earlier post, I am going to try to create submersed versions of Nuphar lutea by removing any floating leaves which appear. A couple of days ago I removed the first floating leaf;


 



I finally planted the remaining tubs which I had sunk in along the right flank of the water. These will contain various Typha species (all in clay topsoil). The one below has Typha laxmannii (will grow to around 150cm max)




Near the decking in front of the house, at the far end, almost at the edge of the garden, I had sunk in a tub which I planted with Typha augustifolia (max 150cm, far right second pic). It really helps create the impression of the water extending all the way to the end of the decking.


 



I also used Typha to link the middle pond with the large pond at the back, this time Typha gracilis (max 90cm).  Below you can see T. gracilis in the middle pond and in a tub in between the middle pond and the next pond.  A further tub is sunk inside the large pond (can be seen in pics later on). Also in the picture below you can see Acorus gramineus variegatus growing in water and on land. As more and more layers of species are added, a stronger connection is being made between the two.




An important plant in the arrangement is Juncus inflexus.  Large drifts have already been planted in the zones which visually link one pond to another and together form a matrix for what visually might resemble low marsh type planting. I had kept aside a crate of them to be planted in baskets to go in the water. Like all the other marginals in crates, I had already got them accustomed to grow with their crown submerged before removing most of the compost from the pots they came in and planting them in John Innes No3 (some in clay topsoil, depending on species), capped with 1cm of rinsed sharp sand:




Interesting how the Juncus plants growing in water are taller and more arched than the ones growing in the soil.











Pictured above you can see how Typha gracilis (taller reed like, yellow/green leaves) links the middle and back ponds.

Another plant I have high hopes for, or rather a genus, to help blend land and water, is Persicaria.  In pink flower below is P. affinis superba and in water next to it is P. amphibia whose flowers will be very similar.




Late afternoon and evening are the best times to view the garden when sun is out and all the plants are back-lit beautifully.  As you can see the garden is really filling out rapidly. The plant at most right of the pond below is Typha minima (60cm).


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## killi69

At the start of this journal, I shared this picture of a small preformed pond I dug in three years ago and said that I hoped the pond and planting around it would be a template for how the garden would look one day:




The pond is still there, hidden between the flowering Lythrum in the picture below, on the right.  You would not know it is there, the only give-aways are the vertical leaves of the Typha bulrushes growing in the pond;




Quite exciting to see how the original planting is now blending in with the rest of the garden - and a bit daunting as well when looking at how big some of those original grasses (Molinia) have become.

Lythrum will become one of the most dominant plants in my ‘water meadow’ community. I planted drifts of Lythrum virgatum ‘Dropmore Purple’ at either side of the 'low bog planting' which runs across the ponds and also next to each of the sunken tubs containing Typha and Phragmites .  I also planted up a number in baskets to go in the ponds, and stuck a few inside the tubs, so Lythrum will be key in making that connection with the waterside.  Although not as tall yet as the mature ones pictured above, the new young additions are flowering and are already making an impact and, planted either side, are really helping to soften the pond margins:


 




 







As you can see from the photos above and below, Butomus umbellatus has started to flower. I was quite surprised how tall they are. So beautiful...




Just a very brief update from me this time. I hope to be back soon with some more.


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## zozo

Paradise! 🥰


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## LondonDragon

When can I move in?


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## Gill

That is a dream water garden come to life, When are you taking bookings for UKAPS gardens to be redone???


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## killi69

zozo said:


> Paradise! 🥰


Thanks Marcel. Right now, one of my favourite aspects is the Butomus growing alongside the Phragmites and Lythrum which does evoke memories of Dutch ditches and 'polder' landscape we both grew up around.



LondonDragon said:


> When can I move in?





Gill said:


> That is a dream water garden come to life, When are you taking bookings for UKAPS gardens to be redone???


Thanks guys😆. I went all out and I do feel very lucky with the result so far. I had not expected year 1 after planting to look so good.  I just hope I do not need to move house in the near future as not many people would want to take on a garden full of ponds.  If I do, I promise I will list it on the UKAPS sales thread first.

In the meantime, if you are in the area and want to come round, let me know!


----------



## Gill

Apologies if already mentioned, but what stocking is in these ponds. 
As me personally i would put in some Paradise fish, Medaka, WCMM, Danios, Sunfish etc as there are multiple ponds. You could have different fish in each one. 
And Medaka, Paradise WCMM etc will winter fine in in the UK outside.


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## LondonDragon

What do the neighbours say now? Since they thought you had a loose screw at one stage haha


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## killi69

Gill said:


> Apologies if already mentioned, but what stocking is in these ponds.
> As me personally i would put in some Paradise fish, Medaka, WCMM, Danios, Sunfish etc as there are multiple ponds. You could have different fish in each one.
> And Medaka, Paradise WCMM etc will winter fine in in the UK outside.


No problem Gill.  Great recommendations, thank you.  I have looked into all of these.  I would love to have Pumpkinseed Sunfish but this is not allowed here for understandable reasons. The pond closest to the house has Fundulus julisia. The second pond has Aphanius mentho and the third pond has a large group of Macropodus ocellatus and a few WCMM. All are outside all year round.  I wrote in some detail about them earlier in the journal.  Now you mentioned the fish, I might as well give a brief update on them.

The Fundulus julisia are doing ok and I have spotted a couple of fry in the pond but lost a few adults during the winter.  I still have 14 adults but think I put in over 20 of them. They stay close to the surface so you are able to see them most of the time.  Maybe you or someone here can help me - does anyone know how to raise the pH of pond water?  I would obviously need to do a reading first but I know these fish prefer harder water.  I have read an account of a German breeder who covers the mini-ponds he breeds them in during the winter, to stop the rain softening the water.  I have kept a separate group of julisia in one of my few remaining tubs but I have been too busy this year to breed them (cleaning out tank/ looking for eggs/ separating fry etc).

Here is a video of them in the tub;



Also still in another large tub are a small group of Fundulus catenatus, one of the largest killifish and stunning during breeding season (around now).  They are extremely shy and I only catch glimpses of them when I feed them some earthworms from time to time.  This is the only picture I was able to take of one of them in the tub:





My original plan was to breed them in the tub this year, raise their numbers, hold back a breeding group and release the rest into the pond, so that if they do not reproduce in the pond, I still have a group kept aside.  I have been too busy this year and will have to see whether I will have more time next year.  I am in two minds and part of me thinks I should just release them in the same pond as F. julisia and hope that they might both reproduce.  I mean, realistically, don't I have enough on my plate trying to look after the garden and all these ponds??

F julisia lays eggs in the thread algae (as described in my earlier post), catenatus needs moving water over a tray of gravel, in which it will lay its eggs. Last year, I placed a tray and pump in the tub and caught six fry which I grew on indoors but they will not be ready to breed for at least one more year.  Such a shame I have been too busy, as both are extremely rare in the UK but this year has been all about the garden and trying to stay on top of the project.

The Aphanius mentho are thriving and the pond is full of fry. In contrast to F. julisia, which seem less shy when kept in a tub, you see a lot more of A. mentho in a pond.  Out of my fish, they are the most fun to watch, with males constantly defending their territories and chasing each other.  Here are some of the fry;




The Macropodus ocellatus I rarely see, just a brief glimpse every now and then. It remains to be seen if they will breed in the pond.  They like the water to heat up and I am not sure if the pond will be as optimal for that as the tubs I used.  I also still have a a group in a separate tub which I also need to sort out and decide what to do with. The WCMM I put in the pond were quite old and I am not sure how many survived the winter.

In terms of wildlife in the garden, my absolute favourites, above frogs, toads, newts and even fish - are the damselflies and dragonflies.  So many visit the ponds already. As some dragonflies spend more than a year in the water as larvae, I like to think that by leaving some of my ponds without any fish, I will have an abundance of dragonflies from next year onwards when dragonfly larvae born in my ponds start to emerge... Today I took a pic of what I think is an emperor dragonfly laying eggs in one of my ponds:


----------



## killi69

LondonDragon said:


> What do the neighbours say now? Since they thought you had a loose screw at one stage haha


I am sure they still think I am a bit obsessed which of course I totally am.  The front of the house is a drive and still has hundreds of plants in pots which need sorting out. But at least this madman now has something to show for his sins. When they see my garden - and many have - they are amazed and say things like 'thanks to you my wife wants me to sort out the garden'. A few families bring their small children every now and then, which is really nice and I show them the tadpoles and fish fry.  Two families say they want ponds as well and by next year I might be providing the entire neighbourhood with spare pond plants!


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## Gill

Those are a very nice selection of fish to have indeed. And it certainly looks like a plethora of life to enjoy. 
 There are some sunfish you can keep in the uk.  And sometimes they pop up on BAND and Aquarist Classifieds. Aqualife leyland has some males atm. Have you c=joined the coldwater groups for the uk, some lovely ideas on there about fish you can try. Sure I saw someone with Yelllow/snakeskin/3 spot gourami's outdoors.
If I had the room and the necessary licence I would love to have a tropical pond with Gigas and Hi-Fin Sharks and a few other larger fish. 
I see you made a nice little platform for dipping your feet into, have the fish discovered this yet, and allowed them to nibble the dead skin. Guppies would certainly do this, as they do so in tropical tanks. And also the Variatus Platties. And the Coral Platties have done well as well and add a nice splash of red to the ponds etc. 
I would be so tempted to throw in some of the temperate Barbs etc and see how they do outside in the uk. 
Threadfin rainbows do very well in the uk outdoors, have kept them in the past in barrel ponds etc.


----------



## killi69

Thanks for the suggestions Gill.  Did you keep threadfin rainbows outdoors all year round?

I posted this earlier in the thread, in case the info in the link is of interest to you;


killi69 said:


> I found this resource quite useful: a list of fish suitable for outdoors (not all of them all-year round) with indicative lower temperature tolerance ranges compiled by Martin Tversted from Denmark. Especially if you are prepared to take them indoors over winter, the choice is huge. It is a great starting point from which to do further research.


In addition, I researched Dutch and German pond forums years ago to see what fish people had successfully tried outdoors all year round and which ones did not work out. From what I remember, people had not been able to keep guppys, platties or barbs outside year round (but had great results during the warmer months).  



Gill said:


> I see you made a nice little platform for dipping your feet into, have the fish discovered this yet, and allowed them to nibble the dead skin.


Is that what the platform is for😂😂😂 I have not tried dipping my feet yet but the fish I have are not yet that tame (or hungry). I know what you mean, the same species in the tub would nibble your fingers but the ones in the pond are quite skittish.

If I were to add more fish, I would consider Cyprinella lutrensis and Notropis chrosomus.  Also weather loach, which can become tame. All fully hardy.


----------



## Gill

killi69 said:


> Thanks for the suggestions Gill. Did you keep threadfin rainbows outdoors all year round?


Threadfins, I kept them outside in a tank in partial shade for the season, so from may to september. And then brought them inside. 
The difference in the males was outstanding. The dominant males finnage became much longer than when kept indoors. And the Lower Jaw Appendage became very large and almost platinum in color. Also the males had dark visible stripes when sparring with subs and flashing to the females. I was lucky at them time to be able to find Red, Yellow and Green finned males circa 2003. Never quite seen them again in these variations.



killi69 said:


> From what I remember, people had not been able to keep guppys, platties or barbs outside year round (but had great results during the warmer months).


Yeah, guppies would need to come inside when the temp starts to drop below 12 celcius - though this does turn off the breeding instinct in the females, so they store what they have for up to 6 months. 



killi69 said:


> Notropis chrosomus. Also weather loach, which can become tame. All fully hardy.


Yes these are a dream fish for outdoors in the Uk - a few people on here have them in ponds and they look great. And when they start spawning in the shallows they certainly are a striking colour. 
Weather Loaches are great for ponds and they can get quite gargantuan, Have rehomed a few while at MA findern. 

Its really is a shame that China Sharks are not more readily sold for the UK. Such stunning fish in large groups - Oliver knott has recently done a temperate tank with 20+ of these. And they certainly look good with all the differing colour variations. I have kept them myself briefly many years ago prior to realising they needed a licence and returning them to W.O.W Rugby. Though I did find that weather loaches did not like them, and ought alot.


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## killi69

I have been extremely lucky with the weather.  It has been raining so often, and during most weeks since the plants went in, so I have had to water very little, which has been a great help.  And they are growing so fast! The Lythrum (purple loosestrife) are providing most of the colour at the moment and are growing well, both in the water and in the garden.  They dominate the planting schemes around the first three ponds:



Middle ponds;


 







Butomus umbellatus are in flower and it is hard to think of a more beautiful marginal plant.  I planted it mainly around the pond near the house.  They grew taller than expected and I am sure they are taller than the 90cm often advertised as their max height. I planted them in washing up bowls as I read they are heavy feeders and needed more space.  One downside is that their foliage starts to die back while they are still in flower but I forgive them.  The young Lythrum look at bit out of place next to them but next year should be of a similar height.





 



Where the woodland planting meets the water at the edge of the middle pond, Potentilla palustris (marsh cinquefoil) and Thelypteris palustris (marsh fern) are starting to spread out.  I originally had three baskets of Thelypteris but one of them did not take.  Both Potentilla and Thelypteris are planted in baskets just below the water level.




The Norfolk reed, Phragmites australis, which I planted in the seven tubs I dug in along one of the boardwalks, are slowly becoming more visible. They went in as young plants but are now starting to rise up among the other planting.


 




 


Each tub has a water level of around 15-20cm and a deep substrate of clay topsoil. I was not sure at first if this would really work - so much garden soil with only a relative small amount of water over it but the water quality has remained good.  I did plant Elodea in all of the tubs as well.

Lots of Sanguisorbas have been planted throughout the garden and are starting to flower.  Harder to capture on camera, but the mass of small dark flower heads above the planting looks quite impressive.  The pics below show the edges of the back ponds with Sanguisorba officianalis (great burnet) and Filipendula ulmaria (meadowsweet) in flower.  Also pictured are the seed heads of Silene flos-cuculi (Ragged Robin).


 



Waterlilies are doing well also.  Most were bought last year and planted in small washing up bowls, to give them more soil/nutrients than pond baskets can hold.  First picture below is Nymphaea odorata 'Alba' with Oenanthe fistulosa sending out runners along the boardwalk. Second picture Nymphaea 'Moon Dance', probably my favourite lily right now.  I like how it holds its flowerhead above the water and also like its speckled leaves.  





 



I have a few pink/purple coloured waterlilies which managed to survive a few years of neglect in my tubs, when hardly any leaves made it through to the surface because the tubs were full of pond plants/thread algae.  This spring, I repotted them and was surprised how they bounced back.  They never flowered before and I was a bit disappointed in their colour as I find the purple flowers a bit unnatural looking, but they still have a certain beauty and do match the purple of the Lythrums.

Water is clear in all of the ponds.  Thread algae is still there, more in some ponds than in others, but on the whole I am noticing I am pulling out less as the weeks go by.  Also, more and more of it is starting to float, making it easier to remove what remains.  The vallisneria is starting to grow.  I wonder if I have too many pond baskets in there, in the sense that there might be too many plants that want to grow fast (Elodea) and not enough nutrients available because of it?  On the second pic, you can clearly see which baskets with Elodea I have fertilised and which I have not.


 



As recommended by @zozo, I planted some Potamogeton gayi - five baskets thanks to a generous portion sent to me by Wookii 




I still have more planting to do.  Apart from some perennials, I still have a few crates of pond plants waiting to go in (pic below); Schoenoplectus lacustris, Juncus, Juncus inflexus, Preslia cervina (water spearmint), Pilularia globulifera and Potamogeton lucens.  Today, I found some Potamogeton perfoliatus on sale, which I had been looking out for.




The plants in crates (waiting to be planted up) are kept in the very back pond (the extension pond). As these plants are still in their original 9cm pots, filled with peat, the water there has turned a bit brown.  I also think it might have affected the Sium Latifolium which has almost died back in this pond. Could the peat have made the water too acidic for the Sium? It seems to be doing ok in the pond next to it:


 



Another plant which does not seem to be doing too well is Stratiotes Aloides (water soldier).  In some ponds they have practically disappeared.  In the pond below, you can see how they seem to disintegrate, although a few do show signs of emerging. The second pic shows a much healthier one in another pond of mine.  I have seen pictures of them growing much lusher and already growing properly above the water surface this time of the year.  Could it just be a lack of nutrients? Too many oxygenating plants competing for nutrients and not enough muck on the bottom of the ponds for them to feed of (as the ponds are only one year old)?  Its a real shame as I was hoping for a dramatic display, I put in so many last year.


 



Not helping are the crows.  I wrote earlier in the journal how they visit many times a day, walking around the ponds looking for pond snails.  I used to be well impressed with them, as they had learned to drag out strands of thread algae in order to get to the snails caught in between.  They have now improved their tactics and have started pulling up lily pads and even ripping out marginal plants in order to catch more snails.  I am no longer a fan!


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## Courtneybst

Next level beauty!


----------



## PARAGUAY

Wow 🙂 what a garden


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## NatalieHurrell

I'm totally blown away by this.  It's just wow.


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## Tim Harrison

Wow...


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## killi69

Courtneybst said:


> Next level beauty!





PARAGUAY said:


> Wow 🙂 what a garden





NatalieHurrell said:


> I'm totally blown away by this. It's just wow.





Tim Harrison said:


> Wow...


Thank you all so much! It is really incredible how much the plants have grown.


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## Steve Buce

Beautiful 👏


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## killi69

Steve Buce said:


> Beautiful 👏


Thanks Steve!

I have a couple of questions.


killi69 said:


> Another plant which does not seem to be doing too well is Stratiotes Aloides (water soldier). In some ponds they have practically disappeared. In the pond below, you can see how they seem to disintegrate, although a few do show signs of emerging. The second pic shows a much healthier one in another pond of mine. I have seen pictures of them growing much lusher and already growing properly above the water surface this time of the year. Could it just be a lack of nutrients? Too many oxygenating plants competing for nutrients and not enough muck on the bottom of the ponds for them to feed of (as the ponds are only one year old)? Its a real shame as I was hoping for a dramatic display, I put in so many last year.


Does anyone know about Stratiodes?  As mentioned, they do not seem to be doing very well.  I doubt there is much I can do about it but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

I am starting to wonder about Persicaria amphibia, planted here in baskets in the pond, in front of Persicaria affinis in flower.  P. amphibia is not developing any floating leaves.  Could it be that floating leaves come later or would only come if they are planted deeper?  The baskets are about 5cm below the surface.  A couple of plant species I bought as young plants from the wholesalers turned out to be something completely different as they grew on. For example, 'Eupatorium cannibium' grew into Chamaenerion angustifolium (rosebay willow herb). I was not brave enough to keep this. The flowers are beautiful but I was too scared of them self seeding all over the place.  Anyway, I just hope the Persicaria amphibia turns out to be the plant I was after!


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## mort

I don't really know about the stratiodes and not really thought about it before but the ones in my pond (shady with fish) are just under the surface at the moment and I guess it's because it's not really bright enough for them to thrive and grow lush enough to become buoyant and pop out the water. That might be a completely false conclusion but I see yours have suffered a little with algae, so perhaps they are nutrient limited.  I think, again maybe wrong,  that they only come above the surface to flower, so would need to be in a condition to flower.

I think you are right about the persicaria and that it's too shallow to form floating leaves. I've seen it pretty deep in ponds and think a friend has it at about 3ft and they get the floating leaves, so perhaps try one of the baskets a bit deeper.

Good shout on the rosebay willow herb as well. We have it down our local broad and although it looks really nice this time of year it will spread massively.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 


killi69 said:


> Anyway, I just hope the Persicaria amphibia turns out to be the plant I was after!


It looks about right. 


killi69 said:


> Could it be that floating leaves come later or would only come if they are planted deeper? The baskets are about 5cm below the surface.


I'd go for deeper.

cheers Darrel


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## killi69

Thank you Mort and Darrel for your input🤗. I will place the P. amphibia a bit deeper then (and good to hear Darrel you think it is the right plant)


mort said:


> I don't really know about the stratiodes and not really thought about it before but the ones in my pond (shady with fish) are just under the surface at the moment and I guess it's because it's not really bright enough for them to thrive and grow lush enough to become buoyant and pop out the water. That might be a completely false conclusion but I see yours have suffered a little with algae, so perhaps they are nutrient limited. I think, again maybe wrong, that they only come above the surface to flower, so would need to be in a condition to flower.


Interesting yours are still below the surface ss well. Maybe just need to be more patient, although in a few ponds they are turning to mush. Could well be nutrient deficiency, as you suggest. The ponds are quite new so there is not much mulm for their roots to feed off.

In one of the ponds, they seem to be doing a bit better and one is surfacing.


----------



## shangman

We have water soldiers in two ponds and they've dominated in both - there aren't any other underwater or floating plants with them, just rushes and irises at the edges, and they're very out of the water atm (have been for about a month). I wonder if it's some allelopathy at play. One pond is in full sun, the other is quite shaded by a quince tree and they're still sitting very proud. In both ponds though they have been there for years. We don't add any ferts to either pond, but I suppose they get whatever they want when it's just them.


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## Wolf6

What I have found in my pond over the last years, is that after a lot of rainfall, nearly all plants that live near the surface all suffer leaves dying off/plant decay. I know rainwater isnt especially beneficial to pond plants, but that it would be this bad I didnt expect. Since I have no pump I suspect it takes a while for the rainwater to mix with the rest of the pond water, and my theory is that this is what causes their decay. They recover again after a while of less/no rain. This only occurs after a lot of rain has fallen, not after 'normal' intermittent rain but more the incredible torrents of rain we have the last years in increasing amounts. Anyways its just a theory, I've not done measurements to prove it  but its starting to become too recurring to be coincidence...
It doesnt happen when I refill the pond after a period of drought using tap water.


----------



## killi69

shangman said:


> there aren't any other underwater or floating plants with them, just rushes and irises at the edges, and they're very out of the water atm (have been for about a month). I wonder if it's some allelopathy at play.


So your water soldiers are out already...
Competition (or lack of) for nutrients and/or allelopathy may well be one of the reasons then



Wolf6 said:


> after a lot of rainfall, nearly all plants that live near the surface all suffer leaves dying off/plant decay.


Another great theory to keep an eye on! It has been a very wet summer as well.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. One more observation from me.  I just remembered that a couple of weeks ago,  I pulled out a couple of healthy plants (growing above water level) from the over-grown mini pond shown below. This pond is around 3 or 4 years old, is quite shaded, choked with hornwort, has a thick layer of mulm on the bottom and is covered in duckweed . Interesting how varied their growth can be in different ponds.


killi69 said:


> The pond is still there, hidden between the flowering Lythrum in the picture below, on the right. You would not know it is there, the only give-aways are the vertical leaves of the Typha bulrushes growing in the pond;



I am treating my decking with oil at the moment. It is taking a lot longer than it normally would as so much of it overlaps the water.  I am floating pieces of styrofoam with newspaper on top to absorb any droplets spilling over.  Seems to work quite well with no major oil spills so far 🤞


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## Ady34

Just truly stunning. I bet you spent hours out there enjoying it.
An incredible creation, you must be over the moon.


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## killi69

Thank you so much Ady. I do spend many hours most days out there.  For ages now, it has felt the garden is 95% ready but the final 5% is never ending. I have oiled the curved decking pathway and the decking over the large pond at the back. Still need to do the decking near the house and the board walks. Still have about 100 plants or so to go in, so that is not too bad. And maybe around 20-30 pond baskets and a few tubs with Scirpus needing to be planted up.

I have gone all out on this project but can you believe that I do not even have any garden furniture to sit down in and relax? It has been hard work but I love it really.  It is an amazing view when working from home and often I stroll through the garden when on a work call, pulling out pond weed or watching dragon flies chase each other or whatever. Every day, there are times when I look at the garden, get excited and just can't believe it.  I am very grateful🙏


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## Wolf6

No garden is ever 100%, but this is a work of art man  You can be proud!


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## NatalieHurrell

Incredibly jealous that you have that view while you work!  I've got a long way to go before catching up with you.  This is the pond we inherited with our recent house move.  Still love sitting by it watching the dragonflies, even if it is a 1980s fibreglass eyesore with cemented crazy paving stones.


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## killi69

NatalieHurrell said:


> Incredibly jealous that you have that view while you work! I've got a long way to go before catching up with you. This is the pond we inherited with our recent house move. Still love sitting by it watching the dragonflies, even if it is a 1980s fibreglass eyesore with cemented crazy paving stones.


Thank you Natalie! I agree with you. Whatever the surroundings, the inside of any pond can be just as fascinating. Before I had my own space to build these ponds, I made do with large plastic tubs as mini ponds and still spent many hours each week working on them and enjoying the nature within and wildlife they attracted.



Wolf6 said:


> No garden is ever 100%, but this is a work of art man  You can be proud!


Thank you so much Wolf! I remember how enthusiastic and engaged you were with my gardening plans at the start of this journal, so I really appreciate this 

I have been away for just over a week and was amazed at the growth within that time. I hope to come back with some more updates soon.


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## J-Bonham

This is awesome, I bet a 10 minuet stroll out there soon turns into an hour. 

10/10 for execution, much much better than a traditional lawn and paving...


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## killi69

J-Bonham said:


> This is awesome, I bet a 10 minuet stroll out there soon turns into an hour.
> 
> 10/10 for execution, much much better than a traditional lawn and paving...


Thank you so much J-Bonham👍🏼👍🏼 It is such a blessing to literally have this on my doorstep but you are so right, that happens to me all the time - taking just a quick look at something ending up lasting so much longer!

I do not miss the lawn. The stupid thing is though that after going all out to create this garden, I still do not even own any garden furniture 🤣. So far, the garden has not been a place for me to sit down and relax in but to be honest, I am not even sure if I will ever be that person.  Its all about engaging with the garden which makes being out there so appealling. But getting some comfy chairs is definately a priority for next year!

Apologies for the lack of updates but your post has prompted me to respond. It has been a great first year for the water garden.  I finished oiling all of the decking, although the board walks still need treating. I also spent many days planting up dozens of pond baskets as I still had quite a few crates of marginal plants in 9cm pots tucked away inside the ponds at the back so I could pioritise perennials in pots which desperately needed to go in as they were getting pot-bound. As a very busy summer has come to an end and my drive at the front of the house is almost clear of plants waiting to go in, I finally feel I am getting on top of things.

I will leave just a few photographs for now as a way of an update.  They were all taken in August. I will aim to come back soon with some more.

Front pond:







Middle ponds:







Back ponds:


----------



## killi69

I came across something interesting growing in the pond at the back.







I was going to ask for an ID on here but by co-incidence I just saw someone on Facebook posting the same question with a very similar looking plant. It appears that this is not a plant but an algae (!) called Chara. I found an old post from Darrel from back in 2010 with a bit more information:



dw1305 said:


> ... Charophyte (_Chara _or _Nitella_ spp.) [...] are highly modified green algae that resemble higher plants. They are also called "Stoneworts", as the stems are stiff & calcified (a bit like the marine red algae _Corallina_). They are well known for having extremely large cells.
> 
> They are pretty difficult to I.D to species level, even in the UK. If you find them in the wild it almost indicates good water quality as they are some of the first plants to be lost with increasing eutrophication.
> View attachment 62674
> http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/naturallyscottish/stoneworts/important.asp
> 
> cheers Darrel



This algae (difficult to call it algae and not say plant) seems to originate from a basket containing Potamogeton crispus.  Would it be evergreen/ last through winter, do you think? I read somewhere just now that Chara has some form of a root-like structure to hold itself in the substrate. I also wonder whether there will be a competitive thing going on between the Chara and Potamogeton. I am tempted to remove the Potamogeton to maximise its chances.

It really looks so plant like.  It would be nice if I could keep it going. Tempting to think that it had nodes and you could take a cutting by pinching a bit off.

It is quite good looking and certainly one of the most handsome form of algae I have seen.  Funny enough, I was blessed once before with the surprise appearance of a good-looking algae called Caloglossa which I tied to bog wood in my planted tank like a red looking moss (can be seen among pics in this old post).

Darrel, or anyone else, do you know any more?


----------



## Tyko_N

killi69 said:


> This algae (difficult to call it algae and not say plant) seems to originate from a basket containing Potamogeton crispus.  Would it be evergreen/ last through winter, do you think? I read somewhere just now that Chara has some form of a root-like structure to hold itself in the substrate. I also wonder whether there will be a competitive thing going on between the Chara and Potamogeton. I am tempted to remove the Potamogeton to maximise its chances.


I have seen some _Chara sp._ when out snorkeling here in Sweden, so there are at least some (very) hardy species. The ones I saw were in rather swift water and with plenty of plants in the vicinity, but always close to the surface and exposed to good light so you might want to make sure that it doesn't get overgrown. Good luck growing it, and please tell us if you succeed, I for one would love to try some myself.

(Also: This has to be one of my favorite journals, a dream project over here and so well documented!)


----------



## killi69

Hi Tyko, thank you so much for kind words and sharing your experiences of witnessing Chara growing in wild (snorkeling in Sweden sounds great!).  I will try to keep it from getting overgrown, as you suggest. Today I had another look and cleared some Elodea out of the way. The Chara is actually not growing in a pond basket but in a washing up bowl containing a young Nuphar lutea. Not that it makes much difference but if it was in a basket I would have been able to move it around easier to a position where there were no other plants nearby. I will just have to keep an eye on it and fingers crossed I will still have it in the spring!


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## Tyko_N

Sharing space with the _Nuphar_ might actually be quite a good spot for the _Chara _provided it still gets enough light, I have often seen them growing close to each other in the wild. Is the soil for the _Nuphar_ capped by gravel as well by any chance? Although I have found them on silt bottoms they seem to prefer a coarser substrate, maybe it's easier to attach to, I don't know. They do have quite a nice growth habit when happy though, here is one patch sporulating at the end of summer this year (not going back in the water now, Swedish snorkeling is chilly enough at the best of times  ):


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## mort

killi69 said:


> View attachment 175334



Can you help me out please? I know the plant on the left with the thin willow like foliage (picture attached in your quote) but just can't remember what it is. I've been trying to think of it for the last couple of days but it hasn't come to me. I recommended to a friend for growing round their pond but she lost the name and I've just gone blank.


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## killi69

Hi Mort. It is Helianthus salicifolius, a perennial sunflower. I agree with you, it looks great near a pond. It does tend to topple over a bit this time of the year when it is in flower but that can add to the drama and add to the wild look it creates (or it disappears or blocks pathways which can be annoying)


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## mort

Thanks Killi, now you say that it's obvious what it is but funnily enough it's not what I was thinking of. I don't know if I'm dreaming up new species again but I'm sure I saw something that was very similar in the unusual distinct look, at a local water garden. I may be remembering wrong which is more than likely tbh. 
I've got a mass of those willow leaf sunflowers in my brothers garden and they are so dense and fallen over that they don't look anything like as nice as yours. I might have to thin them out a ton and dot them around the pond. They look alot nicer dotted around rather than massive clumps like ours have grown into. We don't really get to see the lovely foliage just a wall of green.

So thanks for the happy accident. It will be far easier to move some of the sunflowers than to establish something I'd have to by.


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## killi69

Tyko_N said:


> Sharing space with the _Nuphar_ might actually be quite a good spot for the _Chara _provided it still gets enough light, I have often seen them growing close to each other in the wild. Is the soil for the _Nuphar_ capped by gravel as well by any chance? Although I have found them on silt bottoms they seem to prefer a coarser substrate, maybe it's easier to attach to, I don't know. They do have quite a nice growth habit when happy though, here is one patch sporulating at the end of summer this year (not going back in the water now, Swedish snorkeling is chilly enough at the best of times  ):
> View attachment 175655


I found found an interesting factsheet about Stonewort (Chara) by the Freshwater Habitats Trust. It backs up what you said about them preferring mineral substrates like sand, gravel or clay dislike silt. I am going to try taking a cutting and put it in some sand and see what happens.



mort said:


> I've got a mass of those willow leaf sunflowers in my brothers garden and they are so dense and fallen over that they don't look anything like as nice as yours. I might have to thin them out a ton and dot them around the pond. They look alot nicer dotted around rather than massive clumps like ours have grown into. We don't really get to see the lovely foliage just a wall of green.


Great to have so much stock! There is another Helianthus, H. orgyalis, which looks very similar, albeit with leaves which are a bit coarser but which remains upright.

The flopping habit H. salicifolius does have its charm. It remains upright for most of the season but starts leaning over as it flowers;



I was not planning for yellow to be part of the colour scheme but actually it works really well this time of the year to compliment the yellowing Typha reedmace.


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## Courtneybst

Love the golden colour of the Reedmace!


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## killi69

Courtneybst said:


> Love the golden colour of the Reedmace!


Thanks Courtney. I agree, the colour is so striking:




I will share a few more pics as a quick update.

Scirpus tabernaemontani 'Albescens' is doing well in the back pond and looks good surrounded by Selinum wallichianum:


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## killi69

The variegated Norfolk reed growing in tubs with water are doing ok, although they have not gained the height I was hoping they would:


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## mort

I showed your photo to my friend that I went to the water garden with and the first he said was "wow what an amazing garden", then went on to say he gets what I mean about the plant and can see why I was a little confused. Apparently it was a solidago canadensis hybrid, he thinks with an aster, that was part of a trial.
I've always grown golden rod around my pond but the not very subtle common species and think the helianthus look much nicer. I do have solidago fireworks which is better and adds a display this time of year. Think the two could work well together.


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## zozo

sophia42 said:


> Can a $300 range vacuum do a good enough job, or do I cry once, buy once?



I'm not sure what you mean, but if it's about sucking the air out of a water bridge tube to vacuum it and get water in. You will not need a lot of power, you could do it by connecting a hose and sucking with your mouth. Depends on the volume and how long it will take to get all the air out. It only requires a good set of lungs not to get out of breath but very little force. You also could do it with a Vacuum Hand Pump for storage bags.  All about patience or hurry... Doing it with a wet and dry vacuum cleaner (for safety) is a matter of seconds.


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## Yugang

Spring time in Europe, could we have some new pictures please @killi69 ? We'll find and count the hidden Easter eggs


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## Courtneybst

@killi69


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## LondonDragon

There are some more updates on the Insta feed but we want to see lots of photos 






						Login • Instagram
					

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.




					www.instagram.com
				




Also an update on how it's going! @Courtneybst when we doing a roadtrip to see this?


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## NatalieHurrell

I've just messaged on Instagram and been reliably informed that UKAPS updates are on their way.  Happy days!


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## Tim Harrison

I’ll be moving back to MK sooner than later I hope. But in the meantime if @killi69 is hosting a visit count me in too.


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## NatalieHurrell

Tim Harrison said:


> I’ll be moving back to MK sooner than later I hope. But in the meantime if @killi69 is hosting a visit count me in too.


Maybe we should arrange a coach trip 🤣


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## killi69

Thank you @Yugang @Courtneybst @LondonDragon @NatalieHurrell @Tim Harrison for the interest!

The water garden peaked late summer, around September, but autumn was good also. The picture above was taking in early November. Lots of yellow and golden colours as you can see.

I will try to bring the blog up to date over the next couple of weeks or so, but let's start with the oxygenating plants.  Around mid October, I took pictures of some of my favourite ones.



Probably at least 60% of pond plants are Elodea sp, my least favourite but very useful as a fast growing oxygenator and the main oxygenator I used in large quantities to help get the ponds establised.  It also remained evergreen throughout winter.

My favourite genus of oxygenating plants is Potamogeton.

Potamogeton lucens, shining pondweed, is native to UK but only very occasionally available for sale over here. In Holland, it is considered by many to be one of the most important pond plants for its oxygenating and supposed allelopathic properties. It dies back over winter and comes back into action in April. They can be planted quite deep, so in my case at the bottom of my 80cm deep ponds and develop large waxy leaves. The plant is meant to grow quite large. I bought them as young plants from Holland last year and potted them up in June. They grew a bit but did not reach a large size. Hopefully this year, they will really take off.




Potamogeton perfoliatus, clasping leaved pondweed is next. Like lucens, I hope it will really take off this year.



Below;  P. perfoliatus with P. gayi in the pond near my house.



Potamogeton gayi - many of you on this forum will know as an aquarium plant. I started them off as cuttings kindly received from @Wookii. It really performed excellent as a pond plant. It stays evergreen during winter. Initially I was worried that blanket weed might become problemetic with this plant as its stems are very fragile and I could foresee the plant diasappearing  alongside any blanketweed I may remove from its vacinity. I found, however,  that blanket weed did not appear anywhere close to the gayi, which makes me think that maybe it might be allelopathic? Its copper colour and fine leaved texture also make it a very promising plant to work more with.




Potamogeton crispus, curled pondweed, is native to the UK and quite widely available. It starts to grow very early in the season which is useful. Its browny green leaves are quite attractive. It has done quite well and came back strong this spring in the ponds where I planted them.  The pictures below were taken over the last few weeks.




Among the P. crispus in the pic above, the Chara algae, or Stonewort, can be seen to be doing quite well and has grown in size since my last post about this 'plant' back in October last year. I did occasionally clear away Elodea strays which were growing too close to make sure full light can still reach the Chara, as I had read becoming swamped by plants can lead to their demise. Here is a close-up:



I took a cutting from the Chara back in October which has grown a little since. I discovered, in another pond, a decent sized clump of Chara which has established itself independently among the Butomus umbellatus over winter/early spring;




Vallisneria americana (Giant Vallisneria) is another 'aquarium' plant great for in the pond. It also stays evergreen over winter with shortened leaves. In the summer these grow longer and turn a nice reddish brown in full sun (pic taken in Feb).




Last year, I bought some dwarf sag from @dcurzon . It took a while to become established and seems to have done particularly well in shallow water, like here where it was used as underplanting in baskets containing water lillies.







Stratiotes aloides, or water soldier, has been another great under water plant - well, over the winter months anyway, when it is submerged.

I will leave you with a few pics of the plants displayed under a thin layer of ice.

More pics can be found on my instagram  Login • Instagram but the idea is for this journal to record progress with more detailed descriptions.  I will return soon with further updates on the rest of the water garden since the winter.


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## Courtneybst

This is honestly... I'm just so ready. Beautiful photos and thanks for giving us so much useful information too. It's great to get real first hand experiences as opposed to online guides. I'd like to pick your brain on the Elodea as I don't think I've 'planted mine properly'. I'd quite like it to take over!

ALSO! I can't believe you have Chara!!! I've been looking for Chara for so long with no success.


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## NatalieHurrell

Thank you so much for the wonderful update, sharing your knowledge and showing us all what is possible.  I'm glad that such an ambitious project has paid off for you.


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## Tim Harrison

Just fantastic. It’s great you’re posting here as well as Instagram. Even though Instagram is great and I love seeing what’s new, it doesn’t quite have the same impact.


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## Wookii

Fantastic clean growth on those submerged plants, and such clear water, it looks fantastic! I'm glad the P. Gayi worked out well too.

Do you add any fertilizer for the plants, or they just survive on what gets generated naturally?


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## tigertim

Brilliant....how have the fish done over winter, particulary as the ponds had ice over them, what depth are the ponds fish are in ?


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## shangman

What a fabulous teaser, so looking forward to our visit next month! 😍 

It's so impressive how the garden looks beautiful all year round, every one of your posts is just stuffed with goodies.


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## killi69

Courtneybst said:


> This is honestly... I'm just so ready. Beautiful photos and thanks for giving us so much useful information too. It's great to get real first hand experiences as opposed to online guides. I'd like to pick your brain on the Elodea as I don't think I've 'planted mine properly'. I'd quite like it to take over!


Cheers Courtney!!

I planted my Elodea in baskets with clay topsoil and placed them at the bottom of my ponds (80cm depth). I read the other day in one of my Ada Hofman reference books that in her experience, Elodea does better on a shallow marginal pond shelf and that if it is planted deeper than 20cm, the stems become too long and thin and easily break off, causing the plant to become a nuisance by multiplying too much.  I am thinking that this might have happened to me, as I find many of the plants not looking too healthy and it is also exactly those plants which seem to have mbore blanket weed around them.




I have started removing some of the Elodea baskets from my ponds anyway, as a way of thinning them out. I feel I can afford to do this as I still have enough other pond plants left and perhaps this might even encourage some of the others to grow more.
I will cut back the Elodea in some of the baskets and then place them on the shallow shelves and observe the diference.  I will also start grouping the Elodea baskets together more tightly, more away from the other baskets, to prevent them from invading other plants.



NatalieHurrell said:


> I'm glad that such an ambitious project has paid off for you.


Thank you Natalie.  I had the idea in my mind for a long time before I actually started the garden. I remember people telling me my plans were ambitious when I started (and probably they thought I was a bit mad or had bitten off a bit more than I could chew). There is still so much to do. But despite this project still demanding so much of my energy and time, I find it as exciting and engaging as ever, and super rewarding.



Tim Harrison said:


> Just fantastic. It’s great you’re posting here as well as Instagram. Even though Instagram is great and I love seeing what’s new, it doesn’t quite have the same impact.


Thanks Tim. Maybe Insta's reach is bigger but the depth of information exchange and sharing of learning is of better quality  here for sure.



tigertim said:


> Brilliant....how have the fish done over winter, particulary as the ponds had ice over them, what depth are the ponds fish are in ?


Cheers Tim! I don't think ice is problem for fish in ponds, especially if the pond is healthy and there are not a lot of rotting materials present in the water.   The fish are showing themselves again and it is always reassuring to see them appear again in spring.  About half the surface area of the ponds have a depth of 80cm.



shangman said:


> It's so impressive how the garden looks beautiful all year round


Thank you Rosie!!!



Wookii said:


> Do you add any fertilizer for the plants, or they just survive on what gets generated naturally?


I fertilised most plants when I planted them but this year I wont be adding tabs to all the existing plants. To start with, I have hundreds of baskets, so that would be quite a task anyway.  I will focus firstly on those plants which are supposed to be heavy feeders.  To keep track of which ones I have / have not fertilised, I am doing this one species at the time.  So far I have added tabs to Botomus umbellatus, most of the water lillies and the Potamogetons. Vallisneria, Iris, Aponogeton, Hesperantha, Scirpus and Equisetum will be next.  I look at reference books to help me identify which plants might need some feeding and plants which already spread themselves around (a bit too) vigorously will not get any.


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## killi69

To bring this blog up to date, in this post I will share a few pics to show how the wetland garden progressed through both the autumn and the winter months.

Throughout autumn, Sanguisorba 'Blackthorn' was a great addition to the water garden. Its flowers and seedheads provided interest until late in the season. A number of Sanguisorba (burnet) species are associated with wetland environments and this garden variety in particular really helped provide a colourful and vibrant wetland feel to the scape at this time of the year. Because they are so tall, they give a similar feeling as walking through a wetland as you pass through them at either side. For this reason, I hope to expand these this year and create wide stretches of them, cutting across the 'wetland'.







Hesperantha coccinea was the last plant in the garden to flower.







It forms part of the 'low bog' planting scheme which connects the first three ponds from the house. Here, Hesperantha coccinea, Juncus inflexus,  and Acorus 'Ogon' remained in leaf throughout winter.




Hesperantha kept on flowering right through into December.




This is one of the few plants which can grow both in the water as on land. My soil is clay and a bit heavy in places. Like many other South African plants, they can cope with our winters (if not too cold) but they prefer well drained soil. I noticed last month that the leaves of a number of Hesperantha plants in garden soil had rotted at the base. I hope that these plants might still grow back later this season, we will see. In my ponds, they grow with their crowns submerged and possibly partly due to the very mild winter, these came through the winter healthier than their land based counterparts (picture from last week);



I was surprised by this as I had expected this to be the other way round - I was more worried about those left in pond.

Acorus 'Ogon' did do better on land as it did in the water.  Juncus inflexus seems to have done equally well in both environments.

As winter approached, more and more plants died back but I left all the stems and seedheads.






















Then, in early March, I cut back all the dead growth and used it to mulch the soil.










Thank you for watching. I will soon update with my plans for the next phase in the development of the garden.


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## mort

It's amazing, hard to believe it's so young.

I've grown hesperantha in the margins for years and the only time they have suffered was from the blackbirds pulling them up. I even just had a flush of flowers from our red one which I don't remember flowering at this time of year before.

Do you grow pesicaria bistorta? I was up in the lake district last autumn and it was happily still flowering then and it's pink might compliment your sanguisorba. There was also lots of aster tripolium growing on the edges of the lakes which might extend your flowering period.


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## killi69

Thanks @mort 🙋🏽‍♂️


mort said:


> I've grown hesperantha in the margins for years and the only time they have suffered was from the blackbirds pulling them up. I even just had a flush of flowers from our red one which I don't remember flowering at this time of year before.


That's good to hear (aside from the blackbirds!).



mort said:


> Do you grow pesicaria bistorta? I was up in the lake district last autumn and it was happily still flowering then and it's pink might compliment your sanguisorba. There was also lots of aster tripolium growing on the edges of the lakes which might extend your flowering period.


That sounds realy great!  it is so inspiring to look at planting communities in the wild.

I did consider Persicaria bisorta and agree with you that it would look great and match existing planting.  In the end, I went for Persicaria affinis 'Superba', which looks very similar. I was/ I am trying to bring together Persicaria amphibia growing in the water with a Persicaria which looks very similar on land, to create the illusion that the same plant is streching across both environments as they would do in a real water-marsh type situation. It did not work well last year as P. amphibia did not flower. Possibly this might be because I need to plant them deeper, with more water over their crown.  Currenly they have up to 20cm over their crown, so I will be placing them deeper this year to see if that makes a difference.

I just took some photographs of the Persicaria to share. You can see the P. affinis spreading really well.




In fact, is it spreading so well, it is even sending out runners into the water, kind of doing part of the job I had planned for P. amphibia.  This will actually help as in order to move P. amphibia into deeper water, I need to move them another 30cm or so away from the edge.




Here is a close up where you can just about see new shoots from P. ambibia poking out of the water, alongside the runners from P. affinis moving into the water.


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## Courtneybst

It looks amazing in every season! Echoing what's been said already, it's hard to believe this is so young.

The colours and textures just blend perfectly and the windy wooden path ties it all together like an ancient tapestry. I particularly like the shot below where you can see deep into the water, it reminds me of some of the imagery from Chris Lukhaup. The fish must be in their element!


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## Ginkgo

This is my favourite journal of all time, I look forward to it every spring! just leaving a comment so I'll be apart of this legendary thread 😊


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## killi69

Courtneybst said:


> The colours and textures just blend perfectly and the windy wooden path ties it all together like an ancient tapestry. I particularly like the shot below where you can see deep into the water, it reminds me of some of the imagery from Chris Lukhaup.


Thank you Courtney



Ginkgo said:


> This is my favourite journal of all time, I look forward to it every spring! just leaving a comment so I'll be apart of this legendary thread 😊


That is so nice of you to say, and so funny. Thank you Ginkgo!!!


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## killi69

Today, I am posting a bit about blanketweed and algae. There is blanket weed in most of my ponds.  I have found over the years that blanket weed comes in different forms and stages.  Most of the blanket weed I have at the moment is at the stage of where it starts to die off and float (see pic below), and  can be easily removed with a net.




I know that in some ponds blanketweed can be absolutely everywhere but right now in my ponds, it is more sporadic, with some plants being more affected than others. Potamogeton gayi, P. lucens and P. crispus, for example, seem to have less blanketweed around them while Elodea has significant amounts and, to some extent, so does giant Vallisneria.

Maybe I am wrong,  but at the moment I am going by the theory that healthily growing plants might be less troubled by blanket weed. Vallisneria (giant Vallis) has not yet started to grow and tends to have some blanketweed. I am hoping that as the weather gets warmer, the Vallis will take off again and might have less blanketweed on its leaves.

I recent wrote about Elodea;


killi69 said:


> I planted my Elodea in baskets with clay topsoil and placed them at the bottom of my ponds (80cm depth). I read the other day in one of my Ada Hofman reference books that in her experience, Elodea does better on a shallow marginal pond shelf and that if it is planted deeper than 20cm, the stems become too long and thin and easily break off, causing the plant to become a nuisance by multiplying too much. I am thinking that this might have happened to me, as I find many of the plants not looking too healthy and it is also exactly those plants which seem to have mbore blanket weed around them.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I have started removing some of the Elodea baskets from my ponds anyway, as a way of thinning them out. I feel I can afford to do this as I still have enough other pond plants left and perhaps this might even encourage some of the others to grow more.
> I will cut back the Elodea in some of the baskets and then place them on the shallow shelves and observe the diference. I will also start grouping the Elodea baskets together more tightly, more away from the other baskets, to prevent them from invading other plants.



Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinning out Elodea from most of my ponds.  In three of the ponds (big pond at the back - middle pond - and the one in between)  I removed half the baskets of Elodea altogether and the remaining baskets of Elodea I cut back.

Here is an example of a more unhealthy looking basket of Elodea. Baskets looking like this I removed;




This example is in better shape. Baskets like this, I kept and trimmed right back;








I also fertilised the baskets but not all of them, so that later on I can tell the difference in plant health and perhaps even if they might be affected by blanketweed differently;




I am hoping that the other plants in the ponds might perform better also, with less competition from the Elodea.  Cutting back the Elodea so hard is an experiment for me as I have never been so ruthless before in removing so much plant mass in one go. I am aware that I run the risk of a backlash in the form of an explosion of algae or blanket weed over the coming weeks but I am counting on the fact that I still have a large amount of baskets remaining and hope that these will be spurred on by removing competition from Elodea.

Another reason for cutting back the Elodea is that I wanted more growing space for the other plants.  It was useful in the beginning to have access to lots of Elodea to control the algae but now I have a more varied and greater stock of other ponds plants, I really want to try out different combinations and groupings to see what can be achieved visually, as well as practically in terms of keeping a healthy pond.

If cutting back the Elodea proves to be a succesful way to maintain the vigour of the plant, I will certainly do so earlier next year as newts have already returned to the ponds, so it was not really a great time for me to be removing plants during their breeding season.

Here a few pictures of inside the ponds.

The large pond at the back is definately a success story.  Probably I think because of the ratio of deeper parts (80cm) to shallower parts - this pond has the largest ratio of deeper water and least amount of blanket weed, especially now the Elodea has been removed which had quite a bit tangled among it.   It has baskets of Elodea, Potamogeton lucens, P. crispus, giant Vallis, and Myriophyllum 'Red Stem';




The next pond towards the front is a smaller pond, which sits between the large pond at the back and the middle pond. Potamogeton crispus does very well in this pond, as it does in the large pond at the back.  There is also some Vallis in here.   I removed Elodea and replaced with baskets of Potamogeton lucens and Myriophyllum 'Red Stem'.  This pond is probably the most shaded out of all of them but is only shaded for part of the day.  There is also hornwort in this pond which prefers the shade. Unfortunately, hornwort disappears easily during blanketweed removal (hornwort is not rooted and therefore easily gets caught up with blanketweed being pulled out).




I forgot to take a picture of the middle pond but will share a video at the end of this post, which shows the middle pond.  This pond had the most Elodea growing and the most amount of blanketweed also. I removed two thirds of baskets of Elodea and added baskets of Potamogeton lucens and Myriophyllum 'Red Stem'. It also has Vallis.

The pond next to my house is also doing well.  Here you can see how the blanketweed seems mainly concentrated around the Elodea at the top of the picture, and to some extent the Vallis (bottom/left). The Potamogeton gayi, P. perfoliatus and P. lucens (right/bottom right) seem less affected.  I have thinned out the Elodea in this pond but thought I should 'play it safe' in at least one pond and did not cut back drastically as I have in the others. Also, it will be interesting to see if the blanketweed might just disappear by itself.




One pond where things have not gone too well, is the smaller pond which sits in between the large pond at the front and the middle pond.  This pond contains a population of Aphanius mentho. Here is a video taken back in March, where you can see some of them.


The problem is that the water over the last three weeks is turning green and I need to take some urgent measures.

18 April 2022;




24 April 2022; I noticed water starting to turn a bit 'milky'




08 May 2022




I am not sure what is causing this problem. I did not remove Elodea baskets from this pond, nor did I remove other pond plants, which otherwise would have been an obvious explanation.

The Aphanius mentho population was becoming a bit large, with too many youngsters from last year. A high bio load could cause problems, especially without filtration but on the other hand, these are still small fish. Also, I do not feed the fish in my ponds, so I wonder how much bio load can really be added to the system?

When the water at first was turning a bit 'milky', I did think whether this could be caused by bacterial issues and was wondering whether the cause might be a dead animal or something fallen into the water which might be polluting it or something?  But I can't detect any foul smell and there has been no scum floating on the surface.

Last year, I did not have any problems with green water.

Whatever the cause, I need to add some more oxygenating plants to combat the green water and maybe even install some shade netting.  For now, I placed another basket of Elodea in there, both to compete against the green algae in the water and provide more surface cover.

I will leave you with a video with more views of inside the ponds.  In future updates, I will share more about the individual types of submerged/ oxygenating pond plants, as well show pics of  the rest of the garden which is really starting to look great, and of course let you know how I am getting on with the green water in the mentho pond.


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## Tim Harrison

Great to see it at the beginning of the growing season, looking forward to seeing it as the season progresses.


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## Yugang

Psssttt @killi69  , we don't expect weekly updates ....  
Please?


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## LondonDragon

Yugang said:


> Psssttt @killi69  , we don't expect weekly updates ....
> Please?


Think he has a full time job maintaining that garden let alone time to post haha follow the Intagram account, regular updates there


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## Yugang

Often think about this wonderful garden, really one of my favorite threads. So much of @killi69  work and dedication went into it.
Hope that it comes safely through this extreme and dry summer.


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## killi69

Thank you so much @Yugang, much appreciated. Sorry I have been absent for a while but after reading your super-kind message, I felt a quick response would be appropriate.

It has been another busy year in the water garden. I built a new path at the back, with new 'water meadow' style planting area in between the new path and the back pond. I dug in a few more tubs with reeds and at the start of the season bought many hundreds more plants which took me months to get planted (and still have 100s more on my drive in the front).

I am not looking forward to seeing my water bill but the garden and plants survived the heatwave fine. I think I topped up the ponds about four times over the summer when levels dropped more than 10-15cm.

I will post a couple of pics for now and hopefully as winter kicks in and I get a break from the garden, I can give a bit more detailed account. In the meantime, more regular, brief updates are made on my Instagram @water_meadow_gardening

Regards, Andre

Front pond:





Middle ponds:







Back pond:



(Photo above by Sarah Cuttle)




New 'water meadow planting' and path at back:










And finally, a highlight of the year was when @Courtneybst and @shangman visited the water garden back in June.  I was proud to show them the garden and we had a really great day exchanging ideas and experiences.


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## shangman

Me on UKAPS ignoring the beautiful garden behind me 

The new woodland area at the back looks amazing already! I love the path (as always such a creative way to use what you already have and make it look so elegant) and the new planting, and it's so good how you've mixed in the fruit trees with such ease. Honestly gang it's eve more beautiful IRL, especially seeing all the wildlife and fish up close living their best lives. A proper hidden eden.


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## Courtneybst

This garden never ceases to amaze me, despite seeing it in person! 

The new additions look great too, especially the way you laid the planks on their side and backfilled the gaps.


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