Pond Life

From the start we wanted a pond – but it takes a Covid lockdown to provide enough time to make one!  

The Pond is the first part of a larger Japanese influenced ‘Stroll’ garden – with the aim of creating a peaceful understated space to sit and relax.

Unfortunately before we could start we had to hack back the rampant bamboo that we had allowed to get out of control.  People don’t often consider a pickaxe a gardening tool but it is absolutely the right one for the job.  You also need to be super vigilant as the smallest piece of root is enough to send a shoot rocketing into the air.  I can’t help but think that the shoots look slightly evil!

Once the ground had been cleared of the bamboo and nettles we had to dig the hole.  The shape is a traditional Japanese one – apparently originally based on a Chinese character for ‘heart’.  Fortunately the soil is very sandy and relatively easy to shovel.  It was exhausting nonetheless – it needs to be at least a metre deep in areas to ensure that it never freezes over at the weekend.  Several days in and I was wondering why we didn’t use a digger.  Ultimately it was good exercise and it did mean that I could keep an eye on the stray bamboo roots.  At the some point it did look as though open cast mining had arrived at the Suffolk Coast.

Unfortunately we had to fill the pond with tap water.  It’s not ideal – a waste of drinking water – but to try and wait for rain water in Suffolk could take years.  It does mean with all that chlorine it was initially a very wildlife – friendly environment.  That said, it is amazing how quickly life finds it’s way in.  Pond skaters, water boatmen and mosquito larvae (!) moved in pretty quickly.  Fortunately for us (less for the mosquitos), after a couple of weeks, our neighbor came round, with an ice cream tub full of smooth newts. 

They had been quietly hibernating under a concrete slab.  They were a little surprised to be tipped (gently of course) into the pond, but they have settled in.  The pond has three pebble beaches and shallow areas to allow creatures to find their way in and out.  Next year we will be on the look out for frog spawn to add to our amphibian collection.

A few weeks later, once the pond had settled in and sourced ten Rudd (muddy brown with orange fins) from a friend’s pond and then added in a couple Tench (bottom feeders that I haven’t actually seen – but they are there).  They are now swim around in a shoal.  We just have to hope that the herons don’t spot them or else it would be short lived.  They seem happy enough as the pond is now full of fry.

We have planted plants on the banks with traditional Japanese plants – Japanese holly, that can be clipped into mounds, azalea, hostas, acers, Solomon’s Seal, black Ophiopogon, Liriope and ferns.  They are all small plants so they look a little teletubby at the moment but hopefully they will mature in a few years into something respectable.