Pond Matters

The pond has been a big point of contention in this house.  There have been several near-showdowns over differing styles and visions for the house and garden and it the end a treaty was drawn up which decreed ....  The look of the interior of the house is my domain and my husband is in charge of outdoors and his 'precious' office (ok I'm still seething that he won't allow me to keep the tumble dryer in there, a fact that I'm reminded of each day because its currently taking up residence in the corner of the dining room).

Back to the pond.

My immediate reaction was to drain it and get rid.  We don't know the first thing about ponds and the temptation for the kids put things or themselves in there will be too great.

My husband, inspired by his Nigerian culture wanted to set up a "point and kill" (these are commonplace in fish restaurants in Nigeria, you choose what food will appear on your plate, straight from the tank where it is happy swimming around, "you can't get fresher than that" .... apparently).

This caused no end of arguments ... maybe I fell for that one hook line and sinker (if you'll pardon the pun!).

Thankfully good sense prevailed and he decided in the end that he would drain the pond, clean it up, salvage what plants and finally add some fish.  He also decided to pave around the perimeter of the pond to preserve the grass that was rapidly turning into a mud bath on his way back and forth to the office.

This is probably the best "before" picture I have of the pond, from the estate agents literature.  You can see how the grass was getting worn away (left hand side of the picture)

He researched on the internet and over a period of about 2 weeks, completely drained the pond (and the sludge at the bottom), hosed down the pond lining, refilled it, fixed the filter and pump, installed the fountain, salvaged the plants that could be saved and paved all around the edge.

It looked amazing, the pond was crystal clear, so clear in fact that we decided that we needed to get some slate or stones to hide the pond lining which was spoiling the look.  (B&Q large blue slate chippings)

We were advised to let the pond be for a couple of weeks before stocking it with fish, and we noticed in teh final week that the pond started to turn murky.  We found a great garden centre / nursery, Woodcote Green, that we never knew existed and had a look around.  We got lots of inspiration and could have spent a fortune.  After a look around I asked one the staff for some help.  "We've just set up the pond.  Can you recommend some hardy fish that are really REALLY hard to kill.  I don't want anything temperamental that will turn up its fins at the slightest change in environment ...... I have £20 to spend".  He gave me a bit of a dubious look, I think he was in two minds as to whether he should sell me any fish but took us over to a couple of varieties of goldfish and shubunkins.

I managed to keep the kids from terrorising the fish on the way home by telling them could chose 10 each and they had to name them.  Lewis chose a variation on a theme, he got as far as Jacob .... Jake .... Jack.  Layla named hers after her nursery school friends.

We let the fish out of the bag as soon as the temperatures had equalised.  I don't know if you have ever watched Finding Nemo but the fish bascially did a "Marlin" and shot to the safety of a grass-like plant in the pond .... and stayed there.  We were told they would be a little shy at first but would soon be appearing at the surface if we looked like we might feed them.  Two weeks on, they are still kinda shy .... not sure how much of that is to do with Layla who is their equivalent of "Darla", all she needs are the braces!  I not sure if fish can hear (I hope not) because she's taken to sitting on the edge of the pond and screaming "Come out and play fishies" .... or, on more scary occasions screeching "Here's Layla!!!"  with a bit of a gleam in her eye.

<tumbleweeds>

Anyway .....

Over the next few days, the murky water turned into pea soup, the only reassurance we had that the fish were surviving was the fact that none were floating on the surface!

.... that is until a friend clued me in that the fish could be getting picked off by herons!  To be honest I don't have the will to get up at dawn to see if they are any herons flying in for breakfast.  I'm working on two theories (a) we live 12 miles from central London and its too 'urban' for herons and (b) if there are any herons they can't see any further through the pea soup than I can.

Through a various sources we have learnt that the pea soup is algae, its common at this time of year, the plants haven't recovered enough after winter to do their 'circle of life' thing that sorts out the algae and if we get plants that cover the surface of the water and prevent some of the direct sunlight hitting the pond, it can help.  My rose-tinted version of a pond with white water lilies was suddenly looking less rose-tinted and we were back off to the garden centre in pursuit of water-lilies and some pond-clear treatment.

I got my white water lily.  Its a 'baby' plant so at the moment its lurking beneath the surface of the water but I've been told they grow pretty fast so pictures to follow of that.

The pond treatment is working (very) slowly but surely.  We put the treatment in 3 days ago and the water has cleared enough that WE CAN SEE THE FISH (only managed to count 6, we'll worry about that when the pond is clear enough for a proper 'tail'count).

In the meantime here is a picture of the pond-end of the garden and Martins 'supervising' Layla feeding the fish.