Saturday, 6 June 2015

Project Pond

I wanted to make a small pond, on a tight budget and without digging any holes!

The perfect place for this is on the patio, at the back of the garage. The only problem with this space is a lack of sunshine, so any plants here will need to be fine in the shade.

I wanted my ‘pond’ to be big enough to have a few plants and a water pump providing a small fountain. My next step was to find a suitable container. Initially I thought a modern faux-lead looking planter made from fibreclay would look good and be ideal. I didn’t realize just how expensive these were and I was going to have to fill-in the drainage holes…somehow!

My next thought was an old metal water tank out of a loft, I could pick one up from a salvage yard for next to nothing. How wrong I was! These are desired items, and there was no guarantee they could still hold water, either.

This brought me round to my final idea – a galvanized drinking trough for cattle. Bingo! I sourced one from farm supplies, which measured 3ft long by 1.5ft wide and 1.5ft deep and for far less money than any of the other options.

Pleased as punch, I picked up my cattle trough, bought a few bricks and some slate chips and headed home to build my ‘pond’.


 The worst, and most time consuming part was rinsing the slate chips before adding them to the bottom of the pond. Once this was done I filled it up with water. Ta Daa!

After leaving it overnight to settle, I headed off, excitedly, to a local aquatics place for a pump and a few plants. My Mum had also donated some variegated grasses and flag irises from her garden to add to my pond collection.

With the addition of some potted plants around the pond, my project was finished.




…although…

I was tempted…

In having a couple of gold fish swimming around, but came to the conclusion that they poop too much for my liking.

Instead, I found Trixi – a lady in a stripy swimming costume, meant to be an ornament in an aquarium, but looked great in the pond, adding a little bit of fun, and the perfect finishing touch.


Till next time...



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