Ideas to buck up my tired pond please

What about one stickleback .

 

I can agree with comments on not to put fish in, it depends on how far you want to go, ive only put two small gold fish in and I will let them fend for themselves, the fish will grow to the size for the pond depending on what's naturally in there,

I've still brought wildlife into my garden that normally wouldn't have been there, so I cant really complain,

As mentioned in another thread I have a camera over the pond, I do enjoy watching the fish hunt at night so they do give me some pleasure waiting for other things to turn up.

 

Update: I have now revamped the pond! Thank you all for your encouragement and practical advice - I might not have tackled it without that.

Pictures below. I thought I had taken some as I was going along but must have erased them off the camera somehow. Anyway, the old pond (visible in the first post on the thread) was a sort of hip-bath shape, with a shelf about 2 feet deep to the left and then to the right the main section, about five feet deep. It was quite solidly constructed, a flexible liner over sandy concrete.

Knowing I didn't want the new pond to be as large or as deep, I took out the liner in the main section and filled the bottom three and a half feet with rubble, the broken-down top section (because it was the wrong shape for the new pond) and sand, to provide a base for the new rigid pond liner. To the left I retained the old shelf section (including the liner) and filled it with the rocks from around the pond, to form a sort of flat rockery - a bit like a limestone pavement. I've installed my collection of sempervivums (a great favourite of mine), an agave and a crassula in that area. Round the pond there's a sedge papyrus (just next to the spot where the pond will overflow, which I reckon it will enjoy), the chaenomeles and ceratostigma (with the blue flowers) which were already there, a dwarf bamboo, a couple of saxifrages, a tradescantia, a Mexican fleabane and a lowgrowing fuchsia, Sunray. A bit of a scratch collection - mostly what was there before/ plants that had outgrown their spots elsewhere. In the pond for the time being too there's a rescued waterlily (may prove too vigorous), pondweed and frogbit, plus an experimental zantedischia (the RHS says they like being grown in shallow water).

I am quite pleased with myself I must say - it was a mucky sweaty job but satisfying. Right now of course it all still looks rather bare but the plants will soon grow I am sure, and of course I now have a good excuse to buy a few more! I was wondering about a solar water fountain too, as the old one has packed up - are they any good? I don't require a Versailles-style display, but a gentle bubble/ gurgle while I am sitting on the patio would be nice.

Hopefully the wildlife will enjoy it too - having taken the advice about fish on board, I managed to rehome mine with a neighbour. I had to eject a couple of fine large frogs during the installation so fingers crossed they come back!

 

The only thing about pre formed liners is getting the edges to look natural. Did try one many moons ago and found that Mind Your Own Business helps to disguise edges though has to be kept in check as it can take over.

 

Yes, MYOB is present elsewhere in the garden and probably planning a takeover even now! I actually don't mind seeing the edges, at least for the time being. The saxifrages and the tradescantia should grow over in due course - one of the saxifrages is a bit of a thug in fact and will have to be kept in check.

 

Yes you are so right Armandii, get it slightly off balance and it'll be a right pain. Give me a rubber type pond liner any day.

 

It's about a year since I did the work so I thought I'd post some photos taken today, showing how everything's settled in.

The preformed liner has worked well and as the plants grow its edge becomes less conspicuous, I've also done a bit of camouflaging with broken roof slates, pebbles and logs. The soil to the front and right of the pond itself is very shallow but sedums and dianthus deltoides ('Arctic Fire' and 'Leuchtfunk') are doing well, though not at present in flower. To the left is a shallow tank filled with gravel and ferns that was always there, now with a birdbath (a big secondhand stone fruit bowl) poised on the parapet behind. Behind that the stones from the old rockery form a sort of 'limestone pavement' with sempervivums and more dianthus deltoides - these ones are "Microchip", grown from seed this year.

Behind the pond grow a white-flowered chaenomeles and a ceratostigma, both doing well, and a rather grotty grass which will get the chop when I find something nicer. The plants in the pond itself are flourishing - these were mostly off ebay, and arrived in the post in jiffy bags. I'm especially pleased with the waterlily (Nymphaea pigma rubra) - that is its fifth or sixth flower. Frogbit, bog bean, water mint, water forget-me-not, zantedischia and other marginals are growing in homemade bags in a shallow trough round the pond edge.

The wildlife seems to enjoy it too - the birds use both the birdbath and the pond, I see butterflies and other insects drinking too. Red and blue damselflies visit and I have a semi-resident frog who seems to split his/her time between there and the bank at the far end of the garden.

 

That looks really nice @Clare G ; you should be very pleased! Isn't frogbit an interesting plant? I had never heard of it when I read that it was good for wildlife but I'm glad I included it in my pond. Did yours flower this year?

 

Yes, the frogbit is something I saved from the previous pond in fact, @Redwing. This year it's been multiplying like crazy and flowering for the first time, too. Very pretty. I think it likes conditions in the new pond better - the water is shallower than the old one, so gets warmer. The new pink waterlily which arrived as a tiny thing in a jiffy bag back in March has also grown amazingly rapidly. On the other hand the new pond is I suspect too shallow for the nymphaea chromatella from the old pond, but which has only produced one flower. It's very interesting to see what does, and what doesn't!

 

It looks fantastic Clare nice work well done.

 

Is the small leaved plant on the left Brooklime? Small blue flowers? I planted that too and it is growing well.

 

Bottom left with the small leaves is mentha pulegium (pennyroyal). Hasn't flowered yet but the flowers are lilac-coloured. Bottom right is a water forget me not (Myosotis scorpioides), that should have blue flowers.

Some of the marginals may try to outgrow their space, I suspect, but the bag-and-trough system should make it relatively easy to keep everything under control.

 

I can't believe how clear the water is, my barrel is choked with blanket weed.