April and May brought me two essentials for gardening – rain and lots of public holidays!
The first early rains in April allowed me to fulfill my New Year garden plans. Those of you that follow Fer's Garden in Japan will remember his Carnival and all the great ideas we had for our gardens.
My dream was to build a second pond in the garden. After the first early rains in April the ground was a little softer - allowing us to dig.
The next few public holidays gave us time to cart all the rocks to the back garden - lots of aching muscles after that.
Hard to see in in the photo's but we have a little river bed leading from the old pond into the new one. We have a lot of pots in the bottom of the pond with aquatic plants. I am a little frustrated that I couldn't find any indigenous aquatics at our local nurseries - I gave up after visiting at least five different nurseries. A friend came to the rescue with our local Waterblommetjies (Aponogeton distachyos) and Vallisneria. I have planted Cape thatching reed, Arum lilies ( Zantedeschia aethiopica), ferns (Rumorha adiantiformis )and Aristea major around the pond. On the drier ledge near the pool paving I have Crassula falax, Crassula coccinea and Ficinia indica.
It still looks rather bare but I am sure that in a few months it will all be lush and green.
Looks great! I wondered what you had been up to all this time (missed your posts), but now I know. Your pond is certainly surrounded by some UNPRONOUNCABLES! :)
ReplyDeleteOh my that is lovely and I am so jealous, not one but TWO ponds! Does the same water circulate through them through the river bed or are there two separate pumps?
ReplyDeleteHi Mark - those Latin names are a mouthful. When I go to the nursery I take a written list of plants I am looking for, I don't even try and pronounce them!
ReplyDeleteHi Africanaussie - The beauty of these ponds is that they are both simple wildlife ponds - no pumps or filters. Our next big job is to channel the rainwater from our garage roof into the first pond, when this gets too full it will overflow into the river and run into the second pond. These ponds are so simple to make anyone can have one. Our new pond was covered in algae for about 10 days but with the aid of the plants it is all clear now.
We still have a gentle haze of algae on our pond after we repaired and refilled. But each time it rains the algae gets smacked down.
ReplyDeleteWith patience, reeds and sedges and grasses come to live in the pond. Maddening that almost all the water plants we can buy are aliens. Even the prohibited invasives, like water hyacinth, are for sale!!
What about the Kniphofia that like wet feet? You can, if you persevere, find marsh loving indigenous bulbs for sale. The vlei lily?
Hope you will bring us monthly updates on how your pond grows. It looks glorious and I'm glad to see you blogging again ;~)
Hi Diana
ReplyDeleteI would love to have Kniphofia , but Hubby for some strange reason hates it, I have had to concede to his wishes since he did most of the hard labour. I sometimes wonder if the owners of our nurseries live on another planet - don't they know that an increasing majority of customers are looking for indigenous plants?
Aż zazdroszczę, ze masz miejsce w ogrodzie na dwa stawy. W swoim 300 m kwadratowych ogródka mam małe oczko wodne i cieszę się nim. Pozdrawiam serdecznie
ReplyDelete"As much as I envy that you have a place in the garden of the two ponds. In its 300 square meters garden, I have a small pond and I am happy with it. Yours sincerely" I have used Google Translate Toolkit to translate Giga's comment above.
ReplyDeleteThanks for following. I think a pond adds interest and enjoyment to any garden - large or small.
Hi garden girl!
ReplyDeleteI love the pond! I'm amazed that it works so well without pumps and filters.
Greetings to all from far away Germany!
Lisa
Hi Lisa
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking. All well in not so sunny SA. Love to all there.
I love your new pond! we have one and a couple of small water features, but I'd love another pond or two. They certainly add something very special to a garden.
ReplyDeleteNice pond! Greetings from north,
ReplyDeleteK / FIN
Hi K
ReplyDeleteNice to have a follower from Finland. MANY years ago when I was still at school and internet never existed, I had a pen friend from Finland.
It looks wonderful. While the aches are never any fun, you can nonetheless rest easy with that satisfied feeling that you created a fine pond for your garden.
ReplyDelete