How to pimp your pond

It's only fair to share...

Or better „You can always make something even better out of what you have!” like a use to say. This weekend I decided to make the pond which is in my garden better than it already is. A pond on its own is amazing. It changes the micro climate in my garden, I have always something to look at and the animals in there are breathtaking.

My pond hosts 3 different kinds of dragon flies (red, blue and green), I have 2 big frogs, 6 grass snakes and uncountable bugs and insects. If that wouldn´t be enough, I got a water lily that is unbelievable beautiful and has up to tree flowers at once. For me it´s fun to just observe the pond, there is always something happening and I never get bored. It´s like watching a wildlife documentation, but I can sit on my porch swing!

Here are some impressions of the pond, as I got it in July 2015:

These are from later on, as I already started to clean the pond, to get some more oxygen in and a lot of nutrition out of the pond:

Today was all about securing the banks. As you can see it´s the blank plastic film to keep the water inside the pond. Except from the point that it´s really not pretty, it´s also a challenge for plants and animals. As the sun heats the water and banks up, no plant is able to root there, they will just be burned away.

If animals try to go for a drink and fall in, don´t have a big chance of getting out of it again if the water stand is low because they don´t get any grip on the plastic film. As I love my plants and animals, I wanted to change that.

Getting some input and plants from Daniel, who already owns two ponds, I was unstoppable! First I needed to fill some sand into linen bags. Sand is not as rich as topsoil, so it will not spoil the water of the pond as much as topsoil and it keeps the water pretty well for the purpose.

Then I remove the stones to put the sand bags underneath. At the same time, I cleaned out the area from grass, collected earthworms for my compost and planted new plants around the pond. In some areas of the bank I cut some holes into the bags to plant some water plants there. I don´t need much for it, as the plants will root easily and will cover the banks in no time.

New impressions of the 27th of April:

Around the pond the fern will regrow, my new water mint will root and the yucca palms will flower again. I´m so looking forward to it! I keep you posted…

If you have any more ideas for the pond, please let me know.

Want to see more pictures of the pond developement? Have a look!