Hardy Tropicals UK

Here is a few pictures of the pond being constructed. I had problems this year with really green, pea soup type water. I have waterlillies and loads of oxygenating weed in there so I hope that this year it will stay clearer without the need for any chemical or external filtering. I am going to pop a block of barley straw into it in the spring to hopefully help it too.

I have got a medium sized pump running just to get some water flow and for a soothing trickle sound.
I have a few goldfish and a couple of ghost koi in there, plus loads of frogs that I rescued from a building site that was being cleared ready for groundworks!

Get a filter and UV.......also, does it get full sun ?

Yes Coddy it's in full sun for most of the day. I'm hoping that if I can get a good coverage of Lilly leaves this year, that it will stay clear. I have had a couple of ponds in full sun before and they have been ok. I seem to remember reading that it takes a pond about 3 years to establish and stablise.
If I can't get it right this year then a uv will be on the cards!

My mum uses a green genie in her pond, keeps it crystal clear.

Google it

What an amazing transformation! Love it!
You've obviously worked really hard and you deserve to sit and relax in it...but do you?
I used to have a pond in full sun so I put barley bags in near the pump. It worked a treat while I waited for the miscanthus to shade it every summer.

Ness

Thanks for the tips!

Ness, I would love to say that I sit and enjoy it but I usually spot something that needs doing and that's it, off I go again!! I think I did manage to sit and enjoy it for one Saturday afternoon last year! Yes a whole afternoon, lazy aren't I?!!

Love the pond Springy, ponds and water features are an integral part of a garden I think.

Just a shame I don't have room for a larger one, I'd love to fill one with plants and fish.

GoggleboxUK wrote:Love the pond Springy, ponds and water features are an integral part of a garden I think.

Just a shame I don't have room for a larger one, I'd love to fill one with plants and fish.

I know what you mean. In my first scribbled plans of the garden, I had drawn the pond dissecting the garden in half, going across at an angle and then having a bridge or stepping stones to connect the two halves of garden together. I decided that I wanted more space for plants so drew up the plans with it where it is now.

I often jot down different ideas on paper thinking that I will have a go at including them somewhere. I find sketches usually left as bookmarks and I can be fun finding them long after I did them. Some become projects and some don't!

These are some pictures taken this morning. Last night was the coldest it has been so far this winter.
I realise that the wrapped Bananas, cannas, gingers and dahlias don't look particularly pretty but hopefully it is doing the job. It was my intention to cover the white fleece in hessian or weed suppressing fabric but I haven't got round to it!

I noticed today that the Melianthus major has started flowering so I hope the frost doesn't kill the buds.

did you say the Phoenix canariensis_CIDP and some heat added ??

So what are the plants you have wrapped...Dicksonia antarctica's and musa's ?

The garden is beautiful Springy,

I love the sound of water in the garden.

what was the temp ?

ive yet to see my trachys looked like this!

Coddy, in the large covered cages there is musa basjoo. I lost my one tree fern last year!
The small clumps of fleece are covering various dahlias including tree dahlias, gingers, cannas and just behind the gravel area beside the pond there is the clump of Chinese banana that I first bought, that got me into tropicals in the first place. It must be at least 4 years old and can be seen in the earlier pictures!

Oh and the pheonix canariensis (Phoenix canariensis_CIDP) won't be protected unless the temperature is forecast to be less than -5. If they forcast colder than -5 then it will be wrapped in fleece!

Cordy, I've just looked at the temp for last night and it dipped to -2.6c
By around 8 in the morning most of the plants near my outhouse are bathed in sunshine after a clear, frosty night so I don't think the plants suffer the cold too long! The sensor for the temperature is about 2' away from the house wall so I'm sure that down the end of the garden, the temp must have been lower. The area from the washing line up to the back fence does not see any direct sunshine in the winter and the frost stayed on the grass all day despite the temperatures increasing!