The Pond

[Melissa]

We started the pond way back in 2003 is been a long journey but at last we have water in it now

It's not finished yet but this is the start of the story

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These first 2 show the land before we started work, 03

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We had a digger in for 2days to flatten the area

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Day 2, the pond shape was roughly dug out

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2004, starting to get some plants around the area

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Keith looking at how much he's got to dig out

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Digging out the pond 05

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Starting to build the retaining walls

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It's getting late so next instalment to come tomorrow

Melissa

[Steve in D.C.]

Wow , what a dream pond. I'm sure you could grow the odd Tropical Water Lily in there and get a Lotus bed going. N.capensis and N. Pamela are two Tropicals that will grow with less heat than many. I started with N . capensis seeds a few years ago and got flowers in eight months.
Cannot wait for the next lot of pics
Later
Steve

[kentgardener]

Hi Melissa

did you plan for it to be that big from the start? Or did Keith get carried away with the digging?

regards

John

[Dave Brown]

Wow Melissa Having seen the completed hole, and helped get the liner down there, I did not have a clue about the history of it. Definately a long term project Built like Rome.... not in a day. At least you appear to have a sand base ........ my soil is super heavy clay apparently heavier than lead looking forward to the next installment

[Alexander]

Steve,

You forget the cold summers! Nelumbo and tropical waterlilies need warmer summers then the English ones. Only on a south facing wall in a very sheltered spot Nelumbo will do flower with some luck. The water needs to be at least 20 Celcius.

Alexander


tiMM

Wow , what a dream pond. I'm sure you could grow the odd Tropical Water Lily in there and get a Lotus bed going. N.capensis and N. Pamela are two Tropicals that will grow with less heat than many. I started with N . capensis seeds a few years ago and got flowers in eight months.
Cannot wait for the next lot of pics
Later
Steve

[Nick]

What a beautiful Pond/Lake your going to have there, can't wait to see the next instalment of photo's, please hurry them onto the forum, will you have fish within or is it just ordememtal what ever it is going to be or what ever it is going to be used for it is lovely, what are you doing with all the sand that gets dug out of the hole
WOW

[Steve in D.C.]

No I'm not forgetting the cold Summers, what I'm remembering is that James Knock was told a few years ago you could not grow Lotus in the UK. Well James grows them in plastic tubs and flowers them every year. James also grew N.capensis outdoors and N.Pamela outdoors. There are Lotus and Water Lilies that will give good results in a UK location and many parts of the South of the UK are as warm as my garden in France. In my garden in France I flower and propagated Tropical Water Lilies for four years. I grew Lotus for two years , started from seed. Experimentation that's the key and never say never.
With Melissa having a large body of water the temps maybe consistant enough for Lotus to flower and to grow the odd Tropical Water Lily.
I grew my first Tropical Water Lilies from seed because you could I buy any . Six years later there are 5 or 6 places to order Tropical Water Lilies.
Smart gardening is all you really need, make the best of what you have and find the best plants for your conditions. Smart Gardeners help too like the guys who flower Lotus every year in the UK , Paul Spracklin has flowered Lotus in his pond for the past few years. I know for a fact that they get no special attention and just make do each year. I know James Knock makes new hybrid Aquatic plants every year and garden test them. He has had some wonderful successes that one of these days I hope will fill the Nurseries around the UK.
Keep experimenting and making hybrids and one day one will crack it.
All the Best
Steve

[kentgardener]

Experimentation that's the key and never say never.

Smart gardening is all you really need, make the best of what you have and find the best plants for your conditions.

Hear hear!

John

[tropical-pete]

Wow Melissa, what a project! Great piece of work though, it'll look great once planted up! I absolutely love (as I may have said before) the overhanging tree ferns, as well. Keep us posted, and I'm looking forward to the next installment!

Steve - I'll add Nymphaea Capensis and Nymphaea 'Pamela' to the list to grow in bacl tubs then Might try and Lotus or two from seed as well...as you said, experimentation is the key!

Pete

[Melissa]

Thanks guys, most of the projects in our garden are big but this has got to be one of the biggest

Steve, we have always thought that once the pond was done we wanted to try to grow some Lotus plants We were very impressed with Pauls growing in his pond, they looked wonderful

John, it's always been our intention to have a big pond, it needed to be to sit well in the garden

Nick, all the sand has been used to make the concrete for building the walls nothing goes to waste here. No fish, as the idea is to be able to swim in it

Melissa

[kentgardener]

No fish, as the idea is to be able to swim in it

Melissa

Melissa

you could have fish that give a pedicure whilst swimming ....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... cures.html

(Make sure Keith keeps his trunks on though )



John

[Melissa]

you could have fish that give a pedicure whilst swimming ....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... cures.html

(Make sure Keith keeps his trunks on though )



John

EEEwweerr, I don't fancy that

Keith would need to buy some trunks if we had them

Melissa

[Steve in D.C.]

More pics please Melissa. If I remember right you guys are in East of the UK in the drought area and should have more Sun than many parts of the UK , is that right ?
Later
Steve

[Melissa]

Steve, yes we are in Norfolk but with all the rain we have had lately it doesn't feel much like a drought area

We have had a thermometer in the deep end of the pond for a couple of weeks and it has been fairly consistently at 20

Melissa

[MarkD]

Colossal project, bloody physical but well worth it!

It was nice to see it finally filled up with water a couple of weeks ago after a five year process