A garden should have water, and especially a garden presenting itself as a naturalistic one, allotment or not. So one of the first things I did when I took over a potato field 4 years ago was to dig a frog pond.
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| The very first beginning |
But I adore a good pond, so I dug on, and kept my vision as a motivator: a tranquil pond with a waterlily, dragonflies and happy frogs.
I put in a liner, filled the pond from my water butt, bought a waterlily and some aerators, and waited for the frogs to arrive.
Three years, according to Charlie Dimmock, Queen of Water Features, before a pond is really established.
It took a couple of months, full of anticipation, would the frogs arrive? Nope, but a ferocious SW gale did, and blew the greenhouse of my neighbour to smithereens, depositing her shards of glass all over my garden and into my pond. It sprung a leak. From then on, my dream of a lovely, natural frog pond turned into endlessly putting enough water in it for my waterlily to survive.
The effort paid off, not in frogs, who never deemed the pond worthy, but in toads and salamanders. So I kept it up, the filling it up. Until last year, when the summer was so hot, that I gave up. My 1000 l. water butt was empty, and I needed the other butt to water my plants. I decided to let nature take over...no more pond.
But. But. But. Over the months I really started to miss that icky bit of water to stare into! So I thought right. I'll give it one more go!
By the end of April it was no more than an overgrown, grassy, weedy dip in the soil! It took hours and hours to get that grass out.
Hours!
Empty! And...oh, my giddy aunt! After a rainstorm, there was water. Sure, it went down again, but to me this was a sign of hope. I immediately went and told Waterlily, who was hanging on for her dear life in a temporary bucket.
As I have a never used dog pool (Puck took one look at it and told me I could go sit in it myself, which I have done a couple of times), I decided to put that in the middle, so that Waterlily has a proper 50 cm water depth, without (hopefully!) leaks.
And here it is. I plan to get some marginal plants for camouflage, so that it looks a little less...hm...weird?
But look at Waterlily! Utterly happy again, and so am I.
My neighbouring 'pond' was very tranquil this morning, after a massive thunderstorm in the night. Puck stood beside me, trembling, if she wasn't pacing the room for hours, trembling. Thunderstorms scare her. So this morning, at 5.30, I gave her the opportunity to choose her own walkies, to cheer her up, and she wanted to go to the ferry to look at the waterfowl.
And yes I know she's a dog, and I humanise her, but she's been my faithful companion since Feb.2019 and now she's really getting old...So I indulge her. Even when she's prevented me from sleeping for practically three quarters of the night. I don't know her age, she could be as old as twelve. She'll be my last rescued dog, as I am getting old too.
Right. Look up my website at Renée Grashoff Schrijft when you feel like it, spread the word about this blog to dog lovers and plant geeks, and have a lovely week, wherever you are.
Renée Grashoff
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