Welcome Tua Pek Kong, the Mitcheldean Garden 2018
Pond Capers

This page is part of a series of garden blogs from 2018. Click here for the index.

There's nothing like a bit of snow to cover up issues:

Just over a year ago, water started to appear at the base of the wall next to the wooden pergola support and the pond level started to drop. I hoped it was just a result of the cascade getting overgrown, connected a hose to let water dribble in and left it at that while we were away in Penang. Steadily, this year it got worse to the extent I could no longer ignore it, I even checked how much we needed to add daily and the result was not one I would like to reveal in public at the end of the driest summer we have experienced when we got close to a hosepipe ban. It was time for professional help.

We made contact with our local consultant and it was not good news, the way the liner had been inserted into the stones making up the bank would severely complicate matters. Basically the designers had given insufficient thought as to what would happen when the liner inevitably reached the end of its life. Come the day, the pond was emptied and most of its inhabitants decanted into a large tub. We'd once found a dead newt in the pond, but this was the first live one we had seen, it was carefully returned to the mossy bank behind and most of the frogs scampered away.

It was not a pretty sight. The tall sedge was horribly matted and most of it was dispatched to our compost area to be recycled and the water lilies were carefully set aside. A vast amount of sludge was recovered which was subsequently applied to Yuehong's roses.

Two holes were found in the liner which could well have accounted for the problems, they were patched and, fingers crossed, the pond was refilled:

Sadly, the improvement was minimal, I tried removing much of the vegetation that had overgrown the cascade but it made no difference. It was time to go for a total liner replacement. Look at that rock on the left, that's a real 'Sword of Damocles', there's no way the supporting stones could be adjusted. This time clearance took no time at all and the old liner was cut out.

A protective fleece was laid in and then the liner added. Since it could not be kept in place by the rocks, holes were drilled in them and a flexible metal baton used to pin it in place.

The liner was folded over to conceal it. That now left the capping stones on the wall which had to be removed and, in theory, replaced to hold down the liner for the rest of the pond. Unfortunately, they disintegrated as they were removed and we needed new stones. These needed to be of the right consistency so they could be strong enough to stand on but soft enough to cut to shape, especially where the pond curves.

This was the final result, obviously it will take time for the plants on the bank to regrow but what could possibly go wrong?

Well for a start, I cocked up the aeration of the fish tub and we lost a couple of them. It was a reminder that people get too attached to their pets, even the ones which look after themselves normally.

We refilled the pond and very good it looked too, I immediately hung a new net across it as heron prints had been spotted between liners. The patio was cleaned up and then we had to wait a couple of days for the mortar to set before we could turn the main pump on, in the meantime we had to use the small back up pump.

Even though it is all rather bare, It looked absolutely splendid. As expected, the water level dropped initially because a fair volume had to go up to the empty header / filter tank. Unfortunately, it continued to drop, but nothing like as quickly as before the makeover. Close inspection of the cascade showed that a very small amount of water was escaping to the side and this will obviously need sorting, this is a closed system by design, small amounts of water will be lost by evaporation but this will be replaced by rain water, the excess will leave through the overflow.

I don't see it as a big issue and I'm confident that by the middle of summer 2019, we will once again have a pond to be proud of. Our thanks to Turtle Productions for a thoroughly professional job.

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