Hi from the UK!

[Jeffina]

Hello everyone,
Not sure if I should be posting in a forum from the US as I am in the UK and am a total newbie when it comes to owning a pond.

We inherited a small pond (plastic liner) when we bought our house 3 years ago. We've debated for a long time about whether or not to keep it or get rid of it (husband is not a fan of frogs!) but I've grown to like it and am used to seeing the tadpoles and frogs now.

We've never touched it aside from skimming the top now and then, It started getting algae in it about a year ago and the lily that was in there grew totally out of control. Recently we removed the horrible old paving around the edges and my husband has just taken the brave step of emptying it out for the first time and it's a decent size and quite deep for a small pond.

Unfortunately it was a rought attempt to get it cleaned so all the wildlife went with it

So we're starting over from scratch now... and haven't a clue what we should be doing! I am guessing we need plants for oxygen. We do not want fish but are happy for the frogs to use it and the other small wildlife that comes with that.

I've tried to attach a photo (hopefully it's worked) and it's now totally empty and has no surround to it.

Jeffina.x

 

[addy1]

Glad you joined!

There are people from all over on this forum. A lot from the uk

We will all be glad to try and help you.

Without having fish, you can refill it put some plants in and the critters will come back.
To keep the water fresher, you could do partial water changes off and on and add a nice little aerator, small fountain if you want to

 

[superdaft]

Welcome to the forum, you should find everything you need to know and more from this forum. Happy ponding

 

[Jeffina]

Thank you both for the nice welcome!

I think I'd like to replace the lily that was in there and the flowers were beautiful but it got so large and I didn't know how to prune it.. is it essentially the same as other plants? Prune off the shoots you don't want near the base? The old one was in a terracotta pot, is this ok to have in a pond? I do have a 'basket' style pot that I thought might be better.

Should I be looking for any other small plants?

Can I plant it into the pond using soil from the garden (VERY alkaline) or is there something else I should be using?

We are having a nice dry day here today but we're due lots of rain so we've put out many buckets and large tubs to collect the rain water to refill it, I hope this is a good way of doing it as filling it from the hose didn't seem right (plus we're experiencing a hose pipe ban right now).

 

[HARO]

Welcome to the forum, Jeffina. Water lillies are pruned 'in reverse' of what you are used to; cut off a healthy looking growing tip, pot it in heavy clay soil or kitty litter, and toss the old part of the plant on the compost heap! The basket style pot works well, as it allows the small feeder roots to grow through it. Terra cotta is seldom used nowadays as the growing tuber tends to break the pot. Rain water should be fine, since you don't have fish to worry about. Some "oxygenators" would make a good addition to the pond, but I don't know what is available in the UK. Hornwort, fanwort, anacharis and elodea are some of the possibilities. Good luck with your pond!
John

 

[Jeffina]

Hi John,
Ah, wish I had known that before my husband got his hands on it this morning! He refuses to go and clip some off it now it's in the bin as the smell is pretty awful from the stagnant water. Produced lovely flowers, my profile pic is one I took a couple of years ago from it.

Oddly enough the terracotta pot (think you can see it in the photo I posted) did not crack which I was really suprised about!

So we've been out this afternoon and bought some slate rock to put around the edges and some finer slate chippings to fill in the gaps and perhaps add some to the 'rock garden' that we're trying to make behind the pond. My husband is going to dig out some of the soil then lay some weed suppressant membrane down.

We bought another water lily (pink this time) - phew, that was expensive! It came in it's own basket with heavy clay soil so at least that's taken care of.

Will that provide any oxygen or do we need something specific for that?

 

[HARO]

Keep in mind that oxygen is only given off by the plants during the daylight hours, and at night the plant actually uses up oxygen. The so-called 'oxygenators' I mentioned in my previous post live entirely under the water's surface. so any oxygen given off goes into the water. Waterlillies, on the other hand, have their leaves floating on the surface, so the O2 is emitted into the air above the water. If you want to keep the water fresher, a small fountain or an air pump would do so at minimal cost.
John

 

[Jeffina]

Thanks John. This probably sounds silly but how are they usually powered? Are they run off the mains?

 

[j.w]

jeffina
Glad you joined and hope we can all offer some help for your cute little pond. The little fountains or air pumps are plugged into an electrical outlet although I believe there are some that can be run off solar or batteries. I don't have any experience w/ them tho.

 

[HARO]

The majority run off the mains, but some have a step-down transformer to run on 12 volts or so, which would be safer around water. Someone from the UK should be around soon to set me straight if I'm wrong on that. There may well be a difference in what is available there as opposed to North America.
John

 

[Jeffina]

Thanks J.W. & John - I shall have a look into those! I'm not certain we'll have enough room for one at the moment but it's good to know these things.

My husband has worked very hard this afternoon lugging stones about and it's looking great (to me anyway!). Well, certainly better than it was!

We're going to seed grass up to the slate shale and add more alpines to the mini rock garden. I'm quite in love with it now, it's small but has potential.

I'm soaking the lily in a bucket to make sure it doesn't dry out until we get some rain water in there and hopefully we'll get that in place soon.

Off to the right of the photo here we have some Indian sandstone tiles left over from our patio so I am hoping to grow something like chamomile inbetween them.

 

[j.w]

Wow nice clean out job and looks much better now! That is a deep little sucker isn't it? You will have it nicely planted in and around it and soon your froggies will be giving you a nice serenade

 

[froggerlover]

Hi Jeffina,

Welcome!

Im new to this forum as well, i didnt even realise that it is US based! Im from Cornwall,England, it is nice to see someone from England on here, even though having read some of the threads, the people know what they are talking about, its great having someone to discuss problems with and marvel at others creations.

your pond looks lovely. Like you, i also want my pond just for the wildlife.... love frogs!

 

[addy1]

Hi Jeffina,

Welcome!

Im new to this forum as well, i didnt even realise that it is US based! Im from Cornwall,England, it is nice to see someone from England on here, even though having read some of the threads, the people know what they are talking about, its great having someone to discuss problems with and marvel at others creations.

your pond looks lovely. Like you, i also want my pond just for the wildlife.... love frogs!

Don't think it is US based the admins live in the UK and they upgrade it etc. unless the software is US made maybe

 

[j.w]

Think a guy named Chris from Tennessee originally started it and then Ian took over from the U.K and now he and Becky run it. I just looked and the day it started up w/ a welcome greeting was on my birthday in 2006 if I'm correct on this.