Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
11th July 2020
Pond Life
Apparently a ‘lorra lock down ponds’ have been created during the last 3 months, with people keen to find new projects to undertake. Talking to Iolo Williams, he said a pond was one of the best things to do to encourage a diversity of wildlife into the garden – that and leaving an area of grass unmown.
Garden ponds are a bit like Marmite – you either love them or hate them. When I first started landscaping 30 odd years ago, they were very popular and the spoil we dug out would be used for the obligatory rockery created behind or around the pond. But in the last five or ten years it has been a common landscaping request to fill in existing ponds, as they were deemed to hard to keep looking nice and/or dangerous. They just fell out of horticultural fashion.
I have a wildlife pond in my own garden which is home to newts, frogs and the odd dragonfly and damselfly – and occasionally my wallowing Westie. I have bought her her own paddling pool but apparently it’s not as nice, or refreshing, as wallowing in stinking, black pond mud.
Weedy Water
This time of year many ponds are being taken over by aquatic weeds, which are usually a problem when water temperatures rise above 6°C (43°F). Canadian pond weed, blanket weed and duckweed, to name a few, are giving some pond owners sleepless nights at the moment. I loved this copy from Devon Pond Plants’ website, “Elodea canadensis (Canadian pondweed) is a non-native oxygenator of prodigious growth capability, I will only reluctantly sell you this if you can give me a good reason why you can’t use a native oxygenator. It does a great job on oxygenation but is a complete thug. It absolutely must not be planted anywhere where it could establish in the wild. Mostly I sell this to schools and universities for research purposes and it is disposed of safely after use.”
Do your research before introducing anything into your pond. Aquatic weeds can quickly take over garden ponds, whatever the size, and the management and removal can be quite specialised and tricky. It is also best to research the best control measures for the individual weeds.
I am struggling to manage duckweed for a client at the moment – but as you can see at least I have some help from my four-legged pond specialist.
Gild the Water Lily
I was recently asked why water lilies wouldn’t survive or thrive in a reader’s pond and it turned out they had a water fountain. Water lilies don’t like moving water and will eventually die if their leaves are constantly splashed with water. If the pond is big enough then you can site them away from a fountain but if not please don’t keep on subjecting them to death!
You don’t actually have to have a pond to grow water lilies. Containers like an old metal bath or even an old kitchen sink, can make great small water gardens and are also effective if just home to a water lily or two on the patio. Years ago I designed a ‘Bog Garden’ for an RHS Show in Cardiff and recreated an outdoor bathroom with an old bathroom suite. I put water lilies and other pond plants in an old bath, planted up the sink – and the toilet (after my brother had reconstructed it).
Someone is always upgrading their bathroom suite and most would be delighted for you to take the old one away. I grow my potatoes in an old bath at the cottage and a friend has hers full of different types of mint. She has cleverly fixed an old scaffolding board along the edge of one side of the bath so it doubles up as a bench – which smells gorgeous.
Water lilies attract dragonflies and damselflies as they provide a great platform for them to rest and reproduce. It’s a great way to encourage these beautiful insects into the garden and also easier to avoid issues with weed control. There are a huge range of varieties and sizes so choose carefully. Small and dwarf water lilies are suitable for water 12-18ins deep. Popular varieties include Candida with white flowers, Pygmaea Helvola which has yellow flowers and Pygmaea Rubra with deep rose-pink flowers ageing to a beautiful deep red.
Medium sized water lilies will need water 18-30ins deep. Popular varieties include James Brydon with rose-red flowers and purplish leaves, Marliacea Albida which has white flowers and Rene Gerard with rosy-red flowers.
And the large water lilies will love water 2.5-4ft deep – so a good sized garden pond. Choose from Attraction: Pinky-red flowers fading to white, Escarboucle for red flowers and Gladstoniana for lovely white flowers.
Can you spot the damselfly which photo bombed my water lily shot?
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