THE NEW POND

One of the major jobs we vowed to do over the summer holidays was to put in a new pond. The old one had sprung a leak and often overflowed during heavy rain and it was so big, the water had nowhere to go and flooded the garden. On many a stormy day had we been out there pumping water from the pond. It was time for a change.

The last time I attempted this job was with my very good friend Goran. When he visited last (see below) he observed the old pond was on it's last legs and I could smell the fear as he thought that once again he was going to get roped in to help. (or was the smell of fear actually the stinky pond itself?) Anyway we resolved to replace the not so indestructable liner with a moulded plastic one, much smaller allowing Trish to get stuck into a bit of landscaping. This would mean the VERY large hole where the old pond lay would have to be filled in around the new one. To achieve this fill we broke up hardcore and then filled the surrounding area with sand. (38 bags) and gravel (8 bags). This after removing the old liner with it's smelly, stagnant water.

Needless to say Trish got really stuck into the job while I served as her assistant. I got to do the breaking, cutting, chopping and the lifting. She got to do a bit of that as well and all the bits which I could never have done, the landscaping. We sawed down an invasive tree and removed a very stubborn stump. It took best part of three days. That TV programme Ground Force, where they transform a whole garden in the same amount of time just HAS to be bullshit. Anyway the finished result is really pucker. The fish and frogs who were disturbed like their new environment and our neighbours can once again be lulled to sleep with the sound of the water fountain gently trickling.