Category: The Old Pond

  • The new old pond

    The old pond has been slowly deteriorating over the past few years, filling in with vegetation and becoming so shallow that it would likely have disappeared completely if we didn’t do anything.

    So we brought the diggers in and over a week pulled out tons of sludge, rubble and other detritus.

    Once we were down to the clay we dug the pond deeper and used the clay to line and seal the sides.

    Then we filled it from the borehole (with a very long hosepipe).

    A month later it is already looking so much better. The water is clear and already filling with insect larvae. We’ll plant up a few native pond edge plants but leave the rest to nature. It should be deep and wide enough to prevent weeds taking over and with no predatory fish in it the small wildlife should flourish.

  • Restoration time

    The old pond leaks and is getting clogged up with vegetation and before long will disappear completely. So once we’re sure there are no nesting birds (such as moorhens) we’ll get in there with some spades and dig it out.

    This is what it looked like in 2018.

  • Not everything is dormant during winter

    These freshwater shrimp are having fun wriggling around upside down on the underside of the ice in the old pond.

    We know: they’re not actually shrimp and probably not the native Gammarus pulex but rather the interloper Crangonyx pseudogracilis.

  • Pondlife

    A few months of work have paid off and the pond is looking a lot better, and thriving with life.

  • Poor ash

    It looked perfectly healthy, but a storm brought down this 200 year old ash tree. At least we’re not short of firewood for the next few winters.

  • Yuk

    A grey, smelly, overgrown puddle, but with a bit of effort we hope to bring this old pond back to life.