To crock or not? & pond relining go's well - - - kind of!

To crock or not

the age old practice where gardeners place "crocks at the bottom of their plant pots is being questioned in this article.
Better drainage is sited as the reason but the "experts" seem to debunk the theory in the article
I favour doing it but think it might just be "that's what you do" when planting something in a pot.  With the very dry summer we had last year though I think its probably best to hope your pots can keep all the moisture they can!

I reckon this guy was doomed to fail!

OK clever enough to con people out of £5.6m pretending to be a "trader" on the currency markets but anyone who has parties and invites "reality TV stars" like the one in the pic has got to be headed for failure! - - -









Closer to home
Some time ago a large piece of slate had plunged into the pond and put a hole in the liner, we had been topping it up since but decided we needed to repair it.  Re lining was only slightly more expensive than a repair kit so we opted for that as a solution.

Twas the day of the pond relining yesterday so I was up at the crack of dawn

while setting up the hose pipe I snapped a pic across the mist shrouded valley and to be honest wondered if we had picked the right day for it.  Rain was forecast but not until 1500

Realising quite quickly that the small hose was not reducing the level fast enough i attached a 30mm pond pipe to the pump and set that going as well.  In the pic Sainsbury cant figure out where all the water is going!

with all but about 25cm of water drained we netted the fish and put them in a water filled dustbin and covered the top to stop them jumping out and in the hope that the dark would calm them down.  I put in one of the air bubble stones in an effort to keep plenty oxygen in the restricted water space.

here's the piece of slate that fell in which caused all the trouble both ends were very pointed so it was not surprising it punctured the liner.  We didnt spend any time looking for the hole/tear though!

The pond has 2 depths 60cm and 1m 40cm.  We had decided to reduce the deepest part from 1m 20cm to around 90cm so recovered, with permission of course, some of the clay we dug out of the pond in 2010 from the kitchen garden area just outside the garden.  You can just see the gap in the fence where i have removed the wood to get through.

With the clay tamped down it was covered with a layer of sand and then some pond underlay before the new liner was unfolded.

The liner is 6m x 5m and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out which is the short side, in the end we had to measure it.  Another decision to be made was do we have the black or the brown side in view?  In the end we opted for the black. Alan one of the neighbours had by this time offered to help and he reminds us a Heron has been seen fishing nearby in the river!

with the liner roughly in position the best way to get it fitting correctly is to fill the pond.

Having emptied the dustbin of most of the water we manhandled it onto the shallow part of the pond and i gently poured the fish back in.

The plants were replaced as the water reached the shallower ledge and i stood in the pond arranging the liner around the sides - - - the water is cold!  Luckily though the weather has been kind so far with no sign of any rain.

All the fish appear to be OK and they are very inquisitive as the water rises and allows them access to the shallow part and the plants again.

The fish look happy enough playing near the bubble machine column of bubble and the outlet from one of the filters.

We replace the bridge and net the shallow end and after lunch sit about in the garden because the weathermen have got it wrong and the afternoon is quite sunny.

"One more job" I say, we must net the deep end because without the stones around the pond, we are replacing them over the weekend, if the Heron visits he will be able to get closer to the water.  We decide however that this is not necessary - - - - How wrong we are!!!!!

This morning I went out to feed the fish and the large Koi in the picture above is no longer in the pond!
He must have been taken more or less where he is in the pic above - - - hey ho

Enjoy the day
Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  the streaming birdfeeder cam