ALL CHANGE PART ONE

One thing I can say about our garden is that it is constantly changing! Which I think is nice. Over time you find that things may need just a little tweak or maybe a bigger one but every so often a bigger change needs to happen and so it is with our latest plan.

Our pond top needed replacing due to wear and tear, so we were considering what to do.Also with how the garden was growing up around it, it was more shaded than it used to be and had also a year or so back been discovered by a local Heron who had arrived one morning and eaten most of the fish!

  This also made us concider maybe changing the size and style of it, especially as our Retriever Rufus likes nothing better than ,when returning from a walk, to go straight out to the pond and put both front paws into it while having a drink ! Which of course means he returns indoors sopping wet!

So yesterday we started emptying it. We'd thought that there were about five fish left but could only find two plus a couple of frogs.

Paul found this blue glazed pot in the bottom, which must have fallen off the small table that stands at that end of the pond.

and also this sundial !

Lots of silt in the bottom of course, but it was still a surprise when Paul said he'd found this ,this morning!

a blue glazed saucer.

What was a surprise to find was this..

This a piece of growing Bamboo! From a bamboo we'd planted a few years back after it out grew it's pot just to the side of the pond. We noticed that it had suddenly started to spread and have started to cut it back to dig up. Luckily although it had pierced through the liner of the pond , it must have also filled the hole it had made because the water level was fine up until we started emptying it!

This is the bamboo root

This piece of white thin stem is also a piece of the bamboo that had grown along the edge of the pond and was comning round the side!

 We have also had to remove the post and trellis beside the pond to allow for the new structure. Oh yes I forgot to mention we are removing the pond also to allow for our new design for the patio. I will wait until we start on that in a few weeks before saying any more about it.

The dogs immediately decided the empty pond space was for them!

Ready to start removing each sleeper, to hopefully use elsewhere in the garden.

The root from the bamboo, now removed.

The hole where the bamboo was beside the pond, we'd hoped the surrounding concrete and paving would have stopped it spreading which it did for a good few years.

 So the pond is no more! Next step is to pave this to match the existing patio, we do have a few paving slabs left from when this was laid but not enough to fill the space, so hopefully if they are going to open the garden centres this week, Paul will be able to go and pick a couple of slabs up and maybe get them laid this week.


To be continued