Gardeners world pond

I watched the new episode of gardeners world and when it came to the next step in the construction of the pond it was announced that it was to add the liner. I always thought that after you get the shape of your pond you always cover it with a layer of sand to prevent any sharp objects piercing the liner and to give a smooth finish to the liner when the water is added.

MY  WILDLIFE POND IS THRIVING AT THE MOMENT WITH MASSES OF FROGSPAWN AND NUMEROUS FROGS MATING.IT'S LOVELY TO HEAR THE CROAKING WHEN I'M IN THE GARDEN WORKING.

WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO TIDY THE WILDLIFE POND?

Hi all, Im assuming the lining before the liner will be next week....I looked at the size of the pond and thought...mmmm I feel a project coming on to enlarge mine!

I used an old carpet to line my pond, it was very cheap and did the job brilliantly

Something that I think more people would do with garden ponds is to arrange a feed to them from the rainwater gutters - and then an overfolow to a drain or soakaway. This makes for a much healthier pond - and very few people collect anything like the full ammount of rain that falls on their roofs each year.

I have 2 x 400 gallon rainwater tanks - One heavy downpour can fill them - but the overflow goes to my pond.

I'm sure that with Monty's resources he could arrange something like that for the GW pond

In an ideal world that would be fantastic Steve, but my garden pond gets enough rainwater straight from the sky here in sunny Scotland, if i ran the rainfall from my roof to my pond i would need to change my name to noah and build an ark even if i did have a soakaway...But yes in an ideal world that would be a great idea...

Percy

As long as the water doesn't get absurdly low, I tend to not top it up at all as the exposed areas provide another habitat for insects.  I always top up with harvested rainwater but it involves a Heath Robinson affair with hosepipes as the pond is nowhere near the water butt.

Wonder when we're going to get part 2 of the new GW pond?

Aitch

Would really like to find out where Monty got his liner from, I have looked at a number of suppliers and none of them quote 5.50 per sq m with a 30 year guarantee - anyone know how I can find out the details?

You need to google for Butyl pond liners.   Have a look at this site - http://www.pondkeeper.co.uk/flexiliner.asp and this one - http://www.butylproducts.co.uk/Products-Services/Ponds-Lakes/LiningMaterials/ 

I was wondering what sort of edging would be on the GW pond as I would like to put turf around my concrete pond but cant find how to do it in any books, has anyone done this and could give me some tips?

George David Hope wrote (see)

I watched the new episode of gardeners world and when it came to the next step in the construction of the pond it was announced that it was to add the liner. I always thought that after you get the shape of your pond you always cover it with a layer of sand to prevent any sharp objects piercing the liner and to give a smooth finish to the liner when the water is added.

you are correct there are two ways either an underliner or sand sand is by far the cheapest before adding the finishing liner

pondskater wrote (see)

I was wondering what sort of edging would be on the GW pond as I would like to put turf around my concrete pond but cant find how to do it in any books, has anyone done this and could give me some tips?

this could be achieved by raising the edges of the structure like a sort of raised bed and then seed with grass concrete ponds are the most difficult to turf

Alan Titchmarsh did something similar on one of his spin off programs. He cut turf to size and laid its top edge into the water, saying that the grass will draw water from the pond half way back across the exposed liner, the back half of the turf taking its water from the ground as normal.

Don't know if this is appropriate for what you want, but that's how he did it.

Thanks for the ideas, I think the Alan Titchmarsh thing sounds about what I want so will give it a try. I think i've seen somewhere that you can put the turf on double and then plant against it, I guess then the roots hold the soil from dropping in the pond as it decomposes- Not sure if it would work tho.