So after two weeks of torrential rain and being unable to get into the garden due to the fact it was under 50mm of water, the weekend of 17/18th February was absolutely wonderful. So we decided to get out into garden to do a bit more.
So this is what the pond looked like at the end of the day.
All paving stones have been set onto a weak mixture of sand and cement and then surrounded by top soil within which will planted: Ground Ivy, Bugle and Jenny Creeper. It is hoped that they will soften the hard edge of the stones and make their way into the edge of the pond giving the frogs and newts places to hide.
Also in the pond are 3 further baskets of plants. The visiible one to the left is Iris and at this end of the pond there is some Arrowhead and Flowering Rush both of which will give a little height for the Summer and give a chance for the Dragonfly larvae to crawl up the stems and change into a an adult Dragonfly, a truly wonderful experience that I captured on video many years ago. On the pond surface we have added a few peices od Ivy leaf duckweed and when this multiplys it gives a good quick cover which helps to keep the sun away from the bottom of the pond. This in turn helps to reduce the amount of algae and blanketweed.
And this is what I found in the pond during the afternoon. There were about 6 pairs in total but at the end of the day we only had a very small amount of spawn.