Articles

Rupert Bridges from Aquatics Specialist Tetra offers advice and guidance

The recent weather may make it hard to believe, but spring really is on its way and, for most of us leaving the cold winter months behind and preparing for the spring sunshine is a refreshing thought. The same applies to ponds and their inhabitants which means now is the time to prepare your pond for the forthcoming months, as the rise in temperature brings about some key changes.

Calling all landscapers that tackle big ponds and complex koi ponds: if you are unsure that you are lining the pond in the right way and using the right techniques, you need some training, there is noThe course covers all you need to know from the vary basics of liner splicing to the sealing of quite complex details doubt about it. The best place to get that training is on the Firestone training course. It is such good value for money that you will wonder how they can ‘wine and dine’ you, put you up at a very comfortable hotel for the night, teach you for a full day how to install and splice up pond liner, whilst providing as much food and drink as you can consume during the day, all at such a rock bottom price of just over £200. Even if you forget all that, you come away with a certificate, all the tools you need for joining liners, instruction manual and even the ‘T’ shirt! Just the cost of materials you use up in the course of the ‘hands on’ practice must amount to more than the cost of the course.

The most essential ingredient in any pond are the plants that oxygenate the water, often referred to in the aquatics trade as the OXYGENATING PLANTS or submerged aquatics. But what are the best and what ones do you want to avoid. Then how do you plant them?

Using plants in this way is easier, more economical and more aesthetically pleasing than many of the heavy engineering solutions. By this method several typical lakeland and waterways problems can be solved in one go, and it is something that could easily be taken up by the pondkeeper and wild fowl conservationist too.

Article and photos by Tom Roach 

With the environment moving steadily up the political agenda, business is now trying to find new ‘soft’ engineering solutions as opposed to more traditional ‘hard’ revetment techniques. The recent summer rainfall has sparked debate, not only how to protect areas from flooding but the associated risks that flooding brings. Erosion of rivers and lakes is a natural process and ‘hard’ engineering techniques that have been employed in the past are increasingly being seen as inappropriate and unsustainable. This has led to forward thinkers finding innovative natural ways to curb the onset of erosion using techniques that would occur in nature.

WATER PLANTS AND PLANTING THE TYPES and THE CHOICE

NEW POND, NEW WORLD

The moment your new water garden begins to fill with water is the creation of a new environment in the garden. Here is a place for new possibilities but if left to its own devices would very quickly turn into a noxious lagoon of pea green slime. I am not knocking algae, even though algae in the form of microscopic single celled plants are what cause the green hue and goo, they are also responsible as a whole for the production of most of the oxygen on this planet. Algae have their place in the cycle of life in every pond, but they do need to be restricted. Like any bare piece of ground in a garden, if the gardener does not put in his own plants then nature takes over with what we usually regard as weeds. Algae are effectively the 'weeds' of water and can only be restricted with competition and suppressed by encouraging the growth of other plants in the environment. These higher plants have other functions too and they all work together to ensure a healthy environment in which all the animals and plants themselves can flourish.