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FAQ: Our pond liner has lifted to the surface of the pond. Because of heavy rain the water table has pushed up from underneath.

Question: I have been looking at your website and found it very informative, in fact, I wish we had found it a year ago, before we embarked on our pond project.

The Buccament Bay project is well underway.: The landscaping is all that is required for the front of the holiday site. Some of the cabanas could be used already.I had a phone call from Ken Picknell, the project manager for Ridgeview Construction, who was on St Vincent in the Caribbean. He was part way through a large project sponsored by an English company called Harlequin Property. The project was to build, what on the face of it, seemed like a very ‘upmarket’ holiday camp in a bay called Buccament Bay, not far away from the bay in which a lot of the filming of “Pirates of the Caribbean” took place. Fans of the films would recognise a lot of the landscape and seascapes.

But why did they want me? Well, part of the original conception was to lend the site an ‘old worldy’ feel by building the holiday chalets, or ‘cabanas’ as they called them, in an old plantation style, then to add to that a lush growth of plants and lots of water in the form of ponds. As I was to find out, these large ponds would be well planted and full of fish and would have the dual purpose as acting like catchments and large open drains for the short but incredibly heavy downpours of rain that happen on an almost daily basis on the island. Each pond would be linked to another and an outfall would eventually take any excess water to the river that ran down the side of the site and out to sea. The whole ambience would be of luxury habitation in amongst a natural and wild environment. There was never a project more tailored for my skills, but what was the problem?

If there was ever an Aladdin's Cave for landscapers then Nailsea Patio
Supplies is it and John Marshall the owner is the Genie of the Lamp!

A tiny part of the vast array of hard landscaping products: The land on the horizon is another storage area mostly for natural stoneHere, between the A38 near Bristol and the M5 right next to Nailsea Railway Station, you’ll find all those impossible to find hard landscaping materials that you need in any quantity: paving, walling, both ‘recon’ and natural, brick, stone, slates, gravel to pebbles of every size from every corner of the country and mulching materials of every type and colour imaginable from shredded tyres to broken glass. And the prices? They are not design for the pick and mix hand scoop, we talk in tonnes and square metres here and the prices encourage you to buy in those sorts of quantities. There are ornament and containers, pergolas and archways. On top of that there is fencing, edging, sleepers (old and new), timber and the decking. There is proper top soil too and silver-sand for horticultural use; I haven’t seen that being sold by the ton for years. John even recycles old building products for use as hardcore or footings or fancy mulches. There is a lot of recycling going on here. Wait until you see some of the exotic mulches that seem straight out of an outré garden designers’ handbook with crushed and tumbled coloured glass,bricks, metal, rubber and most attractive of all, recycled toilet bowls!

DECEMBER/JANUARY in the water garden in the UK

What needs to be done with the water garden? Nothing. It is asleep. What has been done that needs to be done can now wait. As long as it is cold enough and the water is below 5°C, everything in it is blissfully unaware ofBubbles under the ice can be a bad sign. A hole needs to be made. everything, so don’t disturb it. After all you hate to be disturbed during your slumbers. Instead, appreciate the garden in its winter dress. Get into the Christmas spirit and brighten your house and the faces of your friends and neighbours with a few of the indoor plants that we have come to associate with this time of year.

JOBS LEFT UNDONE AROUND THE POND MAY BE A BONUS

In the first two or three years after planting, the more grassy marginals, particularly the Carex and Cyperus still look good in early winter. As everything else dies back to ground level, the clumpy grasses move in the wind, lending animation to an otherwise static scene.
The other tall marginal plants that you have failed to cut back may pay unexpected dividends if we get any hard frosts. Fronds of all herbaceous plants and some shrubs look stunning in winter sunlight covered in an icy hoar.
Dont go breaking a hole in the ice with a hammer. This will knock the fish senseless
What is more, even the most humble reed that has run to seed will provide excellent emergency rations for small birds and will help provide cover for any wildlife that needs a mid-sleep sip of water.
You may be able to use some of these seed heads in a dry plant display. A vogue that is set to return in force now people are beginning to forget the amount of dust that dried plants seem toInstead melt the ice with a pan of hot water. attract. The reed mace (Typha angustifolia) and even the Norfolk Reed (Phragmites australis) can be put to ornamental use. But beware they can be as much as a time bomb indoors as out, because at a certain times of dryness and humidity they can just deposit their seed head like an exploding dumper truck. Also impress upon any resident cats that a reed mace (bulrush) frond is not their Christmas present. To them it looks like a cross between a barbequed anorexic mole and a mouse kebab and definitely something to be torn apart, purely for scientific research of course!