This is Nick Easterbrook fitting mesh to a pond, to try to prevent mink accessing it and killing all the fish - three lots of fish have gone the same way. Mink are increasingly a problem for fish pond owners - they are intelligent, efficient predators...
This is a very interesting "algae" that started cropping up in ponds in Scotland about ten years ago. It's Latin name is 'nostoc commune', but it has some wonderful old common names - star jelly, rot of the stars, star slime and witches butter for...
Some interesting edging details from a garden we are working on in the east end of Edinburgh. The Moroccan tiles need sealing to cope with Scottish frosts, but make a lovely border for this pool that will have a statue as a centrepiece. The clay “rope...
The frog, the toad, and the goldfish. There are probably more small ponds in Britain now than at any time in history. Modern liners mean that small garden ponds are easy to make. This is a godsend for goldfish and frogs. They love small ponds, and...
March is not a bad time to do a pond clean if you can get it done before the frogs spawn. Signs your pond needs cleaning are green water, lots of duckweed and a big build-up of leaves on the bottom. If you do drain...
These photos illustrate some of the things not to do with a formal pool. If you are going to use a hard, consistent material like brick then see if you can soften it with some planting or at least some other material that breaks up...
Pond edges are interesting places. If you are standing at one then there should be lots to see and lots to be interested in. If you are a designer or pond builder producing an infinity or meniscus pool then the edge needs to be level...
One of the many nice things we get to do at Water Gems is play around with designing water features based on some of the strange physical properties of water. One of the best examples we know of doing this is the Princess Diana Memorial...
September. For some reason lots of ponds have duckweed at this time of year (the little floating green plants that sometimes cover ponds). I am not sure why it is called duckweed except that ducks appear to eat it. Duckweed is shade tolerant and typical...
First of all don’t plant Norfolk reed. It can grow horizontally at 5m a year and one three acre lochan we know went from 30 plants to about 30 000 in ten years or so. Second, don’t use a cheap liner, because they often leak. Third, don’t...