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...
Water Gems have once again become BALI award winners. The British Association of Landscape Industries awards ceremony takes place every December with a champagne reception followed by a sumptuous lunch. This year Nick and Annie, Robin, Struan, Hubert and Kenny will head down to the ceremony...
Water Gems were delighted to carry out much needed improvements to this popular pond in Dedridge, Livingstone. Funding was secured by West Lothian Council to improve the pond’s appearance whilst increasing its biodiversity and its value for formal and informal nature study. The name Froggy...
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...
With all the fantastic weather we have been having in July it is worth talking about how the heat and light can affect your pond. The first thing it does is increase the chances that the pond water goes bright green with a phytoplankton bloom. If...
Last Friday, Water Gems were privileged to be invited to the opening of the Huntercombe Hospital Garden that we built last Autumn. Author Ian Rankin carried out the honours to officially open the garden, which was designed by Carolyn Grohmann of Secret Gardens. Its aim...
This is part of a big wildlife pond Stuart has just finished near Linlithgow. The beach, large stones, timber and heavy planting with big native plants (marsh marigold, flag iris, water forget me not, water mint etc.) all provide different structures for invertebrates and amphibians...
Here are some photos of one of our recent habitat creation jobs for Froglife. These two pools have Bentomat liners under them, not our usual EPDM liner. Another unusual element for us is that they are not planted. In some ways this is the ideal...
These are my favourite ornamental fish, golden orfe - long lived and beautiful. Try not to feed your pond fish too much. The more you feed them the more nutrients end up in the water and the more likely you are to have problems with green...