The first thing I saw this morning was that the random plant that had been among the white mazus, and which I saved with no great thought, was suddenly flowering. The flower closed in the afternoon, so I hope will be back again tomorrow. It’s a golden-eyed grass – sisyrinchium californium. It likes boggy ground (and rock hard ground too, apparently). I would guess that it was seeded in the mazus soil when I bought that.

The next projects were building the front left corner, where the liner is a bit short, and finishing the back right corner. At the front I flattened and pinned the liner as best I could. I’ve put some of the forget-me-nots back down the original hole behind all the liners and the rest I’ve floated in the water in that area. The water is technically a bit deep for them, but they’d previously been in deep water, rafting in the elodea.

A little bit of liner is visible at the front, which is inevitable. I’ve given it a layer of soil and stones and it might get another layer when that dries and settles. I’ve sprinkled million bells (chaenorhinum origanifolium) seed all over the front and right banks to see if that will take off at all. No sign of a previous sowing, but I’ve sprinkled lots more this time and it’s had more soil on top. I was almost done with the pond before late lunch, which was an amazing feeling.

After lunch I had a new Stanley knife blade with which to cut the excess liner and underlay, which put my previous blade to absolute shame.

I stole some cobbles from home to finish off the bird bowl. I needed a couple of big ones to cover the liner on the front wall of the bird bowl. I’ve added a stick for smaller birds to perch on. We’ll see if they appreciate it. There’s a bit of wood on the front bank, which I’m assuming will get tossed in.

I still had the box of bottom water and sorted through it expecting to get some water for the garden and mud for wherever. With a bucket of water out I realised that there was a lot of life still in the mud and in the water, so I put that into the pond. I carefully mixed up the rest and added that too, which included a big diving beetle and a snail. So I think that’s three big beetles I have now.

I might add some pebbles to the pond as I have a lot, but I will wait for the water to settle and see what the bottom’s like. An unbelievable number had sunk to the very bottom in the original pond, completely ruining the depth. The new bird bowl design should stop that happening.

I’m absolutely delighted with the result and amazed I managed to get this done in five shifts, a couple of those with help. The wildlife has been preserved, banks weeded, planted and improved; the shape mammothly improved in various ways and not too much money spent on it.

A starling failed to get any food from the feeder, which was satisfying to see. I’m still considering a branchy arch over it to keep the big birds off and for the little birds to perch in. It’s so fun to see them on the branches I’ve got propped up lower down.

I’ve added big poppy seed to beds 6 and 1 as a last ditch attempt to fill in spaces in the flowers. The Icelandic poppies in Bed 1 are now coming up well, so if they’re successful, they could be a good annual sow in the borders.

The fern bed is looking good and colourful. It’s really matured well already. The birds keep kicking out the bark. I’m wondering about a little retaining fence at the front, but I’m not sure how easy that would be to install.

More pond work today. The silt has already started to settle, which is a good sign it’s not clay-based. I spent the morning stood in the pond, which was super easy thanks to my new big marginal shelves. The water was barely up to my ankles and warmed up as time went on. I installed the long pole pretty easily and hammered staples over two of the screws.

I cut back the liner and underlay at the back and built up the shelf, starting by placing the plants and big clods of earth. I filled in with earth and a couple of bits of wood to stop it falling through. I got as far the bird bowl, planting the new perennial candytuft.

The blackbird has been destroying the water violet. It had moved on from just taking the soil to pecking so hard that it was breaking off pieces of the plant. I replanted them and then covered it completely with pebbles. All this was having retrieved it from the bottom of the pond where it had fallen during the morning, meaning I couldn’t find it.

Happily I’ve seen two big beetles, various small beetles, a hoverfly, and a spider in and around the pond, so the wildlife hasn’t been put off by the move.

I added the first big stones and pebbles to the bird bowl, then added enough that the water from the pond overflowed perfectly into the bowl. Really pleased I got this piece of the design right.

After lunch and Lucozade to keep my legs moving, I added stones to the back and side banks. I continued earthing up at the back and placed the large stone with a lot of earth behind it. It feels like an evergreen plant for some cover is needed here. Probably not another perennial candytuft, but something like that.

I added more water to let the liner settle further and tidied up some of the many buckets and pieces of pond bank laid out around plot. Mr B has been a great help, bringing me a couple of jerry cans absolutely full from the well.

Something odd has appeared in the middle of the bug hotel on the fence. A black and white something in the butterfly hole, and some wooly something on the left.

Bed 1 got a bit of leftover water from home. The newly planted beans are ok and I’ve pretty much given up on the garlic in Bed 6. That’ll be a matter of the volunteers already there and spare calendulas and zinnias.

The stirred up mud in the pond has already started to settle, which means there’s not much clay in it. I saw small diving beetles and the big one, so all is well with them. The water violet has been attacked by the blackbird though, so I’ve put some more stone on top to try and protect it.

I planted out the runner beans into Bed 7. One of them is still quite small, and there’s one space for the one I’ve re-sown at home. I’ll bring it when it’s big enough to resist marauders.

I did a pile of pick/pull weeding. The bindweed had started winding itself around the lovely big foxgloves under the apple tree and an amount of marestail has reappeared in the ledge, coming through from the back plot.

The teasel is looking great and is collecting dew in its leaves to serve as a natural trough.

The liner was too hot to handle in the sun yesterday, so today’s 12ºC was chilly, but we could at least touch the liner. It went fairly well. It ripped down a seam early on, which was alarming, but fortunately we had so much that turning the liner 90º still left us with plenty to work with.

There’s a paddle stone sitting on a scrap of polythene at the bottom of the deep part. It’s narrow part down, leaving some hiding spaces – until all the stones inevitably fall down there. I’ll also double line the bird bowl to give it some more protection against pecking.

The liner is a little short on the left hand side, but I’m hoping it will still be ok. I’ll probably stick some extra liner in there as backup. We filled it up with the muddy bottom water from the old pond and I threw in all the hornwort I could find from the top water box. The elodea isn’t going back, but needs a good rinse to save the wildlife.

The pots of pickerel weed, yellow iris, water violet and creeping Jenny have gone onto the marginal shelf. The water violet needs to be bigger before it can go down into the deeper hole.

Most of the water has come from the well, collected by Mr B. He’s going to do another jerry can for me, so that’ll probably be all I need from the well. Then comes all the work of building back the banks…

I bought two new pond plants today to take over from two from the old pond. The sweet flag that’s probably got rust is going to be replaced by pickerel weed. Since the elodea took over and made a big web of roots, I plan to remove it. It’ll be replaced by a pot of water violet. I hope to put the pot down in the deep hole on top of the paddle stone. Just need to check the measurements.

I’ve put those plants in the storage tanks at the plot. In the evening I weeded all of Bed 7 and thinned the parsnips. There are also a few little radishes coming along, so maybe I’ll dot some more of that seed around the place for amusement. A big volunteer sunflower has been moved to Bed 9, where I believe a couple of new nasturtiums have arrived.

I spent the morning finessing the shape of the pond and checking the levels of sides. I built the back shelf up a bit with mud and everything else is good enough. I continued being bugged by miner bees, with one pursuing its own hole (which I then sealed with clay).

The bottom of the pond was about 18″, and I managed to scrap another couple of inches of yellow clay out to account for the paddlestone that will go at the bottom.

Afer lunch Mum and I used laminate flooring underlay as the pond underlay. It took longer than the sand, as it was less malleable, but we pinned and cut it to fit fairly tightly. So I’m hopeful that the liner will sit fairly smoothly over it. I’ve put the underlay over the tile I couldn’t shift and the rock that goes there should hide any rise in the liner.

I started shaping the pond and discovered that it’s not so much that the sand had slipped, some of the earth has slipped over the sand. So when I scraped at it, as soon as I’d got rid of the sand, I knew I was back to the original carved shape.

I straightened the sides of the pond and carved out much better small shelves front and back. I’m hopeful that some stones will catch here and not immediately roll down to the bottom. The underlay and liner might undo some of the shape, but we’ll see.

There’s a much more defined bowl for the beach / bird bowl now. I’ve tried to keep a lip to stop stones being knocked to the bottom; it might be that more farm rock goes here too.

The last piece of bank by the gate was too difficult to shift. The plants behind the fence posts have stayed, because the liner goes in front. The tile to the left was too firmly wedged under two poles that were behind the fenceposts, so I’ve cut the liner and the new underlay and liner will have to go over it and be covered by the rock.

Having spent so long working in the corner, I made sure to enjoy this little piece of my left border. Everything else in the plot is so desperate for water and there’s now a bunch of weeding to be done too.

    

Time to redo the pond. The blackbird had pulled all the earth out of the creeping Jenny, so I might need some pond soil after all. He stood on the fence yelling at me like he owned the place for a while.

I set up two red boxes with some aged tap water and started adding water and weed from the pond. I’ve got everything split up into areas, which will be great as long as I remember what’s where.

Down at the bottom of the pond was about 2.5″ – 3″ of mud and stone, being held together with the roots of elodea. I think I’m going to try just depending on hornwort and possibly another floating pond to give shelter, which won’t take over the bottom. There was a lot of life in the mud, including – I think – a water boatman. So I need some mud and stone, but not that much and not something trying it all together.

I brought in reinforcements after lunch and Mum shifted most of the shelves, the clay having dried like concrete. Couch grass had crept all under the plastic and it’s amazing it only pierced it once. There wasn’t much sign of sand, but the earth had sagged in places.

In other news, something has pecked a hole in the side of my second bug hotel. I don’t know why my bee hotels are so attractive to vandals.

The pond water was a little low and the edge of the latest patch has suddenly started to lift. As far as I can feel, it’s still watertight underneath, but clearly I need to remake the pond to stop it being an issue.

Last year’s bee house is filling up fast, having been completely spurned last year. The teasel is now in its second year too and has grown vigorously. I need to get another first year plant so I can keep a constant flowering/seeding cycle going.

I’ve added new Bidens left and right. I can’t find any other spaces at the moment, so the third has gone home and will probably go in a pot.

I did some weeding in Bed 1, though not particularly thoroughly. When you have a close look you see more seedlings appearing – godetia and poppies perhaps – which also get disturbed when pulling up the weeds. I’ve added a few floppy cerinthe to the bed, with Mr B mocking the time it was taking to decide on their location.

I moved some nasturtium, candytuft and sunflower volunteers from Beds 5 and 6 to Bed 9. A couple of sown nasturtiums have appeared and more sweet peas are coming.

All but three of the garlic are doing poorly, so I’ve weeded around them, scattered fertiliser and watered them.

I watered the transplants and select seeds – the parsnips are doing great – but we really need more rain.

The callicarpa isn’t doing all that well, but I’ve noticed new growth coming. I’ll do more about trimming off dead bits when the new growth has done more.

I spent a few hours with my plants this afternoon, potting on silly indoor plants. The zinnias and cosmos are now in their own pots. I’ve potted on the stupid thin sweet peas, two per pot. I need to try and prop them up somehow so they don’t get caught on anything. All the new moves have been fed with seaweed.

Having realised that I was using 2023 seed, I bought new sweetcorn seeds and sowed replacements to go with the five plants that have come up. That tray is inside to let them germinate.

All four cucumbers are now up. I’m guessing they’ll break when transplanted, so I’m hoping that the direct sown seeds will come up soon. Everything is super dry at the allotment and we need some more rain soon.

The tomatoes have been outside for a couple of days, with the cover up and down. With the warm weather we’re having, little is left inside and the grow house gets zipped up late afternoon and opened in the morning.