A day off among the rain to make progress on the pond. I dug more poles out of the pile and rearranged the far side’s structure, putting a larger pole more towards the front to act as the pond edge. It’s sat on an edging piece stolen from the bug hotel to keep it up and straight. I’m trying to avoid tiles being used or visible.

I’ve filled in the left and back with more soil, putting tiles against the back fence for support. One white mazus has gone in at the left front corner and the creeping jenny has gone in near the poles, with the aim of covering the liner that I don’t want to cut down any further. Along the front I’ve pinned hessian under the pole, so that soil along the front edge has something to hold onto. I’m thinking along the lines of a mixture of grass and other low-lying creeping plant. Quite possibly another creeping Jenny because I’ve read it barely needs soil.

The green slate looks good and is grey enough to merge well with the pebbles. The smaller stone has gone onto the left corner with stones, earth and plants around it. I’ve built up the back edge with more sand under the liner, so it’s high enough to not be flooded any more. I’ve put the big stone over there and used its flat side as a support for building up soil.

I’ve put bricks under the sweet flag to bring it up, but I’ll need to straighten it a bit when the water clears and I can see what I’m doing. The iris can go down to 60cm, so it’s just sat on the ledge and will hopefully show itself more in the spring.

Two purple loosestrife are on their way, to go in the far corner and halfway along the back ledge. A marsh marigold will go into earth I’ve built up by the big stone. That leaves me with another white mazus and a blue veronica. The white mazus could go in front of the middle back tile, and the veronica could go in the mound just by the big rock. I’m expecting the loosestrife to spread well, but I may do a very light sprinkle of poppy seeds on the banks too. I also have a beautiful piece of bark from the rec, which I want to place as a hidey hole – perhaps over the earth in the back corner.