Today I did something in my Garden

CelticRambler wrote: »

Nitrates stimulate just about all kinds of plant growth, so it's not necessarily a bad thing, if you want to have irises, reeds, waterlilies, etc. It just so happens that algae are the simplest forms of plant life, so they tend to get into poorly managed systems first and then go mad while there's no competition. "Poorly managed" is a term that can apply as easily to full-size lakes and tidal waters as to a garden pond, and they're not getting filled from a tap!

Go with the tap water so yeah? By poorly managed, what do you mean? Just weeds not removed? I've seen still waters up mountains supporting dozens of frogs and newts with little or no plant life. I stuck a micro sized pond 2 years ago and last year saw dragon flies in the garden, lifted a rock pile and counted 20 newts, saw a few frogs. So I'm just trying to put something bigger in to support whatever is in the garden.

CelticRambler

zippy84 wrote: »

Go with the tap water so yeah? By poorly managed, what do you mean? Just weeds not removed? I've seen still waters up mountains supporting dozens of frogs and newts with little or no plant life.

My definition of "poorly managed" means sitting back and doing nothing (or "let nature take its course"). Algal blooms and pond scum are all part of Nature doing its thing with the resources available - but not necessarily compatible with what we humans think is "nice" (like having edible shellfish or safe water to swim in! :rolleyes: )

In your case, while it would be preferable to use only rainwater to fill the pond, I think you're as likely to run into problems with having too little water in the pond for too long as if you were to get it filled as quickly as possible. With the size of my roof, I could fill it five times over in one night of heavy rain, but if you're limited to 200l every week, it'll take you two months to get it up to the top shelf, and another month or even two to get it filled to the top.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that (slowly rising levels happen in Nature) but by the time it's filled, you'll be into a different time of the year, and whatever life might want to get started in there in March-April will have to wait till 2022. In the meantime, other competing forms of life might establish themselves and change what might have been ...

Which is a long-winded way of saying: don't get hung up on the chemical compostion of tap water - there's (probably) nothing in there that Nature can't deal with as effectively as your own kidneys.

macraignil

zippy84 wrote: »

Dug a wildlife pond today.. 3.5 x 2.5 metres. I've since dug under the shovel in the pic down to 2 ft, there is a 30cm and 15cm shelf.

Underlay / overlay arrived today, just waiting on the pvc liner. The plan is to backfill with some subsoil for planting, there is a good youtube tutorial from the Butterfly Bros, they seem to know what they're doing, so following their plan.

I'm toying with the idea of letting it fill naturally, as in the rainwater is suppose to be much better, containing more beneficial bacteria, and no chemicals.

I have a 220 ltr rain water butt that fills in no time. Would it take long to fill this pond naturally supplementing with the rain water butt. I'm guessing the pond will need about 3500-4k litres of water? Could be wrong with that. Or are the benefits of rain water worth it?

Rain water has been evaporated mostly from the surface of the sea before it moves as water vapor and forms clouds of water droplets before falling as rain. The only bacteria it might contain would be those it brings with it out of the air so I'm not sure this beneficial bacteria in rain water idea is worth worrying about. What I have read in the past about establishing a new pond ecosystem is to take a bucket of water from an existing pond and use this to stock your new pond with the microscopic and other forms of life that help a pond develop naturally. This natural established pond water should introduce zooplankton that will feed on algae you might not be keen on seeing too much of.

If it was me in your situation I would let the tap water filled pond idle for a day or two before adding the natural pond water to allow any chlorine in the water dissipate. I added a bucket from a nearby stream side pond when I made my own pond and within a few weeks there were water skaters and water beetles visibly active in the water and even though it has occasionally looked a bit cloudy I don't think this is a problem in a pond designed to support nature.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks folks. Liner just arrived an hour ago, good timing.

Getting there.

New Home

That is impressive!!! It already looks like it's been there for years, I went back to check the date of your earlier post!

Cheers, yeah I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It may look a bit aged because most of the stone has been lying around here for years. I buried those logs under compost 2 years ago, so that came in handy. The water is a bit clearer than I had expected at this stage, maybe because there's a lot of stone over the subsoil and also the water pressure is pretty low here.

All it needs now is a few plants, some ordered.

scarepanda

We finally got the garden fully secure for the dogs and the robot mower is back at work

The veg garden area is almost clear, so I'll finish that off tomorrow and then mark it out.

Wife and kids cleared the moss off the lawns with our aldi scarifier. 5 big meter cubed bags plus a load put under the hedges.

Got a delivery of woodchip of the local tree surgeon.

magicbastarder

at least that's one thing i'm never short, of, woodshavings.

magicbastarder

got the raised beds moved to their final position; started filling them with 'home grown' soil, so one filled. waiting on a delivery to fill the other two.
it was kinda nuts how many new zealand flatworms i came across when sieving the soil; we knew they were in the garden (the previous owner had a load of australasian plants in the garden, so the assumption is they came in with them), but i found them in ten times the number they had previously been seen. i dumped them in the water butt to drown them.

trying to decide what to two with two much smaller ones which were lifted to make way for these, decided that spot largely shaded by the shed will do, and we'll grow raspberries of blackcurrants in them.

Rodin

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Wife and kids cleared the moss off the lawns with our aldi scarifier. 5 big meter cubed bags plus a load put under the hedges.

Got a delivery of woodchip of the local tree surgeon.

How much?

Car99

zippy84 wrote: »

Getting there.

Now I want a pond. Cheers another thing to add to my wish list.

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Wife and kids cleared the moss off the lawns with our aldi scarifier..

Aldi scarifier.....wwhhattt! :eek: :eek: How did I not know about this! just forked out a fortune on one for the OHs big bday as we hire one every year and thought it would be a wiser investment.... I almost don’t want to know the price...almost... probably a great bargain...!?

Car99 wrote: »

Now I want a pond. Cheers another thing to add to my wish list.

:pac: It was on my list for 4 or 5 years too.

legend99

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Aldi scarifier.....wwhhattt! :eek: :eek: How did I not know about this! just forked out a fortune on one for the OHs big bday as we hire one every year and thought it would be a wiser investment.... I almost don’t want to know the price...almost... probably a great bargain...!?

Possibly this?
http://offers.kd2.org/en/ie/aldi/peEzw/

You mind me asking what one you bought/how much? The aerator options seem to be far fewer for home diy. Possibly as the very nature of what it does just doesn't allow.for a cheaper/lighter electric machine?

Rodin wrote: »

How much?

For the chips? 15e a drop

Rodin

SouthWesterly wrote: »

For the chips? 15e a drop

That's just delivery or for the material also?

Spent yesterday moving rocks. A decent sized heap of boulders that emerged from under a mass of brambles, that we had not got around to moving. Now it is right where I want to put a veg patch so the heap had to be dismantled. That was as far as it got, the boulders are now waiting for some way of getting them to a new home. About a dozen big ones (aka how the heck are we going to move these?) to be part of a bog garden/ pond and the smaller ones (I can just about lift them) ones to be a low stone wall in another area. They are just about clear of the potential potato patch now so there is a chance of the chitting potatoes having somewhere to go!

Gardens are a wonderful, endless, yak shaving source of projects and activity!

CelticRambler

looksee wrote: »

the boulders are now waiting for some way of getting them to a new home. About a dozen big ones (aka how the heck are we going to move these?)

Option 1: find and enslave a bunch of ancient henge/pyramid builders. :pac:
Option 2: hire a mini digger :rolleyes:

Option 3: if you can roll them (with or without the assistance of a good long crowbar, and have at least three people in good working order, find yourself a nice solid pallet, a few solid planks and three pieces of pipe the width of the short side of the pallet. Then proceed as follows:
- identify your destination;
- lay a twin track of planks in a straight line towards the target zone, starting beside the boulder to be moved;
- place the pallet on the planks right beside the boulder;
- hoik the boulder onto the pallet in whatever way works; jam a few wedges under it to keep it from shifting;
- lift the front edge of the pallet and slide one pipe under it, crossways; get it as close to the middle of the pallet as possible;
- place another pipe under the very front of the pallet;
- lever the back of the pallet upwards so that the front now rests on the foremost pipe and ... puuuuuuush!
- have one person hold the third pipe in position so that the pallet rolls onto it before it's cleared the rearmost roller, and have someone else ready to pull that out of the pusher's way as soon as it's free.
- reposition the planks as and when they've done their part.

We've shifted all kinds of unshiftable stuff using this technique, including a stone lintel that the neighbours referred to as "the dolmen" and probably weighs about two tonnes (and which had to cross the road, go up a step into and out of the cobbled courtyard, make a right turn, cross the soft grass and cross a fragile paved path before being lifted onto two smaller rocks to serve as a garden bench).

The set of three rollers (cut to size from the main output pipe of the defunct boiler by my dad during one of his early visits) would be a contender for the "most useful tool I never paid for" award.

Thanks for that CR! Our main moving system at the moment is a very large, extremely strong sea-fishing net - made of rope it seems like, indestructible. It was swathing a blackcurrent bush under a pile of brambles when we found it. Anyway if you ease the boulder onto one end then grab that short end and pull over the boulder towards you it rolls quite nicely within the pocket of net - not always straight but relatively easily! When you get to the end of the net you have to re-feed it onto it, but that is quite easy. We can do about 4 meters at a time with the net.

The place we are going to is uphill all the way though, so options are a bit limited. We will hopefully have a mini-digger on site when we get some other work done so that might be a possibility. We did enquire about hiring a mini-digger but the guy in the shop literally laughed at us (two women hiring a digger) and refused to engage. There are not too many options around here, and we didn't pursue it. There are still pockets of serious isms out there!

I have also built a sled that slides quite nicely but in my efforts to make it boulder-strong it is a bit too heavy. It is also about twice as long as really necessary so I will cut it in half and see how we do with that.

Muscle power is the limiting factor, we are two women, one of whom will not see the three score and ten again. We have done pretty well though, and are great believers in 'give me a lever' etc and similar practical solutions

CelticRambler

looksee wrote: »

Muscle power is the limiting factor, we are two women, one of whom will not see the three score and ten again.

Ah now I wouldn't write ye off on that account - my dolmen was shifted with the assistance of two German vegans that I picked up on the side of the road. They wouldn't have been the strongest specimens of our species!

We just moved three of the biggest boulders, with the sled and the muscle power of a honda jazz! We lost a few divots on the way, but we got there!

Reckless Abandonment

Spent the day mulching all the beds and built a zen garden well zen ish

Not sure about the granite, not sure how to edge it. Open to suggestions

Rodin wrote: »

That's just delivery or for the material also?

He lives locally and just drops them on his way home. 15e for the load.
Load size can vary depending on what he has