The Pond
Digging a hole and filling it with water
On the evening of May 3rd 2001 our pond began its existence. A borrowed digger and driver made the first impression in the lawn and started to remove the turf and topsoil.
The job of creating the hole for the pond should have taken an hour or so, had we not discovered a road buried a foot or so beneath the green grass!
With the help of a rock breaker (and an extra few hours of our digger driver’s time – not to mention his cancelled dinner with his girlfriend! Sorry Mike!), we broke through the road and heaped the debris into a pile next to where the pond would finally be. At this stage it was hard to see exactly what the finished pond would look like, or if we could actually turn this hole into something that would ever be able to support some wildlife.
The following morning, with the sun shining, an enthusiastic team of twelve volunteers arrived to turn our newly-dug hole into a pond.
It was a daunting task, but the job of preparing the hole for the liner – levelling the pond edges, removing the remains of the road (concrete and reinforcing rods), sculpting the sides to provide the right shape and gradient, lining the pond with sand (to act as a protection against the liner being pierced by sharp objects from below) and laying the extra layer of protective matting – was undertaken with boundless enthusiasm.
Once the liner and its protective layers were in place, a six inch (15cm) deep layer of soil was used to cover the liner and provide somewhere for plants to take root – as well as looking much more natural. The soil would also define the final profile of the pond, although most of the shaping was done before the liner was in place.
When the soil was in place, it was time to turn on the hose and sit back, after a hard day’s work, to watch the pond fill – and enjoy a spot of refreshment!
