Tinas Diary

May 21st 06
LOCATION - South Wales
Pond info - unlined, clay pond, size approx 20' x 9' -  depth approx 4' deepest point. 2.5' - 3' average depth.
Position - all day sun
Age of Pond - Dug Feb 06

Elodea grown massively, now up to surface. 
Water Lilies have all got several leaves on the surface and plenty more on the way up. 
Yellow Iris been flowering for a week. 
Water Hawthorn has been flowering for months and still is..
Creeping Jenny growing very well.
Watercress Flowering
No blanket weed - yet
Tadpoles  (spawn from sisters pond)- a number of frogletts are in the grass, others still in pond with tails and front and back legs, others still only have back legs...
Pond very flooded due to the ridiculous amount of rain, so a lot of marginals are completely under water..

May 24th 06
Added six Sticklebacks to the pond last night - havent seen them since ???
Pond 'flood plane' still as high as ever..
Frogletts everywhere
Pond Crystal clear
Not sure if I've drowned Seans Water soldiers, only one is visible below the water surface.

May 25th 06
Have got blanket weed!!!
Pond still flooded
Plants all growing well except a water hawthorn, poss smothered by blanket weed?

May 30th 06

Pulling huge sheets of blanket weed from pond.. made mental note not to leave it at the side of the pond for days, picked it up to bin it and it stunk to high heaven!! - next lot is going in a filled water but / bin to let any 'caught' wigglies escape..
No buds to be seen on the water lilies as yet
Iris still flowering
Flooded areas seems to be going back slowly (at last) perhaps this was the cause of the blanket weed attack? poss. new turf had been fertilized?...
Having to tiptoe around pond area - still alive with tiny frogletts..

June 5th 06
Been away a few days - Pond looks awful, surface covered in 'scum' and huge clouds of blanket weed yet again .. water level has dropped about 4" - will remove blanket weed and fill pond using water from water butt tomorrow.. Seriously thinking of getting pump and filter plus uv light but worried it will upset any natural balance left in there!! Maybe just a filter to keep it aerated till the plants have matured enough to keep it going properly.. 
Two of Seans water soldiers showing..
Iris still flowering
No buds showing on lilies

7th June 06
Ok so I overreacted - pond scum was actually a combination of pollen / willow fluff insects and general bits laying on the surface probably because there is no water movement at all.. 
Cleared another great pile of blanketweed out.. The water is still clear to the bottom although it is 'brownish' in colour..
FIRST BUD SHOWING ON A WATERLILLY!!!!
Planted Jennies Marsh Marigolds which arrived today..
The Dragonfly which arrived yesterday is a flat bodied chaser (male) its still there today, seems to have made a bamboo stick its perch..
Counted nine mating pairs of blue damsel flys  O0

8th June 06

I saw my first newt in the pond!!!! rusty brown and about 3" YIPPEEEEE
Still haven't seen the sticklebacks
The dragonfly 'flat bodied chaser'  was visited by Mrs flat bodied chaser this afternoon - she has a yellow body as opposed to his powder blue upper.. they paired and flew about but she then laid all over the place by herself..  He saw off another male, chased it all over the garden before comming back to his perch alone.
Still a few tadpoles about, maybe they're eternal teenagers...
Must get batteries for my camera - I'm missing loads of picture opportunities.. lots happening all over the pond..

10th June 06
Nearly broke my neck trying to get a decent photo of our resident dragonfly 'Flat bodied blue chaser' male.. but he always sits facing the same direction - the wrong one - and I'd have to wear waders or get a decent camera to take a photo of him from the back...
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j273/tinamuir/flowers/dragonflyandflowers019.jpg

10th June 06
He faced the right way!!!  He also dive bombed a 'real' dragonfly -it was far bigger than the Blue chaser and ignored him..

16th June 06
Today the first water lily flower opened!!! banana
I actually got into the pond to pull out blanketweed by hand, not the nicest of jobs but it had to be done.. works far better by hand than 'twizzeling it to a stick and then fighting to get it back off..  Got attacked by a mob of mossies for my sins  >
Sat by the pond quietly and a flock of sparrows arrived and started bathing, lovely I thought till they spied our Dragonfly and hounded him all over the pond and surrounding area!!  He's too fast for them and wasn't harmed.  It looks as though our pond is his permanent home, he has his perch and is there every day once the sun shines   Mrs Dragonfly is a regular visitor, they pair up and then he patrols the area over and around her while she deposits the eggs.. 

19th June 06
I have a feeling the 'unlined' pond project is doomed... unless I want to go the route of having it 'totaly natural' and letting the water level sink to a couple of foot if we're lucky, I reckon a liner will have to be 'inserted' next year..  Problem with the heavy clay garden is that it holds water very well in winter - but dries to a crisp in summer especially with the heat we've been having..  The large grass area the pond is sat at the side of has massive cracks appearing in the clay,none close to the pond but obviously if this is drying out the ground water level must have dropped considerably..  The pond level dropped about 8" to a foot.. and the exposed sides of clay dried out  to 'rock'.. not very good for the marginals and not very pretty to look at either.. We had no choice but to fill it using the water butt several times over.. The water in the butt is tap water at the moment which I'm leaving for a couple of days before using it..  Maybe as the pond becomes more established and gets coated with algae or whatever it could seal itself? maybe as the plants grow they will lessen surface evaporation? we'll see..

21st June 06
Creeping jenny flowering beautifully
Water hawthorn still hasn't reapeared properly, just a few smallish leaves on the surface..
Water soldiers submerged
Lilies throwing up loads of leaves but no other buds to be seen as yet..
Haven't seen our Chaser dragonfly for a couple of days as its been cloudy when I've been at the pond.. where do they go if the sun isn't shining???
Must get around to the back of the pond to pull out the grass at the pond edge, looked great at first but I forgot how invasive and tall grass gets when left to its own devises!!  it seems to be a major blanketweed attractor when its in the pond..

22nd June 06
Something has been in the pond!  It was clear last night..  Went to have a look lunchtime today and its totally 'milky' cant see an inch below water level..  the light colored clay must have been stirred up from the bottom by 'something'.. Probably just some ducks flown in for a swim, never known the heron to create such a turbulence!  Tony's going to fit a camera to the arbor bench so we can see whats going on when we're not around.. >

25th June 06
Well the mystery of the  cloudy pond is solved, one of our dogs has decided swimming is more cooling than a quick dip!
Water hawthorn has not re appeared but there are young 'self seeded plantlets popping up around the pond.
Yellow floating heart has one flower.. I think its floating heart if floating heart throws loads of runners...
no further Lily buds to be seen as yet..
Still pulling out blanket weed..
Spoke to  two neighbors with lined ponds - one has had to regularly top up due to evaporation, the other has a small  Lilly pond without fish and noticed it had completely dried up!!  So maybe the dropping water level in our  pond is at least to a large part due to evaporation :

2nd July 06

Today was a good day.. the pond is crystal clear, even the blanket weed looked good..  Son no. 2 decided to give the Chaser Dragonfly a longer 'stick' to perch on.. He stuck in a length of bamboo , about a foot longer and directly next to the original stick... The chaser immediately adopted it and has since ignored the lower perch completely..
We've had several other large dragonflies, metallic blue and green lay in the pond.. Have noticed they seem to lay unaccompanied by a male.. The chaser female always pairs up with the male first, then deposits the eggs..
Spotted a Stickleback in the pond yesterday and again today.. not sure if he's the only one left or if I saw two individuals..
Life with a pond is good  O0

27th August 06
Well I think the clay pond project is a success...  Yes we've had to top up occasionally, but no more than every other pond keeper in this area.. The pond held its own even during the blistering heat of the past months.. 
The water Lilies have established themselves and have been flowering constantly, the pond weed has gone berserk.. Iris,and other 'waterside' plants have established themselves well...  The only one that disappeared and never came back is the waterhawthorn...
Blanket weed is still around in small patches but really nothing worth worrying about.
We've had an amazing array of dragonflies all summer.. are still getting the occasional on or two - mostly reds at the moment.. very few damsels now though..  Our chaser is gone but I think he's left more than enough larvae with the help of his partners to see us though next year.. we'll tell them how great their daddy was!!
Spied a snake on the gravel beside the pond a couple of weeks back.. no idea what type, but it was dark and about a foot long.. not a slow worm as it had a pointed tail.. It got spooked by something and shot into the bank behind the pond..
We planted a Gunnera in the far corner by the trellis fencing, dug it in to about pond level and gave it loads of compost etc.. so far its OK.. hopefully we'll have a specimen in a few years time..
I did a water test on the pond just out of curiosity... water slightly hard but thats to be expected I suppose, and ammonia absolute zero...
Water clear as a bell when the dogs stay out of it!!

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j273/tinamuir/IMG_0995.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j273/tinamuir/IMG_0993.jpg