now there are many beautiful garden features but one old favorite has suddenly become one of the most popular features to have in the garden and that is the garden pond and it really works you know you're sitting down you're seeing the fish swim around the sound of tranquil water you know you're really lucky to see a couple of frogs in there there you've got frog spawn tadpoles you see the birds flying down the pollinators around it's such a magical thing and there are lots of different types you can go to one extreme over here which is wildlife very rustic very natural a little bit scruffy but it's got everything for the birds and the amphibians to visit on the other side you've got the very manicured pond in rich landscaping japanese maple koi carp swimming through but you can have a versatile water garden which really combines the best from the two and oawasi specialise in technology to enable you to have a very healthy vibrant and productive pond that not only those as humans can enjoy and our children as well but also the wildlife that visit the garden too now i'm going to create one here in my garden and i've had a look around of the ideal spots and this is my favorite because it's one of the more sheltered parts of the garden i think the ponds do really well with that i've got the old barn at the back so i think that would be quite a nice backdrop there's some existing planting there's a lovely mahonia there if you are thinking about putting a versatile water garden into your own garden look to really see how it's going to fit in and use some of the features that's already there now i'm going to make it quite big i'm going to bring it out into an area here there's going to be quite a bit of soil of course where we excavate to make the pond and i'm going to reuse that soil don't want to throw anything away everything gets reused into this area here to have a bit of a bank because when we say versatile water garden versatility makes sense because we get nature and we get a bit of manicuring at the same time but it's also the water and the garden and the term garden is going to refer to all the plants that we're going to put not only around the outside to make it look beautiful and interact with nature but also in the pond as well i'm incredibly excited even as a little kid i had a pond having one here in our new home uh is going to make uh it's going to lift us up a little bit right first thing we're going to do is dig a big hole now here i am right in the middle of my versatile water garden and it's taking a very natural shape i think it's not a perfect circle it's not a rectangle or a square it's something that looks as if it's you know really evolved and been part of the area for a long time so natural shaping and fluid movements go a long way the first thing i think about when putting in a pond is the safety of the creatures that live in the water and that visit the water for a start off i make it over half a metre deep that's 600 millimeters so if it was to freeze over on a very cold winter the water at the bottom would never freeze and the fish will be free and safe and just over here is the beach now this is a gradual slope out of the water we're going to put some stones and everything around here so it's grippable as well and if any little creature like a little bumblebee comes wants a drink falls in it will be able to move and get up and escape via this road likewise things like hedgehogs or stag beetles and it'll even help the amphibians frogs and toes and newts to be able to exit the water or come back in as well now that's the wildlife that lives in the water and visits it's the same with plants as well different plants have uh different habitats and the very deep uh underwater plants things like water lilies that root and have the body of the plant under the water then send up the pads onto the surface they need it deep so i've got that sorted here now marginal plants that live in the water but not too deep just on the edges we've created a shelf just in here the different heights there's a few other shelves here one drops down so we can put the marginals to make it feel really natural and become very well established all the way around because we're going to recycle the material or the soil that we took to make the hole which is the soil just over here to landscape around the back to plant so the plants merge from outside the pond into the marginals and the pond itself to create something that looks beautiful and natural and that's safe for all the creatures that visit or live in the pond now i have left this one bit out this section here is for a bit of aware technology that i'm going to put into the pond that'll help keep the pond uh both healthy and also clean at the same time now my next job is to get the fleecing in and around we're then going to put a nawaza liner in that's guaranteed for 15 years so you know if it's if it's guaranteed for 15 it's going to last a lot longer it's going to be here for for a good long time and when that's in position the next bit is the water now i've just come into the workshop to to take a look at what's really going to be the the heart of my water garden which is the pump and of course a couple of items that i'm going to attach to the pump to make the whole process of keeping the water healthy clean and perfect not only for the plants but also the creatures that live there and something that's going to look good for me when i'm sitting down with a beer just watching and enjoying nature come into my garden and the secret is is to to buy the best pump you can possibly afford because it's the it's the real heart of the the the water itself and here i've chosen there's a big range out there is the awazi um aquamax uh eco premium i know it's a bit of a mouthful the other word that all a number that goes with that is the 8000 and the 8000 refers to the volume of water it can move in just an hour and that's 8 000 liters so it's more powerful than i need but you're always better to buy a bigger pump and then you can regulate the flow then of course it doesn't work the other way around you can't buy a smaller pump and then want more energy and this is a really nice bit of kit now this is a cage it's the cage that goes around the outside of the pump where all the water gets sucked through and this pump is is that big it'll take debris the size of of about a centimeter you know 10 millimeters and let me just show you what what the insides of it is because it's a it's quite a powerful pump it looks really technical but the basis of the pump is it it sucks water in and it pushes water out and in all ponds you get this this process where it's sucking water in and putting enough power and movement of water to make a fountain a waterfall here in this case we're going to use it to go through the filtration system to keep all of the water really healthy and really clean because a healthy pond is a very vibrant pond now this pump here is of such higher spec they give it a five-year guarantee there's not many things that work with electrics that have that long a guarantee so you know it's incredibly good quality and it's going to be lasting for a period of time because again it is the heart that's moving and pumping the water through now something that's really clever that i like um is is making the pump as efficient as possible and obviously 60 what it is that is a very powerful uh pump but sucking it in it's just taking water because it sits right at the bottom of the pond it's taking all that water in and then taking any of the muck that's with it through the filtration system but it's drawing water in as well now here's something really clever that i like i can attach something onto the end here that enables the water to come both from the bottom of the pond but also draw some water through a another bit of hosing and that bit of hosing is going to come and connects onto this clever device and it is not an expensive piece to add into a pond but will make the world of difference it's a skimmer you know when you're on those infinity pools you see that level of water and of course it's going straight into the filter and the surface of those swimming pools are so perfectly clean you can do the same with your own pond and that's what i'm doing with my pond it's a skimmer obviously this thing floats up and down to the level of the water it's got a tube if you want to make it any deeper you can do that if you want to make it shorter you've got a smaller pond you can just cut the level off here then just reset it down but that suction will be drawing in the surface of the water perfectly level and all things like you know the blossom that falls into the pond dust from the road on a dry day leaves or anything else comes down and falls into here and then you just take that and don't throw it away cripes it's good composting tip that into your compost heap so i'm effectively using a bit of energy that this pump was doing anyway drawing water in but i'm taking it to enable me to make the surface of the pond so very clean believe you me if you had two ponds one with a skimmer and one without you'd see a dramatic difference the cleanliness at the surface of the water makes something really good it's that clear water and you look at it it looks fantastic so that's one end the other end we attach into that goes across into the filtration system and that's keeping the body of the water clean and healthy at the same time and remember the hosing that we're going to place onto this is going to be one and a half inches so we cut off see this bit here you cut off the bit to the size of the hose that you've got we've got a particularly large hose and you may have a smaller one obviously it's easy to do these sort of like little little saws cut those off so you haven't got a pinch of water going through a small one we've got a big flow of water just going through the main pipe itself now the filtration system is a really important part of my pond and this is the filter clear 19000 it's a really good awata product and as you can see here it is just one big chamber a sort of a bolt end at the top and two outlets here and one outlet there and this unit itself is going to help me manage the quality of my water now first up none of us likes to see green water that's when the single-celled algae just starts to grow and grow on the nitrogen within the pond and then it becomes green and horrible and this at the top this top section here contains uv lights that go into the filter itself they're 42 watt and they'll do a great job of killing the single cell algaes that make the water green and that's good on its own now the main body here contains a series of sponges of different grades that enables the microorganisms to make the whole unit totally biological breaking down any debris that comes through so i'm just going to open the side here and this locks it into position and i'll show you the the workings inside now let me give it a pull out take a look at that now that is a perfect condo for a whole host of different microorganisms which are doing a great job in keeping the quality of the water at its maximum as you can see they're different grades these big blue ones here have slightly larger holes and that's where the larger debris will get lodged into this one here is medium the purple and the orange one in the middle is very fine and in here cultures uh making it a complete biological unit will be breaking down uh a lot of the debris that goes through and also helps manage the quality of the water as well reducing ammonia and nitrites as well and that combined into this little housing here is is almost a hotbed of biological materials cleaning the water constantly as it goes through water comes into here works through the filtration system and goes out the other end so once the water has been taken through and cleaned it comes out the other way and just as we're double using the power of our pump to activate a skimmer as well as taking water from the base we're going to make the water that's coming out of this filter become a feature for us as well by taking it and making it go round to create a waterfall so this pump is doing a great job in helping us keep the whole water clean and becoming a feature at the same time now here's something really clever eventually you know over time you get a build up of too much uh material within the body the sponges can't breathe they get a bit chopped up and it's not always easy to see when it needs cleaning and when it doesn't but if we're running the water through to a waterfall i can gradually see the waterfall struggling and becoming less and less flow because it's harder to get the water through and that's my indicator that it needs a clean and cleaning it couldn't be easier in fact it's just a click of a button now what i've done is i've just diverted the water rather than coming out here and going down our waterfall instead it's coming out of this one not literally straight out like this we're going to put a little attachment onto the end and then a pipe onto that and then we can take the water the dirty water that we're going to squeeze the sponges to clear can go out into the flower beds and feed the borders you can see this one's quite clear i find this really helpful so i put the pipe on but not all the way use the jubilee clip to to to attach and then use this other clear section there's a window to see when the water is dirty and when it goes clean i think that's very clever but i've got to squeeze the sponges so i'll show you what to do because effectively you lift up the handle and that compresses the sponges it's difficult to see without me taking it out so i'll show you now so you don't have to take this out during the process i'm just taking it out to give you an idea of what's about so all you do is when this is in you literally just pull the handle like that and it's squeezing the sponges and from that that is releasing a lot just the same as in a bath you know when you've got a sponge and it's bit dirty or you're cleaning the car or anything like that you squeeze the sponge and then you look and you see the clarity of the water and that's great because then just rest the handle down re-click it and it goes back through to the waterfall so maintenance of the filtration system couldn't be easier there we are the very heart of a versatile water garden the pump just the same with our hearts except it's moving water around and that's the magic it's in position and it's ready to go and it's a really good time to take a look at the construction of a water garden about now before the cables and the the hoses are buried into position before all the pots are hidden with the stones you get to see the mechanics behind it because we try to leave things as flexible as possible because we're creating a living thing both inside the water and outside and and as we plan to move and embellish and trim the edges of the liner off we move and nestle and then a few more stones around one another plant in the corner or the other you know it is a it is a canvas we are we are almost painting with a with a lot of heavy work certainly with big stones like that a beautiful natural feature and the thing to think about when planting it is an ever-changing picture not just about the seasons and how things look in in spring and in autumn and summer and winter but also in years as well as plants grow and mature it's just just a beautiful thing a water a water garden now let me just take it take a look at some of these things here now we put a lot of these stones into position here this is going to be our waterfall cascading down over here is our beach this is an area that the water goes up to and because it's a soft gradient here any creatures that unfortunately fall into the water your bumblebees your beetles or even if your amphibians your frogs your toads and your newts want to be able to get out not forgetting hedgehogs as well there's a safe way for them to work round the edge and get out of the water again because water gardens need to be safe it's not just about creatures i've got a picket fencing going along there with a lock on it so none of the kids can get down into this area here without being supervised by a parent also means i can lock it over there put a little seat at the end of the evening sit down with a beer and take a look at the beauty of nature taking place around the pond itself now the technology that we're putting in which helping manage the water is very clever the pump in here of course is first of all sucking water in it's sucking it in from the bottom of the of the water feature so it's taking all the debris and everything from there and um it's taking the water not only sucking it through there sucking it through this as well our skimmer at the top which is going to take in all the leaves and dirt and dust in fact i'm going to put a few of the cobbles just at the base i'll put a few more in there just to weight it down and that's what that little section that little plateau was specifically put in for over at the back uh is where the filter is going and i'll tell you a little bit more about that later i've got a bit more work to nestle that in but all the water that's get taken from here into the filter will then go around with another pipe and act as supply really for the waterfall as it cascades down so this pump is doing so much work not only extracting water pushing it through the system but also creating a really nice feature here that does a couple of things of course for a start off it looks beautiful of course but as it falls back into the water it's adding more oxygen in the water as well and as i mentioned earlier it's a pretty good indicator for me telling me when i need to just give a quick clean of the filter and that means the flow because it's getting a bit clogged up will start to reduce so i can spot that straight over there and give it a clean right that's my next job to get over there and work with the filter well it took many hours last night filling the pond up and what a what a difference it makes look at it fantastic now we've trimmed up the edge of the liner tucked a lot of it in at the side we put some cobbles and stones just as an embellishment it helps mask and hide pipes and cables and of course it also beds in our marginals and right at the bottom there's a couple of water lilies at the base of the uh the water garden to be able to pop up what i'm particularly pleased about is the beach area just over there and now you can see as the water goes up to it that it's going to be so easy for anything that falls in to be able to get up climb up and become free again and this a waterfall wow look at the way that just drifts down and i can hear the rippling of water as it cascades back into the pond itself now right in the middle of course we've got the pump that's doing a lot of the hard work it's drawing in the water from the bottom of the pond and it's also drawing in from the skimmer which you can see is just working there it's got a couple of leaves already that was just about to go in it too so the mechanics is working now uh oh rz filter clear 19 000 it's a pressurized filter system and inside that of course there's a lot of microorganisms which is breaking down the debris he's really doing a great deal of work of course he's taking the water from the bottom of the pond and the skimmer into it and then the excess water hasn't just been thrown back in by a pipe oh no it feeds our waterfall that cascades back out into the pond so the whole system of the iwasi technology is helping not only make the pond look much more ornamental and clean but also healthy water too and to clean the filter watch this just how easy this is there you go and it's as simple as that and of course the excess dirty water we don't want it going back in the pond it just comes from this outlet over here and i'll use that to to water in some of the plants in the garden as well now here's something really clever with this particular filter you just take a little screw out from the side and then it just pops out now you know every year you've got to replace the uv bulb and with some units it's an absolute nightmare unscrewing this trying to open it clicking side bits but here you literally just lift it out straight like that look at that and you can replace the bulb as easy as that and it's best to replace them every year and that way this unit is really looking after the water that you've got not only is this filter so good at maintaining your pond and so easy it's also easy to maintain the filter itself now we've still got all the planting to do around the outside that's the fun bit but we're going to let everything settle just for a bit for a moment and then we're going to take the time in choosing the right plants and how to create the outer part of our pond to make the whole thing complete but it's looking good well here we are a couple of weeks on and everything's really settled itself down the soil has sunk a little bit because obviously we're digging and we were putting a lot of stone in so it's bedded itself in really well it's looking a little bit muddy at the moment that is my fault because as you can see i'm cultivating a lot of the soil around the outside getting ready for planting some irises have already gone in i'm starting to to escape and line out what i really want to put around the pond itself but now is a very good time to do something that's going to really help this pond a lot later on in the summer because this pond has the ideal conditions right now to cause me a lot of problem with blanket weed now blanket weed or or string algae really takes hold now in springtime because the conditions are just right now think of it the uv light is killing all the single cell algae so there's not much competition there and the water is nice and clean and as you can see the marginals because it's a little bit colder now haven't really kicked off to start to grow so they're not using all the nutrients that are in the water and this is quite a new pond anyway so there's some nutrients from the tap water which we've put in and of course there's also a little bit of runoff from the land from rainfall that might be taking some of the nutrients in as well so this pond is now perfect condition for blanket weed to take control and this is a constant battle in all ponds during the spring time whilst it's clean and the plants aren't taking the nutrients now owaza has got a very clever product that i can put into this pond right now as a preventative measure to really hold back that blanket weed and give the pond a great chance of looking good throughout the summer months this little tub here is going to save me ages of work inside it contains a compound that locks out phosphates and nutrients from the water that the blanket weed needs at this early stage to take control and get established in the pond and of course later they just get bigger and it starts to fight and they get over the plants and you know it really really takes over it's not very good for the fish as well but there's a compound inside here that locks out nutrients and phosphates which is essential ingredients that blanket weed needs to take control of your pond starting this early spring and then just continually growing throughout the summer months now the instructions on how to apply this into your pond couldn't be any easier for a start off it's got all the instructions on the back exactly how to calculate the volume of water in your pond and then how much to apply into the pond to make it work and it's really clever because the container itself as you can see along here you can see that clear bar shows how much is in the bottle and to make things even easier there's a little button at the back which you just push and at the front see this out comes a measuring container and along the side here is the rates that you can add so it's easy to calculate what volume there is and then to be able to calibrate what you take from the container to put in your pond now i've calculated out how much water i've got in there and it's really easy to do we've got to do is times the depth by the width and by the length and then times that final figure by a thousand to get the literature now there's a couple of ways of applying the compound here i've actually taken from the inside section here a little almost pepper pot top which fits perfectly on top of the big container so you've got a massive amount of water you can use this and just sprinkle it in if i've only got a small pond i'll probably use the measurer here and then tip it into there and then of course apply it like that over the surface now here there's about 4 000 liters of water and it's saying 50 mil per thousand liters so i've got to put 200 mil in there there you are simple sprinkle is going to save a summer of trying to rake out blanket weed and now the water is treated i'll get on to the fun part let's put in the plants in well here you have it all the plants into position hard work but they they look amazing first thing we wanted to do was to get a little bit of height so these beautiful japanese maples this is the finely cut leaf one the dissector i chose purple because i wanted to try really soften the sort of like the darker and with a slight shades of green in it the the boards at the back of the barn now just along the back it has a little less sun than the front of the border so things that tolerate shady areas like azaleas and rhododendrons really fit the bill at the back and because they're evergreen they're going to not only give me color during the winter months uh with the foliage and i've done the same with a couple of brightly golden cubers in there but of course because they hold the leaves they're not dumping leaves into the pond during the autumn time which is pretty good now around the front when they've all finished flowering and i've also put some bulbs in there as well daffodils and the like i get a lot of early spring color then i get beautiful foliage color during the summer and then of course at the front here i've planted roses this one's platinum jubilee it's a really beautiful rose and i can smell the fragrance around here as well there's some iris dotted in to really tie in with the effect of the marginals around the pod which are starting to mature and some water lilies in there as well and of course they're going to produce flour right in the heart of the pond and around the outside there's benches and of course there's also planting this lovely senecio angels wings offering that lovely light silvery color gazebo in the background plenty of space here behind me to entertain and these here i'm to use to tie in the whole area so the japanese maples are also planted there and there so there's a cohesive theme it's not a pond next to a patio the whole area is a garden design now there is some spaces in between these plants of course because they've got to grow this garden is a living breathing thing so over time as it matures and the plants in the pond and the marginals grow it's going to look absolutely spectacular for more information just visit the website owazi.com
2022-07-15