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What’s in the Garden Pond — 49 Comments

  1. Great post pond has given a everlasting hassle of leaks. Water. Pondpro2000 is best solution that can face up to it around 12 months. No some other product has this best.

  2. hello! I’ve just found you by accident but how lucky for me as I’m really enjoying having a mooch around your gardens! your gardens are absolutely lovely and jam-packed with plants and shrubs which is how I hope my garden will be someday. as for the photo of the plant growing behind the leylandii, it definitely looks like a philadelphus to me. as I don’t know when this was posted i’ll assume that you already have identified it by now though. thank you very much for allowing me to have a wander around, marie.

  3. We don’t actually have a pond (no room for one), but what I would love to have is a barrel for a water lily, they’re such beautiful flowers – but currently, I’m not allowed.

  4. I love the petite pond (really ‘puddle’ isn’t fair) –beautifully planted. You’ve given me new respect for what is indeed termed ‘skunk cabbage’ here, the yellow one. This native plant volunteers in shady areas around my house, even places that dry out in summer. Shocking to see the white version. What a cheerful meadowsweet you have. I think I must move my shy one into more sun…. Good job providing a bunker for the fish.

  5. Not sure they’re frogs, they look more like toads to me! At least the one on the left does, it’s very wide and flat.

  6. Hi Alistair! I think your pond looks great. I like the plants you choose and in particular I like that hottuynia or whatever it is spelled. I’ve never seen it in flower and I didn’t know it could bear so pretty flowers!
    In the Joan Rivers border those astrantias are the tallest I’ve ever seen, hu? What do you feed them with?
    PS I’d like the widget that recall to the latest post on the commenter’s blog but I can’t activate it anywhere, what is it called?

  7. Glad to have you visit Hoov. You are not alone in thinking that it is not JK. I cant remember if the stems are hollow, just off to find out.

  8. Your pond is not large in size, but it is large in beauty. It is absolutely gorgeous. The plants look perfectly placed and all look to be thriving. I really enjoyed seeing it.

    Japanese knotweed–I’m leaning away from that ID–the leaves in your example have serrate margins, and venation is dichotomous, while Jk has pinnate venation and an entire margin. The stems should be hollow on Jk. Good luck with ID, others will know better.

  9. I love your skunk cabbage! Your pond is really beautiful and all the different plants make it such an interesting garden feature. I have always wanted a pond but have shied away from such a big project. Perhaps a puddle would do! About your weed, I can’t believe it, but I think I have the same thing( or some very similar American version) in my front garden. I don’t know its name, but I keep getting rid of it, only to have it quickly return. Good luck with yours!

  10. Hi Alistair, even if your pond is small, it has become a healthy microworld for many inhabitants, and the frogs seem happy. I love their color. That skunk cabbage looks like our Spathiphylum although this has long stems and of course different leaves. The inhabitants of your greenhouse are so healthy too, they look so tropical.

  11. It was good to hear from you. We finally had some hot weather in Seattle. It was 28C for 3 days. Today it’s down to 23C, which I like much better. I was up in the mountains, camping. But it was just as hot. Your pond is perfectly lovely. Skunk cabbage is an old friend. It grows here in every wet place.

  12. That pond is a scene stealer! It is beautiful and looks so natural with the plants and goldfish. All of those plants complement it so well. And the ducks are a real extra!

  13. Hi Crystal, Although I have these plants beside the pond they are not exactly in damp conditions but are in a shady spot. I should get the suspected knotweed identified.

  14. Hi Crystal, Although I have these plants beside the pond they are not exactly in damp conditions but are in a shady spot. I should get the suspected knotweed identified.

  15. Love your Filipendula and Rodgersia. I would love to grow them but they need damp conditions don’t they ? But as I look out the window at yet another deluge, maybe I should try them after all.
    I hope your last 2 photos aren’t Japanese Knotweed. I once visited a house where it was growing up through a concrete drive. Have you tried sending a sample away for identification ?

  16. Hi Bom, that’s a pity your wife has orni–what do you call it! Just regular pebbles in the space beside the west facing border.

  17. Whoah! New blog look.
    I like the shots of the “mouthful-named” flowers. Would also like to have ducks but hindered by the fact that we don’t have a pond and that my wife has ornithophobia. BTW, at the base of your west facing border, are those regular pebbles or crushed seashells?

  18. Thanks Donna, I have heard that Houttuynia can take over, perhaps it would do the same here if it weren’t in a container.

  19. What a lovely pond area! It has some beautiful plants – I especially love that Trollius. I would love to have a small pond or water feature at some point – the kids would probably have way too much fun splashing all the water out of it if we were to get one now!

    I hope your mystery plant turns out to be beneficial, as opposed to knotweed.

  20. I think it takes a while to figure out which plants will do well in each person’s pond, and clearly, you have figured out what does well, and beautifully. I love the skunk cabbage. But what a dreadful name for something so beautiful. And I’m glad that some of your fish have escaped. Perhaps they will multiply now that they have a place to hide. I laughed at your sentence “more makeovers than Joan Rivers’ face”! ha! That put it clearly into perspective! 🙂

  21. Absolutely love your pond, small size and all. The yellow skunk cabbage is gorgeous. Unless there is more than one kind of Japanese knowtweed, that is not it. Knotweed is bamboo like and has smoother leaves. Could that be Asiatic bittersweet? Hard to tell from the photo, but if it is, remove it right away. Bittersweet reaches out like a vine but can get quite woody.

  22. Alistair I really adore your pond…so many lovely plants and wildlife…what could be better. I planted Houttuynia in my moist shade garden and what a mistake…for me it is an invasive thug even though it is pretty…I do love the scent…too bad really. The long shot of the garden is spectacular with the gorgeous grasses and greens spotted throughout with blossoms and those foxgloves rising against the green wall…lots going on in your greenhouse…my cherry container tomatoes are setting fruit already and we will have tomatoes ripened before I know it with all the sun and heat…even my fickle tomatoes in the bed now have lots of flowers. I am sure you will have tomatoes!

  23. Very nice tour complete with interesting critters. Your small pond gets a lot of action. I like the design of the pond, very pretty.

  24. Hi Frances, well we haven’t had flooding, too much rain though and only a day here and there which has been reasonably warm. I am happy enough as long as you dont say I am sweet, although you are quite cute yourself.

  25. Hi b-a-g, most Summers I top up the pond, no chance of evaporation this year ,so far. The Coleus were small seedlings which the garden centre were selling.

  26. Alistair – Your pond is bigger than I thought with some really interesting plants. Do you have to top it up because of evaporation?
    The Joan Rivers border looks great with those foxgloves. Looking forward to seeing the next makeover.
    Did you find that your coelus seeds took a while to germinate? I’ve been waiting since March. Hope it’s not knotweed.

  27. hello Alistair sorry I can’t help with identifying knotweed as I don’t know what it looks like, from what I’ve heard about it I very much hope it isn’t what you have growing,
    I think your pond is lovely and dare I say sweet, I’d like to see your relative get that many plants into a puddle, it’s a nice selection of plants flowering at different times and some lovely foliage contrasts,
    your west facing border looks lovely again some nice foliage contrast, contrast in colour, texture and shape making it very interesting without flowers so the flowers add touches of highlight,
    have you had a lot of wet as far north as you are, here we are still in drought a little rain but nothing much, Frances

  28. Lovely shots from all around the garden Alistair and for such a size of pond you sure have lots going on in it and the water is so lovely and clear……..including those Mallards. With all this awful weather those toads must be having a feast on the slugs and snails in your garden.

    I’m not so sure about that being knotweed as we have it nearby and the leaves take on a reddish tint. The council have tried again to eradicate it here so I can’t compare your picture. At first it looked a bit like the leaf of a philadelphus……but I really hope it isn’t that awful knotweed.

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