Our garden has undergone revolutionary change this year. One thing our garden was missing was a pond. Weirdly we've seen frogs in the gardens for years despite there being no known ponds around for quite same time. At the tail end of March C and I were mooching in the garden, when C proposed a pond. I suspect he was expecting significantly more opposition than a '"Yes. Where do we get one?"
We looked online for second hand ones locally, to re-use but as it turned out new ones were less than we anticipated and offered choice. So we set off to buy one. I'm decisive so had no intention of coming away 'to think about it' and had got my seats down in the back of my car and blankets to protect new pond.The place was a pleasant drive away and although was a bit of a bleak morning after a good look round we took a waggly pond liner to the till. This one has multiple levels, is approx bath size and has an escape ramp. I wouldn't call it natural but it looked less like a massive bucket than some others did.
I wouldn't advise putting a pond in with a perfectionist; not if you want a civil conversation with the later in the day. After about the 234th time of taking the liner out to 'take a bit more out' to retry it in to find it's still not sitting quite perfectly I was just about ready to set myself down in the shitting shallow grave but eventually (and still not quite) perfect but just about live-able-with we set about watering in some of our dusty soil. You guessed it, the pond started to float. I give up. Somehow, between filling both the pond itself and the gaps under the pond it settled itself and dare I say it, I think C's happy with it.
 It was a week or so later that we put in a plant order. I didn't really know what was needed and didn't much care mind what we went for. I did want an iris but after discovering there were around 70 varieties which were too hard to sort through I kind of gave up and plumped for a yellow flag iris. C was diligent in his research and found that you can buy a miniature water lily. Astonishing! So we picked the Princess Elizabeth which promises to be small and pink. The remainder of the in-pond plants were chosen by C for their properties of keeping the pond in balance as well as attracting wildlife. The plants around the pond we picked up from local garden centres and I'm informed they are alpines. They should creep together to disguise the plastic-y lip and to create a carpet.
We wanted to attract froggy friends. One of my favourite things to do is to stand near the pond and take a frog tally of how many I can see. It only took a week before one arrived, we were so happy! To date the highest tally is 6 at once time. They are comical. Sometimes you find 2 or 3 in a huddle.




 Oh and the yellow flag iris isn't. It's purple, but lovely nevertheless.
This is the pond today in the rain. The lily is sending up what looks like a flower which of course is ridiculously exciting. I can't believe how quickly the plants are establishing. Yes, we have a few weeds (I KNOW!) but mostly things are growing well. C is in charge of the pond, he used to have one as a kid and is fascinated with pond life. I'm an enthusiastic observer - might we get some frogspawn next spring? I hope so! Lincoln hates water so the frogs will be safe near the pond.

Have you got a pond? Tempted to put one in?

Take care,
Sophie