Our first escapee - September 2010

As we were doing a little tidying of the borders around the pond, we spotted one of the little frogs who had escaped the water and was exploring the rockery areas.

Still very small - no more than 1.5 centimetres, I managed to take a photo just as it leaped for freedom!

Good to see that the frogs have exit places from the pond.  Looks like the beach is doing its job.  I think I'll extend it next year.

Tadpoles and mini frogs! - August 2010

With so much frogspawn hatching in the spring, we had hundreds of tadpoles developing in the pond.  Through July and August many of them developed into mini frogs and used the pebble 'beach' to come out of the water and catch some rays!

Here is a shot of a group of tadpoles swimming round the beach.

And here's a few shots of the mini frogs - less than a centimetre long and very delicate!

(Sorry about the poor focus on the last one!)

Our pond at night - July 2010

We had a garden party in July that went on late into the night.  It gave us the chance to use the three spotlights to show off the pond at night.  Here is the lit pond.  There's only one photo this time - I'll take more from different angles later in the year and post them.

The first water lily flower - July 2010

Here is the first of flower of the season.  It has come from the water lily to the left.  I can't remember the colour of the water lily to the right.  I need it to flower to remind me!

The pond in full glory - July 2010

Well here it is.  These are just a few general views of the pond, photographed in July of this year.  I can't believe the difference a year makes with some heavy planting of both the water area and the surrounding banks.  We've added more large rocks into the water to cover a lot of the liner that was showing last year.

The pond is a rough figure of eight with two waterfalls at the far end and a planting area in the foreground.

The two small waterfalls are at the end of two streams emanating from a single source behind the tree.

This view looks through the narrow waist, where oxygenating plants create a natural barrier, to the planting end.  Two water liilies are in the centre of the planting area with marginal plants around the edge.  Three spotlights are amongst the rocks giving three light focal points at night.

A small pebble beach has been placed at the far side of the pond to give the baby frogs and newts a chance to come out of the water.  The pond was full of frogspawn in the early spring and is now full of life!

The pond is born! - late summer 2009

With the streams completed and rocks added to edge the pond, here is the finished article for 2009.  By now it was moving into Autumn, so there was little time to add any planting and refinement to the look of the pond - that'll have to wait until next spring!

Only one stream and waterfall operating here.  There's far too much liner showing - we'll have to sort that next year!

Both waterfalls running now and a little rudimentary planting.  Fingers crossed that it will survive the winter!

You can see that it has an uncanny resemblance to my son's original sketch!

The pond is started - late summer 2009

Back in the summer of 2009, my son produced a rough drawing on a scrap of paper for a pond in our garden, with two streams coming round a cherry tree and a figure of eight pool.  Here's the drawing from which our pond was born!

The hard work started late summer and my two sons did most of the digging out.  I'm ashamed to say I only joined when most of the digging was complete - but, hey... what are sons for?

Here's the work in progress on the pond basin.  As you can see, it's not a conventional area to work with.

Here the streams have been dug initially to get the shape and we have starting laying some of the key drop stones.  Still a long way to go!