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Pond Garden Tour

I fell in love with the pond and its giant flaxes the very first time I saw it. I remember watching early on my first morning as mist rose from the pond and three rabbits took a dawn drink. I never saw the rabbits again. Thankfully the presence of people and, more importantly, five cats discouraged them.

I knew that the pond was functional and that we paid for the rights to gravity feed it from the water race. But I could dig around it and create a pond garden. I poured through books on water planting and got very keen.

The Pond

Then I think common sense and Kiwi pride kicked in. Did I really want that British pond look? I started thinking flaxes and Toe Toe, cordylines and hebes, and the Pond Border was born. I shifted a gunnera from the water race (it must have self planted itself there somehow). It started its life pondside as a cute little plant, about one foot high, with neat crinkly little leaves. Four years later it was HUGE with leaves as big as armchairs... the dramatic rise of Gunnera!

In the summer of 1997 I bought my first cricket radio, chose a favourite shovel, and started cleaning up the mess in the Pond Paddock. The paddock grass was lumpy and uneven, with large dirt tracks. Some parts of the ground were bare and there were large piles of soil, mud and stones.

Is It Really Finished?

Now it's all finished. I don't think there'll be too many more changes - well, maybe that curve needs to be dug out just a little, and perhaps a path from the hebes through to the pump house. Watch this space.

Gnomes Fishing... Fri 25th Sep 2009: There are fish in the Moosey pond, and you might spy some little chaps with red hats by the far pond edge doing a spot of fishing. The Moosey garden gnomes have taken up residence for the summer.
The Pond in Autumn... Sat 25th Apr 2009: The pond in autumn is a quiet, reflective place to visit. Fallen leaves with rich, autumn colouring float on the top of the water. And, magically, there's usually not a puff of wind.
Pond Maintenance... Tue 21st Apr 2009: Each week more and more leaves blow into the pond, become waterlogged, and sink slowly down. Imagine how much sludge there was, then, at the bottom of the Moosey Pond after fifteen years! Some Pond maintenance was well overdue.
The New Pump House... Wed 15th Apr 2009: Finally in the summer of 2008 the old rustic pump house at the back of the pond just got a little too rickety. Non-Gardening Partner spent his summer holidays dismantling it and rebuilding a new one. He was, however, under strict orders to make it look rustic.
Garden Pond Path... Wed 1st Oct 2008: I've had a Pond Beautification programme running for a number of years. It's been a bit of a stop-start gardening process, but finally I've learnt how to get tough. One of the results - a brand new pond path!
Pond Garden Bench... Tue 30th Sep 2008: A comfortable wooden garden bench sits at the beginning of my new pond-side path. I can sit here and gaze at my lovely pond, then turn my head to the ram paddock behind me and make furtive garden expansion plans...
Wilderness Behind the Pond... Wed 23rd Jul 2008: I'm slowly clearing the area behind the pond, which I've romantically called The Wilderness. My plan is to have a natural place, with few organised paths - just trees and shrubs.
Wood Pond Garden Decking... Sat 26th Jan 2008: The L-shaped wooden decking by the pond is a pleasant place to sit with your feet in the water. Decking definitely makes a pond more user friendly.
Swimming Pond Dog... Sat 7th Jul 2007: When I was a younger, tougher gardener I used to go for many summer swims in the Pond. I'd circle round and round, not daring to put my feet on the muddy, slushy bottom. The water was usually breathtakingly cold.
Frog Fishing... Fri 26th May 2006: The Moosey cats spend quite a lot of time on the pond decking - fishing for frogs. Green frogs often live in the pond from summer on, and they hide in the vegetation on the edges.
Pond Garden Pump House... Sun 22nd Aug 2004: Here at the side of the Moosey Pond surrounded by gums is the Pump House - the nerve centre of the irrigation for the garden. It's a rustic wooden structure near the boundary fence, and is slowly falling to pieces.
Seat by the Pond... Wed 7th Jul 2004: It's funny how a garden seat in a messy area of the garden can be completely forgotten for months. Now that I have made the effort to tidy its surroundings the garden bench by the pond has became a real favourite.
Pond Paddock... Tue 29th Jun 2004: This is the view from the Pump House as you look through the trees across the Pond Paddock and back to the house gardens.
Pond Flax Reflections... Sat 12th Jun 2004: Many New Zealand flaxes have grown from seed around the edge of the pond. They are the species Phormium Tenax, growing tall with stiff dingy green leaves.
Pond Decking and Dog... Fri 21st May 2004: Taj-dog is on one of his exploratory morning circuits around the garden. He is seen here nose down passing the pond decking.
Pink Ballerina Rose... Wed 3rd Dec 2003: The planting on the corner of the Pond Garden is one of my favourites in the whole garden. I've planted two Ballerina roses next to a large bronze flax. Together with the green Gunnera, this is a trio of contrasts.
Pond Water... Mon 25th Aug 2003: As well as being a water feature, surrounded by shrubs and trees, the pond has a function and purpose - it is where we draw water for irrigation. Water flows into the pond from the water race via a gravity fed pipe.
Pond Garden Lawn & Gunnera... Fri 23rd May 2003: As you step further back from the Gunnera you get a great view of the whole of the pond garden lawn. The Jelly Bean Border is on the right.
Gunnera Plant... Wed 26th Feb 2003: The back of the Pond Border is dominated in summer by the large leaves of the Gunnera. It is impossible to believe that this giant perennial started life fitting into a nine-litre bucket.
Romney & Merino Sheep... Wed 30th Aug 2000: Here are two of the ewes who seem mesmerised by the photographer. The Romney on the left is a great mother and always has twins.
Pond Dragon Fly... Fri 31st Mar 2000: Here is yet another of my son the photographer's close-ups of insects series. Zzzzz... The Pond has a lot of dragonflies during summer.
Pond Decking Tree Seedling... Wed 29th Mar 2000: This bright green tree seedling starting poking up thru the decking cracks a few years ago and was immediately warned for bad behaviour. I'm not sure just how long it will be allowed to grow here.
Lazy Fat Sun Cat... Tue 28th Mar 2000: The decking by the pond is a warm sunny place for Sifter to stretch out and take it easy.
Pond Gunnera... Sun 26th Mar 2000: This is a very dangerous place to take a photo from. The underside of the Gunnera's leaves and stems are all studded with sharp thorns. The leaves are very stiff.
Pond Garden Dappled Sun... Wed 16th Feb 2000: Here is a beautifully framed view of the pond from the Pump House side. Stephen's irrigation pipe is hidden in the lower left.
Eucalyptus Tree... Tue 8th Feb 2000: There are Eucalyptus trees planted all along the fence-line and they surround the pump house. Their bark gets stripped off in the winds - consequently the ground beneath is difficult to keep clear.
Agapanthus... Tue 1st Feb 2000: This is a view from the back of the pond, looking through some flowering blue agapanthus. The main Pond Paddock is in the background.
Cat Licking Paws... Tue 1st Feb 2000: Sifter is at the back of the Pond Border in the grass cleaning himself. Paw licking is a definite cat art.