Although I know this shot isn’t by any means technically perfect, I love it. It’s got a background that’s hugely overblown and the “business” end of a border collie for two reasons why it’s not great.

However, after work today, I came around the corner this evening to see how things were doing in the garden to find the pond looking really lovely. It took me six months to build and I only finished the construction in April. It’s teeming with life these days. I’ve seen many, many newts going about their business in there, as well as pond hoppers, damselflies and hosts of other wild critters going about their business. Unfortunately I rarely see my fish!

I decided I needed a couple of fish in there so that they’d eat the midge larvae so I went out and bought three ghost koi carp. I thought they looked lovely in the tank in the aquarium. They look like little comedy skeletons zipping about. I put them into the pond, after a suitable period of water mixing of course and haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since. I suppose that’s good given they’re both hairless and hideless. My Mum has seen them swimming around from the window of her bedroom when she comes to stay so I know they’ve not been got by herons or anything else further up the food chain.

The pond, although still a bit sparse in its planting, is looking bloody lovely. (As I hope you can see from this.) The planting I did is doing really well and spreading out. I can see the oxygenating plants spreading around beneath the surface and I am completely blanket-weed-less. A few weeks ago that wasn’t the case so I tried a “Geoff” – putting an old stocking into the pond, filled with a big stone and lots of barley straw. The stone simply makes the rather ugly bag of straw sink to the bottom. I tied it up with a string so that I can fish it out next year and refill it. I was a tad cynical but Geoff used to swear by it so here goes…. And do you know what? It works a treat. My pond has gone from soup to beautiful, crystal clear water in a matter of a fortnight and not a chemical in sight. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

I put the pond in because it’s considered a must in a wildlife garden and I’m so glad I did. It was tremendously hard work (although I must be honest, if I’m under no time pressure, I love this sort of physical work) and it’s paid off handsomely.

There is also a bog garden beside the pond. It’s the old pond that was holed, filled with soil and planted with bog plants – marsh marigolds, lobelia cardinalis, bog irises and a few other things whose names escape me. I’ve done an experiment in between these plants and filled the gaps with carnivorous planting. I’ve put in several types of pitcher plant and a venus fly trap. I keep hearing how hardy they are and I’ve even read that venus fly traps grow wild on Bodmin Moor so I thought I’d give it a go. So far, so good. They’ve not suffered any apparent rabbit damage and they all look good and healthy. The VFT is even flowering at the moment. I hope this isn’t a sign of near expiration as it is with some plants.

Wahay - I'm up-to-date for the first time in ages!