The pond takes shape

James Pond has had many hands to help shape it. It is a huge nature pond,in Field One, near the poly tunnel and the 4711 orchard.
First David dug a rough outline with the miniture digger ( more playing than planning I think !), then James, Mar3k and Anna dis a bit more shaping, shelf building,forming Tuffey Mound,( a raised shaped area seperating the deeper end from the shallower end, and so named because Anna made the mound and her surname is Tufffey ) and turf removal to make the edges level. Then Michelle and her friend Mark, lined the pond floor with one tonne of soft sand, placed the underfelt ( did you know pond liners need an underfelt ?? I didnt ) and the liner in position, and started filling it with water ( from the mains, still havent got a pump working on the well). Then I managed to buy some water plants, aquatic soil ( ordinary top soil has too many nutrients and will soon turn the pond too soup )and planting baskets on a visit to a garden centre in Basildon, while I was visiting Mum and Dad). David and I managed to plant up the baskets, covering the soil with pea gravel, and then had a challenge to place the water lily in the deepest part of the pond, which just happened to be in the middle. Neither of us was too keen on wading in, though we were not going to own up to this too each other. We decided that it would be tempting fate if we walked on the liner, so had to devise a crafty method, involving threading the plant basket on to a very long piece of twine, walking to opposite ends of the pond, with the basket suspended over the water,then gently lowering the basket to the floor of the pond,and pulling the string back to land. Great fun to work out, and neither of ud got wet or fell in. We have done a bit of tweaking with the levels, by raising some of the edges with more sand under thevegde of the liner, so we have made an area when the water will over flow, making a bog garden. I have put a plant called a Gunera here, it has two leaves each about 6 -8 inches across, but has been known to grow leaves as large as 10 feet broad. Unbelievable, we will be watching and measuring the leaves with interest.
Jackie and Alan ( Not farmer Alan ), who live across the road from us, have some land that runs down to the banks of a river in a village called Saron. When they heard we were busy building a pond, the collected a whole load of water irises and a bucket of water, containing tadpoles and other water beasties, and left them on our doorstep for us. I cant believe how kind people are to us. Any way the tadpoles have been added to the pond, along with a frog that David found swimming in an ols animal trough near the piggery. Jackie needed her bucket back, and David was just busy cleaning the bucket before returning it. Jackie said "the bucket did not need a wash and set", and rushed off with the bucket before he had finished cleaning it. Laugh out loud !!. Anyway, I managed to leave them a bottle of Plum Jam on their doorstep, as a little thank you.We have found loads of plants that are very over crowded on the garden, so have been moving some of them down to the pond, to help it look a little less like a hole in the ground. I guess in a year or two it will look more comfortable in the land.