Before you become involved in major spring plantings, late winter is a good time to cast a critical eye around the garden. The bare bones have been on show for many weeks now and any shortcomings such as gaps in the shrubbery or lack of any focal point will have become quite evident.
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While the reshaping and selective planting of a flower bed or perhaps a rockery will add additional interest, a water feature, whether a Chinese water bowl nestled in a bed of ferns or a pond with waterlilies and fish, will delight both young and old.
Though there is a place for a formal design in a formal setting, a free-form pond set in the lowest part of the garden can soon be made to look as if it was fashioned by nature. Fortunate is the gardener who has a block with a natural slope and an adjacent outcrop of rock. Planting the hills and flooding the hollows is a tried and true landscaping maxim. Keep the shape simple and out in the open to avoid reduction of light and any foliage fouling the water.
Fibre glass shells, available in many shapes and sizes, need to be laid in a bed of sand. Sheeting of any kind- durable plastic or heavy duty stretch PVC is also simple to lay over a stone free bed and held down with a combination of marginal paving bush rocks and pebbles interspersed with mat planting or aquatics.
In still water, fish will do more than provide a colourful interest – they will feed on mosquito larvae and plant debris, as well as supplying nutrients to the roots of submerged plants. Fish will need some shelter from predatory birds such as a overhanging rock or free floating plants such as azolla, a green leaved fern that turns bright red in the sun, or duckweed, which is also fish food.
Few plants are more decorative than the waterlily and now is a good time to plant them. Mix cow manure into a heavy loam and plant into a pottery rather than plastic pot for stability. A layer of coarse washed gravel on the surface will prevent any subsequent washaway or discolouration of the water.
Newly planted pots should be introduced to the water gradually. First stand them on a couple of bricks so that the crown of the lily is just below the water, then as shoots begin to appear in spring, lower in stages until they reach the required depth.