A month ago I dug a brand new pond and bog garden. I’ve managed to do this without spending very much money at all:
Pond liner for pond: £18
Liner for bog garden: £10
Water lily: £5
New plants for bog garden: £10
Seeds: £1.99
I also added plants that I already had. The loosestrife I did buy (years ago) but the cowslips, forget-me-nots and irises were all either given to me or came up on their own.
The only thing I was missing was some marginal plants. These are really, really important for wildlife. For this reason, I prefer to use native species. My original plan was to use bogbean but then one morning on Facebook I spotted some of my wildlife-gardening friends talking about using watercress in ponds.
So this is how it’s done:
1. Buy yourself a bag of watercress.
Don’t eat it. That will ruin the project.
2. Put it in some water on the windowsill and wait.
If you don’t have containers like these then just order a takeaway.
3. A few days later it should be growing roots. Time to harden it off!
Roots!
4. Use some aquatic compost and plant your water cress in the pond margins.
Plant either in aquatic plant pots or straight into the pond bed.
5. Done! A haven for pondlife and all for £1.30.
It’s definitely looking less like a muddy hole in the ground.
PS I tried planting some in the bog garden. Slugs ate it. I hate those guys.
