Don't underestimate the amount of soil it takes to fill a pond. My (inherited with the house) one is half-full now, but according to 'soil estimating tools' I still need about 6-7 tonnes of soil! D'oh!
(Pond is 5m x 3m and currently about 350mm deep)
Just to make you feel better - the soil will settle too once the rain gets into it over the next 12 months or so. You will probably have to top it up.
I thought I'd be clever when I removed our pond and part filled it with rubble. That left big air gaps which the soil obviously found its way into over time and levels kept dropping. After several years we had a patio built over it, and it's still possible to see a slight depression in the slabs where the pond was.
Urgh I know. I've been watering the soil to try and force it to settle quicker. I also buried the broken up slabs from around the edge, but they are about 3-4ft deep (it was a koi pond). I'm hoping the settle/top up will not be too bad.
Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.
Don't grab any weeds or unwanted plants to pull without gloves on. Spring nettles sting. A lot!
More importantly, don't let OH - who only thinks he's good at DIY - erect wooden posts using metposts and then string tensioned wires between them. They end up being pulled over at an angle I don't want to contemplate for the rest of my life so he's having to start again.
In addition, don't let him trail the leccy extension down there when you're watering re-planted pots. It blows the trips in the fuse box and then he gets cross.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I'm not sure it's a "don't" (because others may have more success) so much as an "I won't". I won't ever again sow sweet pea seeds in autumn, thinking I'm giving them a good head start and looking forward to having lovely strong, big sweet pea seedlings in the spring.
No.
Because what will happen is that I spend the entire winter trying to protect tiny sweet pea seedlings which then spend most of early spring looking leggy and sad, despite having all the light I could procure for them, while the sweet pea seedlings I sow in March gather all the strength of an army and overtake stringy sad winter seedlings to become bushy, healthy and more than slightly smug specimens.
Don't sow sweetpeas inside thinking "I don't have mice". You might come down one day to find all your seedlings will have been neatly severed and devoured, despite never having seen a mouse in the house in nine years of occupancy or any previous evidence of one until that day.
And don't think that because petunia seedlings are your in your bloody kitchen, that you won't come down at 2am and find a blasted slug with a full belly having a rest on your seed tray after a 23 course meal. All seedlings razed, despite never having seen a slug in your kitchen before.
Don't ever feel intimidated by doing up your front garden just because it's on public display. Go for it! Grow veg there if you feel like it, experiment, mix things up, put in structures, as you might in the back. It's a valuable space for you and wildlife and your community. (Putting in a front garden tap can help enormously. Don't wait ten years to put one in. ).
This comment brought back so many good memories. Way back in the early 70’s, we moved into a house which needed a lot of work. The back garden was so over grown it took us weeks to find we had an apple tree in the garden. With a one year old and one month old, we needed to grow veg, to help with the very tight budget. The only uncluttered area was a small front garden. We grew onions, carrots, beans cannot remember what else. This village in Gloucestershire had seen nothing like it! But tell you what, we had lots of people stop and stare, and met a lot of nice people. Obviously there were the tut tutters but most were just lovely folk, who welcomed us.
@coccinella - that sounds wonderful. There is a set of five cottages near me that open with the NGS - with five conjoined back gardens. Some of those front gardens have raised beds and are full of veg. It's so inspiring and led me to overhaul my own front garden and put in raised beds - though only for flowers at this point. They are my favourite local gardens with lovely owners and great cake!
Posts
More importantly, don't let OH - who only thinks he's good at DIY - erect wooden posts using metposts and then string tensioned wires between them. They end up being pulled over at an angle I don't want to contemplate for the rest of my life so he's having to start again.
In addition, don't let him trail the leccy extension down there when you're watering re-planted pots. It blows the trips in the fuse box and then he gets cross.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
No.
Because what will happen is that I spend the entire winter trying to protect tiny sweet pea seedlings which then spend most of early spring looking leggy and sad, despite having all the light I could procure for them, while the sweet pea seedlings I sow in March gather all the strength of an army and overtake stringy sad winter seedlings to become bushy, healthy and more than slightly smug specimens.