Rebooting the garden pond

Now that the big conifers are gone, I can now deal with the dry pond left to me by the previous owner.

It's much bigger than my previous pond in Hampshire. It's over 10 feet (3m) long and about 5 feet (1.5m) wide. It's set into the edge of the patio area, in front of the rockery. The original liner is still there but it's full of holes.

I'm rebooting the pond on a budget, with a large piece of pond liner I acquired from a family member. It's not big enough to line the existing pond so I'm going to refill some of the current hole with soil and create a smaller pond.

Finding local pond life

I've never spent much money on my ponds. My Hampshire pond comprised a rigid liner that a friend no longer needed, as they no longer wanted a water hazard in a garden that would be frequented by grandchildren.

A family member supplied me with with some oxygenating plants (hornwort and elodea crispa). Another friend split their water lily and gave me half. I also imported some frog spawn in the spring and a host of aquatic insects found the pond for themselves.

I did buy some fish for the pond and they seemed quite happy, living for several years and even breeding. Curiously, the only time I was aware they bred was the summer that long-term visitors stayed in my home and overfed the fish.

The Hampshire pond never became stagnant, despite not using a pump or filter on it. I regularly topped the water level up from a water butt and it remained relatively clear.

The only plant that I added to the pond and then regretted was duckweed. These tiny floating plants can look quite attractive, as a bright green mat on the surface. But it rapidly spreads and I regularly removed huge clumps of it.

Based on my experience from Hampshire, I'm reasonably confident that I can reboot my Dorset pond with some success.

Bringing down the conifers

The tree surgeon gets started

Today was a landmark for my garden. Or more precisely, today a landmark was removed from my garden.

Four conifers, up to about 50 feet high, were taken down. The tree surgeon we hired from Poole arrived with his team and by mid-afternoon the garden was flooded with daylight, released from behind a canopy of dense, dark foliage.

The jackdaws and pigeons won't be happy to have their roosts removed, but the trees were keeping the garden in shade and were annoying us and the neighbours. Their absence will be enjoyed.

Tips when hiring a tree surgeon

I've learned a few things from the tree-felling experience, never having employed a tree surgeon before.

First, I'd recommend using someone local. Our team came from Poole and in hindsight, that was too far. While commuting for an hour or more used to be an acceptable part of my day years ago, it was too much for these guys. They arrived on the late side and the team were itching to go before the job was entirely complete.

Second, be clear about how the waste wood will be dealt with. When he came to view the garden and quote the owner of the business said he would take away all the wood and chippings. But when it came to it, partly because of the distance, this was not going to be easy. His van was filled with chippings, but there was still a lot of waste on the ground.

I could have insisted that he took it, as part of his verbal agreement, but I decided to let it stay. I know people with woodburners who would value the logs and the chippings make a good mulch for the garden.

The process of taking down the trees didn't quite work out as planned. The owner assured me his team would climb up and lower the logs down, so as not to damage what was on the ground. Nothing, he said, would go into the neighbour's garden. The trees were on the boundary.

But his team has different ideas. Part of the job was to replace the garden fence, so they trashed the old fence and dropped a lot of logs into the neighbour's garden. Fortunately, they were only too happy to see the trees come down. They also destroyed our rose arch which, admittedly, was flimsy but it would have lasted another year or so. I took something off their bill for that.

All in all, they got the job done for a reasonable price, but if my garden had been smarter they would either have taken more care, or have seen their bill slashed further.

Finding a tree surgeon in Dorset

I have decided to have the four conifers at the end of the garden taken down and for that I need the services of a tree surgeon.

The trees are 40-50 feet high and being at the south end they put the garden into shade for much of the year. They also don't serve their assumed original purpose, of screen the house from the terrace beyond. The canopy is now too high to be very effective for that.

So it's time to find a tree surgeon. But that's proving more difficult that I anticipated.

How to find a tree surgeon

My first step was to use Google, because it's my preferred jumping off point for finding almost anything. But it appears that my local tree surgeons don't make much use of the internet, because it returned very poor results. Those that came up were clearly dealt with commercial, not residential, work.

I asked for advice on Twitter and received one recommended from someone in Poole. I spoke to some friends who've been in the area for a while but they didn't know anyone. You can go for years without needing the services of a tree-lopping professional.

Finally, I received a flyer through the door, from the same tree surgeon as had been recommended on Twitter. They're based in Poole, which is some distance away, but I'll give them a go and see what happens.