Watercress results
After over a month of the watercress trial, I am not impressed with the outcome in the raised pond.
The algae in the raised pond after a month of living with the watercress
I think the blanketweed has shrunk a little bit from the edges, but that could be because we’ve had some rain. In the middle, it looks worse than it was before I added the watercress. On the other hand, the shallow pond looks less green than it was. In the raised pond I put the watercress in pots filled with gravel, whereas in the shallow pond I just chucked it in, so maybe that was a better way to apply it. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s has issued a recall notice on its watercress because of a possible link to E coli. Sorry, Sainsbury’s, but I’m not going to fish it out of the pond and give it back, even though I’m not convinced it’s any use.
Over in Phase 3, I have been planning my new pond. I want an octagonal design to mirror the greenhouse, and I plan to create an octagonal edge from concrete bricks and mortar, and put the liner over the edge. That way, there won’t be a join between the liner and something else, and hence no leaks this time. I have sawn up some wood to make a framework for filling with the bricks and mortar, but not joined the pieces together yet. Instead, I have laid the framework out so I can spend some time looking at it from different directions and make sure that this is the right size and location for it. I had planned to make the pond have an exterior side of 60cm, but after I had sawn up the wood I realised I had not made any allowance for the thickness of the wood, which is 18mm. So the pond’s edges will actually be 58.2cm, but no one is ever going to check. If I were going to fill it with fish, I would need to buy 6% fewer fish, but I’m not.
Framework for octagonal pond