Our big pond.

I like the idea of using guttering for the marginals.

brilliant idea, love the pond.

thats a brilliant idea to use guttering , pond looks fantastic

I find that the conventional baskets for aquatic plants do not sit easily on the pond's shelves. So I intend to use planting 'socks' which settle onto the shelves. They are made of a textile so adapt to the activity of the plants' roots. I saw them for the first time at Gardeners' World Live 2006.

For our marginals, we cut the leg off an old pair of 20 denier tights, filled with aquatic compost and tied a knot in the end. Then just cut clits in the tights to pop the plants in. They then lay in the guttering we've installed around the edges. Brilliant idea! Once the plants are established and have started to spread you can't see the guttering. We'll post some more pics when we get a moment - we're spending every spare moment fiddling around in the garden whilst the weather has been soooooooooooooooo good.

I had wondered if using tights would work too, but I have used them as ties in the garden and found that after two years they rot ( I still use them to train roses on my arch and to support my young variegated maple) so thought they may be quite short lived in the pond. I shall be interested to hear how your experiment progresses.

hi greenfingers nice pond like ur new pond to looks great got a pond myself what do you do during winter months with ur lilly and other plants as its the first time ive had a pond ive left mine in the pond hope they will be ok ,nice job of ur pond i like it

Leave the Lilies in, you must take off the leaves as they die, then the crown will produce more leaves. Koi love to distroy them, so have Koi, don't have waterlilies! My huby is very proud of his ponds - we've got two. And Butch likes fishing - he's got a wet arm this morning, so I think he's been for a morning dip!