By Pammi_t
Kent, United Kingdom
Easiest and cheapest way to turn my disused pond into a vegetable patch?
I have a leaky pond which has a 6" reservoir of water at the bottom which leaves about 14" clear to the top of the pond hole. I propose to fill this with empty bottles for ballast, compost material and some topsoil, will it work okay for growing vegetables?
Please could you keep to yes or no answers to start off with? If the answer is no (it won't work), then please can you say why it won't work so that I can find a way round it? Ta :)
For perspective, the edging slabs round the pond are 18" long.
Cheers,
Pam
- 22 Oct, 2011
Answers
No is the answer and it may well begin to smell quite badly as it decomposes also the rubbish may contaminate any veg you try to grow which will rot anyway.
22 Oct, 2011
What you propose won't work okay for growing anything at all apart from possibly some true bog plants and mosquito larvae, but even those won't do well with your recycling underneath. You could grow bog plants in it and use rocks to help fill the space beneath, after puncturing the liner all over, but I'm not recommending any course of action if you want to grow veg other than the one I originally suggested under your first question on this subject.
22 Oct, 2011
Pammi t,
22 Oct, 2011
Stanley Knife and compost...How easy is that?
22 Oct, 2011
No. Fill it in then get a heavy rain or two=tank of mud.
22 Oct, 2011
No. The water must be able to drain away or your veg roots will rot and the soil may go smelly. If you slash the liner very thoroughly and add only one layer of bottles you may get away with it, but you get out of a veg garden what you put in. This is a good opportunity to produce a bed with good deep rich soil. If you cannot drain the water off and use proper soil I would forget it, or try growing bog plants. Some varieties of iris and primula for example.
23 Oct, 2011
Previous question
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No to bottles and rubbish as that will poison the veg. The pond is not that big - fill it in with compostings - trim the grass, prune branches etc and that will provide some future compost. Pierce the lining as it will just turn into a stinking bog.
22 Oct, 2011