The Pond
The Bridge
The basic pond is now finished but a bridge is needed. We started with a temporary crossing until we had a proper bridge.
The temporary crossing.
The new bridge, built from wooden fence posts and decking boards. It was designed and built by Chris. To the right on the garden you can see the temporary crossing. You will also notice three steps down into the garden.
The pond is looking good now with its new bridge, and the plants surrounding it.
We decided that we wuld have a garden railway and as you can see here changes had to be made to the steps down into the garden to allow the trains to pass under.
A close up showing the changes made,
We had also put a river in the garden to fit in with the track layout but we weren't very happy with it and so we decided to have a canal and not finish the river. In this picture you can see the start of the canal and staircase locks. More can be seen of it in the Garden Railway category. (See the links at the end of this article.)
The finished canal.
Further improvements by extending the side ropes on the bridge.
Starting to look good at last, unfortunately we had to puts nets over the pond, none of the heron deterrents worked very well. See the link to 'The link to Garden Pond at the bottom of this article.
Winter is here.
Oh Dear! this heavy snowfall was to prove problematic. Someone slipped and fell into the pond damaging it. Well yes it was me, but at least I wasn't hurt, just very cold and very wet. Embarassed but at least no one saw me (I don't think). The extent of the damage.
It is really much worse than it looks, the net frame being very flimsy was also broken and so I had to put temporary supports for the nets across the pond unless I had time to sort the bridge out. The New Bridge. Unfortunately for various reasons the repair had to wait and the temporary net supports had to stay in place for a quite a long time. However with the help of Chris, yet again the new bridge and framework for the nets were finally made, this time using fencing posts and deck boards cut to size.
In this picture you may notice to the right hand side of the garden the edging by the track, I had decided to replace the bricks with decking boards. I had also decuided to do the same with the mounds around the locks inb the canal. You may also notice differences in the garden, as with the rebuilding of the bridge the garden was also left for quite a while, but I managed to get it to look like like someone owned it again.
Having decided against the boards around the locks and at the side of the track the bricks have been replaced,
An overhead view.
Some of the fish taking advantage of a bright sunny day.
Oh no, not more snow and ice, be extra careful this time. Yes I was and I also brushed all the snow off the nets and bridge each day to stop a build up. Doesn't the garden look great covered in snow.
Once again the garden is starting to look good again, there is still work to do on it but it's getting there.
It may seem unusual that I am including these pictures of birds on the bridge here. This is the bridge before I feed the fish.
The birds are actual feeding on the food on the bridge. OK nothing special in that is there, well yes because they are feeding on fish food (as shown in the inset) and believe it or not I have put proper bird food on the bridge and they won't eat it.
Winter is here once again and so nothing much will be done in the garden now until spring and then once again it will be all system go to sort out the garden, stain the bridge & the framework for the next etc. etc etc. well you get the picture.
Updated November 2014
