Goodbye lawn. Hello pond!

Thank you very much for all the nice comments.

Do herons eat sticklebacks?

I'd have thought sticklebacks were too small and would only tickle their throat. But this fellow appeared at the side of the pond: he was mobbed by loads of small birds. (You can see one small bird on the wall above him in the picture.)

Someone put in 10 sticklebacks into the pond last year and earlier this year we estimated we had about 300 of them; now there're virtually none. Would this heron have been dining on sticklebacks?



Don't mind the Buddha; he laughs at everyone.

And sorry about the quality of the pic. I was going out the door to work when Henry Heron arrived and I hadn't time to change lens and take a proper pic.

 

Great to get the wildlife in. Really enjoyed this thread. What are the next plans?

 

Hi Gaz,

An Arid section under the glazed part of the pergola.

Then a boundary of troughs around the patio for Alpines.

Then I'm going to stop.

I have some vague thoughts about making a shaded section for ferns in the front garden but I haven't crystalized how I'm going to do it yet.

All my exotic plants went to the Great Garden in the Sky after last December although a Trachycarpus Fortuneii "may" pull through yet. I think there's a sickly looking, pale green spear in the middle, but it's stationary at the mo'. An Arbutus Maritima that looked totally gone was dug up and potted and Lo and Behold! in the last two weeks, two little shoots have come up through the soil!

 

Fantastic. Really enjoyed looking through this and your boating pictures are great too. We are also boaters and your scenery is stunning.

 

Another great picture, and i love that statue!

 

The boaters pictures are amazing...

 

Absolutely amaizing.....thank you for sharing....was great to look through the pics right from the paper plan.....

Puts my little wooden raised pond to shame....hahahaha

well done on the hard work

 

All the windows in our house look out onto some part of the garden except one, so this is what I did. Made a stained glass window with a garden scene. :D :D :D
(Took me three solid days, though. :( :( )

 

Just finished a few troughs. Some have experimental mulchs. :lol: :lol:



Delosperma in glass buttons!



Sedum in translucent pea gravel!




Sedum Spirit.




Sempervivums at the seaside!







Sempervivum in fluorescent blue gravel!




Sempervivums in fault lines.!



Troughs on guard duty!

 

(window) did you paint it on the glass you mean?


That seaside composition is very pretty and also the vase.

 

Hardcore sempervivums!



Sempervivums in jigsaw!

 

Arid section going in under glazed section of pergola.



Aeoniums, Grenovia, Barrel Cactus, Yucca Gloriosa, Sempervivums.

 

No, I leaded the glass and coloured each piece individually.

(A lot of lead! The colouring is stained glass transfer sheets, which is a very slow job.)

 

Changing from wacky to more conventional crevice beds in the troughs.

Here's the first two I did today. One still needs fine tuning.

 

All looking great Kindred