UK gardening - Pond question -- suggestions for hiding top of liner

Author

Pond question -- suggestions for hiding top of liner

willcarter@lycos.com

2008-02-17, 9:25 am

Hi All

We have a circular pond around 12' in diameter.The rim is paved, but
the slabs don't quite extend over the edge of the pond, leaving a
strip of pond liner exposed. Depending on how much/little rain we
have, this strip ranges from a couple of inches to about a foot above
the level of the water.

We want to cover up this strip, partly because it's unsightly, and
partly because of the apparent problems caused by excessive sunlight
on liners. But we aren't sure how best to do this. It would be nice to
be able to smear the liner with some sort of natural-looking clay but
I don't know of anything that would stick permanently (it's a fairly
perpendicular angle), and wouldn't just crumble into the water as the
level rose. Next thought is edging plants but we can't get these
anywhere near dense enough. So we thought about attaching some sort of
webbing around this exposed strip and growing some plants that would
grow through the netting and become a thickish barrier between the
sunlight and the liner. These could be planted either submerged at the
pond edge, or planted above, and let to trail downwards and grow
around the netting.

Is there a better idea than this, and are there any suggestions for
which plants would happily thread their way through netting like this,
and wouldn't mind being dunked in pond water?

Thanks in advance

Will

PS Will post the same question on the ponds.moderated forum, though
that has a mainly US readership.

DB01

2008-02-17, 1:25 pm

<willcarter@lycos.com> wrote in message
news:1f1f733a-0b7e-481b-ad1f-4d31837b62c3@q78g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> Hi All
>
> We have a circular pond around 12' in diameter.The rim is paved, but
> the slabs don't quite extend over the edge of the pond, leaving a
> strip of pond liner exposed. Depending on how much/little rain we
> have, this strip ranges from a couple of inches to about a foot above
> the level of the water.
>
> We want to cover up this strip, partly because it's unsightly, and
> partly because of the apparent problems caused by excessive sunlight
> on liners. But we aren't sure how best to do this. It would be nice to
> be able to smear the liner with some sort of natural-looking clay but
> I don't know of anything that would stick permanently (it's a fairly
> perpendicular angle), and wouldn't just crumble into the water as the
> level rose. Next thought is edging plants but we can't get these
> anywhere near dense enough. So we thought about attaching some sort of
> webbing around this exposed strip and growing some plants that would
> grow through the netting and become a thickish barrier between the
> sunlight and the liner. These could be planted either submerged at the
> pond edge, or planted above, and let to trail downwards and grow
> around the netting.
>
> Is there a better idea than this, and are there any suggestions for
> which plants would happily thread their way through netting like this,
> and wouldn't mind being dunked in pond water?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Will
>
> PS Will post the same question on the ponds.moderated forum, though
> that has a mainly US readership.

how big is your pond

if it is above 10 foot by 8 foot you can afford to lose a foot and solve
your problem the way I did

get some small natural slabs of stone all aprox 12 inches by 6 inches( I
used forest of dean) and start laying them on the bottom of the pond,
leaving the odd gap to create small caves. you can put small statures or
plants in them and also put some lights in them

keep laying them(still creating gaps) until they rise above water line and
cover the liner

I did this to cover the liner that was up to a yard above the water on one
side

Charlie Pridham

2008-02-18, 3:25 am

In article <1f1f733a-0b7e-481b-ad1f-
4d31837b62c3@q78g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, willcarter@lycos.com says...
> Hi All
>
> We have a circular pond around 12' in diameter.The rim is paved, but
> the slabs don't quite extend over the edge of the pond, leaving a
> strip of pond liner exposed. Depending on how much/little rain we
> have, this strip ranges from a couple of inches to about a foot above
> the level of the water.
>
> We want to cover up this strip, partly because it's unsightly, and
> partly because of the apparent problems caused by excessive sunlight
> on liners. But we aren't sure how best to do this. It would be nice to
> be able to smear the liner with some sort of natural-looking clay but
> I don't know of anything that would stick permanently (it's a fairly
> perpendicular angle), and wouldn't just crumble into the water as the
> level rose. Next thought is edging plants but we can't get these
> anywhere near dense enough. So we thought about attaching some sort of
> webbing around this exposed strip and growing some plants that would
> grow through the netting and become a thickish barrier between the
> sunlight and the liner. These could be planted either submerged at the
> pond edge, or planted above, and let to trail downwards and grow
> around the netting.
>
> Is there a better idea than this, and are there any suggestions for
> which plants would happily thread their way through netting like this,
> and wouldn't mind being dunked in pond water?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Will
>
> PS Will post the same question on the ponds.moderated forum, though
> that has a mainly US readership.
>
Use a synthetic membrane and it will soon grow over with ferns and algae,
if you build another pond remember to bring the liner up the back of the
surrounding stone and you will not have the problem!!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

adavisus

2008-02-19, 9:25 am

willcarter@lycos.com;775083 Wrote:
>
>
> We want to cover up this strip, partly because it's unsightly, and
> partly because of the apparent problems caused by excessive sunlight
> on liners. But we aren't sure how best to do this.
>
> So we thought about attaching some sort of
> webbing around this exposed strip and growing some plants that would
> grow through the netting and become a thickish barrier between the
> sunlight and the liner. These could be planted either submerged at the
> pond edge, or planted above, and let to trail downwards and grow
> around the netting.
>
> Is there a better idea than this, and are there any suggestions for
> which plants would happily thread their way through netting like this,
> and wouldn't mind being dunked in pond water?
>
> Will
>
> PS Will post the same question on the ponds.moderated forum, though
> that has a mainly US readership.

The mainly US readership has similar, if bigger gripes, of course. What
with hotter Summers, colder winters and all that.

Yups masking the pesky pond edge, its something that can be a niggle to
figure out.

Plants which excel... Parrots feather, Pennywort, Marsilea, Creeping
Jenny, Bogbean, very effective scrambling aquatic plants of the shallow
water margin, fairly easy to arrange their cascading growing habit along
the areas that need a perk...

Black pond liner is not so inclined to turn brittle in the sun, the
black carbon content blocks uv, unlike other tones of plastic which uv
damages much faster. One way to reduce the uv impact, is to use spare
offcuts of liner material over the pond liner and cover the more
exposed sunny areas.

Some folk resort to casting fake rocks which are shaped to overlap the
pond edge, some make a shelf and set blocks or rocks at the water
level. With a bit of ingenuity pond edges can be very effectively
masked of the fluctuating bare liner look...

Regards, andy
http://tinyurl.com/o8ax
http://tinyurl.com/74zgh
http://tinyurl.com/yq7gv9

--
adavisus

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