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Andy from Hardwicke has laid his pond on the line.

A few months ago he asked for our help with his first foray into the world of pondology.

Here are a few of the comments his little piece of heaven has sparked off. Do feel free to add an updated message on how you feel it has "matured" over the past few months!

Previous thoughts

I have never seen a square pond, shouldn't it be a random shape?

Andy from Hardwicke should spend more time doing his work rather than messing about with water, it all smells a little marshy to me!

I don't want to be too hard on Andy, he has dug out a pond, but a bit of a softening in the shape would have been good. Square and rectangular ponds are best in a formal setting. As it is, you should try to create shape around the pond,so vary the level of the surrounds, particularly around the waterfall. Rethink your turf too, the turf over the liner will dry out and die,whilst the tail of grass below the cascade will work as a drinking straw and take water out of the pond.
So step one cut back and reshape the turf, bury some of your liner,or anchor with rocks or slabs. Raise the soil in places and soften the surround with one or two plants.
Congratulations on deciding to have a pond !

It's a good start. What it needs next is a few fish, and a nice gnome with a fishing rod, possibly sat on a toadstool.

I've tried to resist responding to this, but that's not a pond. It's a square hole in the lawn filled with water. I've seen more attractive puddles.

OK; so some major aesthetic problems, me thinks, with Andy's pond. Positioning is hardly great either; the general look tends to remind me of a large flooded pothole and a more natural shape would have been a better solution. The margins look far to deep to readily facilitate wildlife access; the cascade is rather akin to an irrigation system in Chad. But hey, it's a start.

Really good constructive comments which I will definitely take note of. I will try and do this one evening this week and send some photos to Mark. I have hundreds of Frog Tadpoles in their now and have just purchased some Smooth Newt "eggs" from a licensed distributor.

Personally I quite like it now. Good work.