Water Gardens Gazette number 307

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About Water Gardens Gazette
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Feel free to pass this Gazette as a complete document to friends you may have
whom you think would like to improve their pond keeping hobby.

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This edition includes ....................

This edition includes ....................

1. Free pond calculator as promised (all calculators are
in Microsoft Excel .xls format).
2. Spring ... building bridges
3. This edition's quick tips
4. New articles: covers all kinds of topics related to water gardens
Address where all editions can be found and where you
can ask questions we will try to answer
5. Subscribe and unsubscribe information
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1. FREE POND CALCULATOR ...............

As promised when you subscribed you will be able to get a
free calculator by going to the following web address.

Free pond calculator one of a series of 12 pond calculators to collect

This edition's free calculator will allow you to convert different flow
rates. For example if you have a flow rate in litres per minute you
will be able to convert quickly to 5 other units.

New subscribers can access these previous calculators at Free pond calculators

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD:
All you need to do is go to the web page above and click the link. The calculator will open up in Excel automatically. Save the file to your selected folder.

You can learn about what each calculator does by visiting:

Learn about all the water garden ponds calculators here

Of course you can get all 12 calculators free in one go by
buying my book "Your Pond: Crystal Clear Water Guaranteed."
Read more about it here:
Receive all 12 FREE water garden ponds calculators when you buy my book

Free pond calculator go to this page to download the pond calculator
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2. SPRING – building bridges

Get ready. Encourage wildlife into your pond environment this season.
A pond attracts a wide variety of wildlife and the attraction can be
made even greater by paying attention to a few approaches of design
and layout.

In nature diversity is enormous. You find that certain animals prefer shallow areas, others stony areas and still others wooded sections. Many insects prefer riffling running waters over a clean bed of gravel.

Animals need access to and exit from water at times - such as the frog
or toad. Birds need shallow water in which to bathe and drink without fear of drowning.

With these thoughts in mind create the following:

a) A wooden bridge over a section of your pond using a tree stump, you will find birds will perch here as also will dragonflies. beware however the birds which prey on fish so do not make it too easy.

b) A very shallow inclined section allowing for animals to literally climb
into and out of the water using pebbles to create a beach effect. Wood
in the form of a branch can also substitute here. Plants growing around
the margins also assist.

c) Another way to bridge an outlet for wildlife is to place stones/pebbles
between planting baskets at the edge of the pond. In this way the steep sides of the planting baskets or pots can be mounted. Flat slate inclined gently is a very good way of creating such a bridge.

d) If you have a waterfall/stream section place a boulder in the middle to create a resting place for birds and also to add character to the flow of water.

e) A range of pond plants including those with wide floating leaves will attract birds and frogs in particular. Submerged plants allow insects to breed and hide from predators.

Peter May has written a very good Spring newsletter which you can subscribe
to at his perfect pond detective web site .

Here is a short extract from Peter's essay .....

Things are getting busy. Old clients are ringing me up with this and that problem. As the biological activity creeps into life in the their pools, so do they ... some of them are very old – the pools and the clients.

Here in the UK we have had the sunniest March that I can ever remember. It hasn’t been particularly warm but it has been bright. The effect on the gardens has been pretty much the same as last year when it was incredibly dull, but warm. Weathermen, or the meteorologists reckon that most things have been emerging at approximately two weeks prior to what they would have done 20 years ago. Pondwise that figures, because back in 1982, I remember building a pond on a very grand estate that was surrounded by a wall. This wall, at the lady client’s request, was hollow and was designed to be a ‘Toad Hotel’! It had cat proof entrances on the lawn side and pond side. It had recreation areas and sleeping areas and general lounging around doing toady things areas. All areas were duly checked for cleanliness and removal of builder’s rubble by her ladyship before the ‘hotel’ was capped before the deadly deadline of March 19th . This was the date, she insisted was the day that the toads went on the march for their annual gross orgy. But as you who have been receiving earlier newsletters know, that I have been reporting amphibious activity as early as February, so I should think there have been some pretty early bookings at that old ‘Toad Hotel’.
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QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS
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Today's quick tips ..........

1. Lighting in and around ponds creates a brand new dimension and attraction
to the garden. Normally for safety reasons these are low voltage.
Lights can be submerged or above the water surface to create immediate
impact and variation.
You have submerged coloured lights normally pointing up to the surface of
the water. These could also be plain white light of course.
Others focus the light down onto the bottom of the pond by creating a mushroom
or umbrella effect. Still others float around the surface encased in glass globes.
A very unique and effective garden light has been newly introduced into the UK
and Europe. During the day this device is a highly realistic looking rock. At night the
whole rock glows with diffused light creating a magic and enchanting effect.
Japanese lanterns also create magical effects.

2. If you would like to test how much water looks best for your waterfall do the
following .....

i) Place a hosepipe into the waterfall inlet
ii) Adjust the flow until you are happy with the effect
iii) Without closing the hose fill a known volume container from the hose
iv) Calculate the flow rate by dividing the volume of the container by the time taken
to fill it. This week's free calculator could come in useful here.
v) This calculator would also allow you to weigh the container as an alternative to
knowing its volume. For water use the following:

1 US gallon weighs 8.83 lbs
1 Imperial gallon weighs 10 lbs
1 litre weighs 2.2 lbs

vi) If one hose does not deliver sufficient water then use 2 hose pipes.

3. If you are sick and tired of looking at debris on the bottom of your pond then consider buying an electrically operated vacuum cleaner. Just make sure that it is safe for pond use. OASE make the one that is best known.

4. For people who do not like to get their hand too mucky when cleaning out a pond there are sepcially made long length gloves extending right to the shoulder. If the water is a little too cold then the fishermen amongst you could easily use those waders to enter the water if cleaning has to be done.

A list of quick tips is maintained at

http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/tiptrick.htm
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4. Expert Articles .............

In case you are not aware of the articles we publish by leading
experts in the water gardening field take a look at:
http://www.practical-water-gardens.com  where you will see the list.
 

A leading contributor is Peter May, one of the leading UK water gardens landscapers

He is just starting his own website and maybe you would like to see what he has to say there. This is his web address where you will find the details:
of the Perfect Pond Detective He would appreciate your visit.

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Web address where all editions can be found and where you
can ask questions we will try to answer ..............

Our water gardens gazette index page is here

We will try to answer personally but if this proves to be not
possible because of large volumes of e mail we receive we will
certainly answer in future Gazettes.

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