Hello, my name is Katie Rushworth and today I am going to show you how to make pond in
a pot.
A pond in a pot is a concept that I came up with because water is essential in a garden,
especially if your want to attract wildlife but not everybody has the space for a huge
pond.
One can be created in this though believe it or not.
This is just a standard terracotta glazed container.
Now the first thing we need to do is deal with this hole in the bottom of the pot.
Snd to do that I am going to use just a standard pebble and some bathroom sealant.
Now I am going to be really generous with this because we want a really tight seal so
no water can escape.
It is also worth when you're buying you're container, checking that it only has one drainage
hole because if you had to fill or cover 5 or 6 drainage holes at the bottom it would
make the job a little bit trickier.
OK.
So, there is my bathroom sealant.
Now my sealant is dry I am going to add some more pebbles to the bottom and this is because
I really want to have a little ledge that if any wildlife falls into it ca still get
out of the sides because this is quite a deep pot.And then I am going to add more gravel
to the bottom and this really is for any wildlife that wants to find a home in here as well
as giving me that little bit of extra height to support the plants.
OK and now for my plants, now I have got a selection here.
This is one of my favourites, it is a little bit damaged this one but it is a marsh marigold
and in the spring it has these brilliant bright yellow flowers, they are stunning.
So I am definitely wanting to put that one in and it creates a kind of mound of plant
that will kind of tumble over the edge so we are definitely having one of those.
And then the next one is water mint and this is lovely, it gets a really lovely purple
flower on and you can't eat this version but it smells just like mint, it is lovely so
that will go in.
And the nice thing about using the plants is again, it is all about creating a habitat
that wildlife are happy to visit.
And with any pond, no matter how big or small it is really good to have at least one third
of the surface of the pond covered with foliage and that creates shade for any fish or frogs
or newts that will be in there and they will be much happier in that kind of environment.
Get a little bit of form with this grass, I might swap those two around actually to
put a bit of height at the back I think and this at the front.
Now in a normal pond you could plant these in pockets of soil but as this is only a small
container I don't want them to become too invasive and take over so they are staying
in their little containers.
Now my plants are placed I think I might leave that one out as lovely as it is I think it
will be overkill.
Now I am going to fill it up with rainwater, but you can use tap water if you like but
it will take a couple of days to settle and the wildlife certainly won't be enthusiastic
about tap water.
So I am going to use rainwater and then hopefully the wildlife will make themselves at home
an awful lot quicker.
Now these plants are all meant to be grown submerged in water like this, they are called
marginal plants.
And they will live very happily in here.
If you place this somewhere sunny it might evaporate a little and will need topping up
but apart from that it is actually no maintenance whatsoever.
I managed to squeeze that final plant in after all it was too nice to leave out.
And that is it finished and in situ.
After a couple of days it should settle and become crystal clear and I am really please
with it, , it looks great.
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