Our new apple tree
Last weekend must have been the weekend for impulse buying for the garden. Both Jo at The Good Life and Caro at Urban Veg Patch succumbed to the charms of their local garden centre and they weren’t alone. I only popped in to have a look at climbing plants and came out with 2 pots of cottage pinks, a pond liner and an espaliered apple tree. Oh dear, where did my willpower go?
We had been thinking about a pond and an apple tree for a while but had procrastinated and managed to find plenty of reasons not to buy them; we should be saving up, too many bills to pay, how long are we going to stay in this house, all those sorts of things. Then I read a post at The Garden Smallholder by Karen, about her own pond and it got me thinking all over again. I started eyeing up potential spots, we don’t have much room so it would really depend on whether we could get the right size liner and that they weren’t too expensive. So I mentioned it to Wellyman and he said he was keen too. In the case of the apple, well we had the perfect spot for an espalier but thought we had left it too late to find one.
Scroll forward several days to the garden centre. We headed straight for the aquatic section where there was a liner that looked about the right size. Not ones to be totally impulsive, we took the measurments and decided we’d check first at home that it would fit without looking ridiculous and then maybe pop back on Sunday.
We then found the climbers and I had pretty much decided to go for a Trachelospermum jasminoides to go by our front door when I got distracted by some cottage pinks, which I love. There were really lovely specimens with plenty of cuttings potential and then Wellyman, who had wandered off somewhere reappeared declaring he had found the perfect apple tree and it was a good price. He was right, it was exactly the right size for it’s potential home, a two tiered Discovery apple. There followed much humming and hawing, the purchase of the cottage pinks and a trip home to do said measurements. An hour later we were back at the garden centre handing over the credit card. Ouch!
The pond looking a little bare at the moment
So we’re now the proud owners of a pond and an apple tree. The bank balance has taken a bit of a hit. There are of course all the other costs involved, pond plants, stones for around the edge, plants for around the edge of the pond to give it that, well pondy feel. As for the apple, there are posts and hooks and wire and mycchorizal fungi. We spent another hour or so at the garden centre yesterday buying all that stuff. Even so, I’m sure we’ll get a huge amount of pleasure from both. I’m hoping we’ll attract some frogs, I could do with some help on the slug front and I’m looking forward to the blossom on the apple tree and then eating our own fruit in the autumn. Both will add different elements to the garden and I’ll have to learn how to prune an espalier properly, which is good because I like a new challenge.
Hopefully, with a dry weekend Wellyman should get the posts and wires in place for the apple so we can get rid of the temporary supports and then I need to hit the books to find some plants to put around the pond so it doesn’t look so bare. Although I don’t like makeover, instant gardens I never like the stage of a garden where you’re waiting for everything to fill out and there’s just a bit too much soil on display. It’s for this reason I tend to buy to many plants and then realise that it doesn’t actually take them too long to fill a space. So I will have to be more restrained this time.
This morning I made a small boggy area around the pond, digging out some soil and placing some black liner in the hole. I made sure there were plenty of holes in the liner and added some grit to the bottom, so that the soil doesn’t clog up the holes and then backfilled and planted up some Iris sibirica and a couple of ragged robin plants, both of which like damp soil. Hopefully it won’t be long before we’ve attracted some wildlife.
I’d just like to give a quick mention to Puddle Plants. One of the things that had put me off about establishing our own pond in the past had been the price of pond plants. The typical cost at our local garden centres was £6 a plant but at Puddle Plants they are around £2 to £3 and although there is a delivery charge they still worked out cheaper. They are based in Suffolk and have a great website and from ordering on Monday I had the plants by Thursday, so I would definitely recommend them.
wellywoman 
Lovely pond, you have been working very hard. I have no doubt at all that you will both enjoy your new pond, watching it change and mature then of course there’s the many different wildlife visitors that it will attract. Good choice with the Ragged Robin, I have some around the edge of my pond that overflows a little.
Today I spotted 2 small frogs, one on the log pile and the other by the side of the pond, every garden should have one! Thanks for the mention x
Karen, I love ragged robin. I’ve only ever seen it once, last year on holiday in Scotland but such a pretty flower and apparently great for insects.
Fantastic that you now have a pond, essential to every garden, the wildlife will soon find it and you will wonder how you have managed without one for so long!!
Hope you get plenty of fruit on your apple tree, we have some espalier fruit trees and after a couple of years are now producing a good crop of fruit each year and the joy is that they don’t take up much space!
Hi Pauline, Every morning the first thing I do now is look out the bedroom window at the new pond and apple tree. It’s amazing how these 2 new additions, even though small have changed the feel of the garden.
Enjoy your pond while it is still at the See a Reflection stage. Once the water-plants are in they grow FAST. The frogs, are on their way.
Hi Elephant’s Eye, It’s good to know the water plants grow quickly. Because it’s a small pond I only got a few plants and now they’re in, it looks like I’ve been a bit stingy.
No no, that’s a 22, 23 situation. Next year you will wonder just how many you put in. But small is fun and easy to keep looking as you would like it to.
We did the same thing a couple of years ago, went for something, (sorta) came home with an espaliered apple tree.
Except, because we’d not planned it, we didn’t think it through, and we couldn’t get it into the car. It was literally an inch too big, no matter what we did, because of the supporting canes.
We had to pay an extra £20 to get the darn thing delivered instead.
Gah!
Hi Kavey, We had the same problem , too. Measured the tree and then measured the car and realised it was no go. Fortunately our local garden centre is only 2 miles away and they delivered to us for free.
About to have a garden centre splurge – the Garden Centre Group has offers for loyalty card holders on Burgon and Ball tools and Felco secateurs as well as essentials like module trays and seaweed feed. Going to get spares of our favourite tools. Oh – and mealworms are on special offer too. We are replenishing our wild bird feeders daily now the starlings have found our garden, and the chickens love mealworms as an afternoon treat.
Seriously thinking of getting a couple more apple trees before the Deacons offer runs out at the end of the month. I bought a Harry Masters Jersey cider apple and a Golden Glow apricot at the end of February. May get a Charles Ross or a Tom Putt.
Hi Blue Shed, It makes sense to make the most of those offers. We only have space for the apple tree we’ve just bought. But I’m just really chuffed we’ve got one.
You will enjoy the wonderful wildlife that you pond brings to you! They are such an enjoyment, not to mention a beautiful garden addition! Best of luck with your apple tree! Have fun gardening this weekend!
Mindy
Hi Mindy, I’m really looking forward to pulling up a deckchair this summer and watching the wildlife in the pond and then tasting the apples in the autumn.
I’m slightly envious of the pond, which looks great, and the apple tree but of course what I need is a garden to put them in!
I like the new header. xx
Hi Flighty, Thanks for the compliment about the pond, although it all looks a bit sparse at the moment. I’d thought about a fruit tree for the allotment but they have rules which say no trees. The photo of the blossom was taken on the way to the allotment a week or so ago. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it? Hope you’re enjoying the weather.
Love the pond! Good purchase. It’s just impossible to not have some impulse plant shopping in spring! And fruit to eat this fall from your own tree will taste scrumptious!
I did feel a bit like ‘oh no we’ve spent too much’ but it’ll be worth it and the garden already feels different with the 2 new additions. Can’t wait to taste the apples.
It’s true, there’s just too many things in garden centres to tempt us. You won’t regret the pond. Our garden is only small so our pond is tiny, but it still attracts lots of wildlife.
Hi Jo, It’s good to know your pond attracts lots of wildlife, I was worried ours might be a bit small. I think I’ll stay away from garden centres for a while though.
*sigh*
I do have an apple tree, so I’m not jealous of that. The pond, however… *sigh*
I have to say, it doesn’t look like a new pond to me; it looks very “natural” somehow, though of course it blatantly isn’t, and I imaging it won’t take long before it looks like it’s been there forever.
And I want one.
Ah, wellywoman. proud owners and creators of a new garden pond, how satisfying is that. Our wee pond has now been there for years and I never tire of it. Every Spring when the frogs arrive its almost like it had never happened before, you will also enjoy watching the birds as they come to visit.