Top Pond
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Top Pond is set into the south eastern corner of North Garden, assuming that the gravel path is counted as part of the latter. It consists of water planting plus a few edge plants and is 14 m2 in area :
This area of the garden is relatively sunny. The pond has a ~400 mm wide shallow shelf - 100 to 150 mm deep depending on how full the pond is - all the way round. The soil just outside of the pond, like North Garden and for the same reasons, is quite rich and moist.
In 2015 this part of the garden was overshadowed on the west by tall evergreen trees with three metre high brambles below. Top Pond was found by nearly falling into it : it was covered in duck weed, had a venerable and much too large water lily and also had a weed infested floating 'island'. It took us 5 months to realise that the pond was populated by a shoal of small golden carp, hiding below the surface mess. Fairly early on we planted two acers on the edge of the pond, rescued some astilbes already there and planted some more astilbes. The water lily was also pulled out and the younger bits potted up and dropped back in. Marginals have now [2019] been planted in baskets on the shelf.
Full details of the plants can be found in the Top Pond plant list and the context of this area within the garden can be found on the Plan and Areas page.
