Sir Winston Churchill had one replete with fish and water lilies at Chartwell and he even commissioned a bespoke chair so that he could sit and watch his precious carp, the lilies of Giverny inspired one of the world’s most famous series of paintings in Monet’s Nympheas and our pond, well, it was in need of some serious attention.

We inherited a bit of a mess from the previous owners and some very overgrown lilies.  I immersed myself in a crash course in lily maintenance courtesy of YouTube and Duncan, John and I got stuck in.  First, remove all the lily baskets from the pond, next, pump the water from the pond and finally, clear years of stinking leaves and sludge from the bottom.  It was all too much for the dirty water pump after a while and so we removed a lot of the mud with buckets – I lost count how many.  Such a long and fulfilling day though and we felt triumphant to have cleared it all.  We even found a fish!

We are ignoring the fact that the liner is in need of replacing for now and we refilled the pond.  We purchased proper aquatic plant baskets, compost and soil, separated and repotted the lilies.  Imagine my delight when a few weeks on all the care and attention is paying off and the lily leaves are rising to the surface again. So happy!  The ducks seem pretty content too…..

Can’t wait for the flowers now, that really will feel like an achievement.