GARDEN GURU: There’s a bit of a craze going on for a Pond in a Pot. I admit to having turned my nose up at the idea at first but have come around and actually, I have to say they can look very pretty as well as providing a place to indulge in a couple of favourite water plants and a watering hole for wild life. Why not give one a go? You can experiment with a sawn off dustbin or buy a purpose-made bowl and go the whole hog.
Here’s what Monty has to say: Any garden pond is essentially held within a container, albeit one with a flexible shell in many cases. It follows that, in principle, even a small bowl filled with water and with the addition of tiny plants becomes a full-blown pond. Just a very small one. The container you select does need to have a wide neck, no narrower than 45cm (18in), and be no shallower than 37cm (15in), which will allow room for a few plants.If you select an earthenware pot it should be glazed on the inside, otherwise it will be porous and the water will slowly seep through the sides. A sawn-off plastic dustbin, partially sunk into the soil, works very well, although the sides may well need disguising by judicious planting.
Goldfish will enjoy any container and dramatically add colour, life and interest, making the pond even more of a delight. You can place your container pond on a patio or any other hard surface, but you could also make a small bog garden by setting the container on a square of soil – which could be just a foot or so wider than the container – and planting a hosta in each corner of the earth patch.
Then fill the pond every week so that it overflows down into the soil, soaking the hostas and keeping the earth permanently moist, an environment they will thrive in.
The one drawback of creating a pond in a container is that the water temperature is much more susceptible to change. This means it will need protection in very cold weather because, unlike a larger pond, which will develop a skin of ice on its surface, a container can freeze into a solid block. One way to protect against this is to sink at least half of the container underground, or be prepared to move it to a frost-free spot in extreme weather.
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