CREATE HOW TO A LIFELIKE POND

Peter Marriott endeavours to make his best ever water feature.

Over the past decade or so I must have made at least a dozen water features. While I’ve been really pleased with some of them, others have not worked out so well. Indeed, some have ended in failure, leaving me to dig the water feature out of the landscape and start again.

This time I was determined to get things right, building on all the things I’ve learned from my previous attempts. As a result, my approach was rather cautious, and the resulting pond was created over a period of seven days. That said, each work session consisted of between 30 minutes and an hour, so it wasn’t too onerous.

One thing I’ve gleaned from previous experience is that water projects are never quick and rushing them simply reduces the chances of achieving successful results. For the ‘water’, I chose Woodland Scenics Deep Pour Water, which is a two-part material that requires mixing in the correct proportions. I’d used this product once before, with some success, so I started out with a degree of confidence.

For best results, the Water Base and Activator need to be warmed prior to mixing and pouring. I achieved this by placing the two elements, in their sealed bag, into a washing-up bowl and filled it with hot water from the tap (not boiling water from a kettle), following the mantra of ‘if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to use’.

The bottles were left in the hot water for about 15 minutes and, after removing them, I slowly tilted them back and forth for approximately five seconds before opening and decanting the required amounts into the measuring cup.

During the mixing process, I added just two drops of Moss Green Water Tint which provided a subdued appearance to the ‘water’. Ponds of static water are seldom crystal clear, so this would greatly improve its appearance once poured into the prepared depression. Woodland Scenics offers a range of different tints which are also compatible with the same brand’s Surface Water and Realistic Water products. They can be used to create subtle or extreme tints for a wide variety of effects.

Mixing and pouring gently and patiently should drastically reduce the risk of air bubbles forming in the fluid. Most may dissipate as the fluid cures and my pond had just three bubbles on the surface, after pouring. I managed to drag them to the side of the pond with a pin and neutralise them before the fluid began to cure.