Subject: Re: Water Management
From: Chris French & Helen Johnson <cf@spennithorne.demon.co.uk>
Organization: Its-here-somewhere
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 23:47:26 +0000
Message-ID: <MOD$980113.10427@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$980112.13314@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
In article <MOD$980112.27657@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, Carolyn Miles
writes
>
> I'm
>: interested in preventing nature from creating a swamp in my backyard caused
>: by the unwillingness of the town to maintain its drainage ditches. My goal
>: is to transform a mosquito breeding mess which currently exists into a
>: water element in the midst of my overall backyard landscape plan.
To be honest, I'm not sure that I can help you as it seems quite
a task, and I should imagine various rules and regulations are different
here in the uk. In Wales we have a centre for alternative technology
which have pioneered to use of reed beds and simple oxygenators which do
very well at purifying water, and obviously you will need to do
something like this else you will still have a stagnant dead pond at the
end of the garden. This kind of thing is done regularly by our
conservation groups over here.
I suggest some of the negativity on this site may be due to the
ambitious nature of the project, and the fact that not many people have
done anything like it- though in Britain we have the possibly erroneous,
but maybe not impression that americans will sue for anything!and thus
the warning to steer clear may indeed be sensible.
I think you have 2 options
1. Get in a professional landscape designer who has suitable
experience and explain your needs.
2. a) Contact alternative technology/green sites about water
purifying, how to go about it and suitable designs
b) I don't know how much you are restricted by planning
permission laws, but if you are going to alter a councils watercourse,
even if they are letting it go to rack and ruin, you are best checking
designs with them.
c) I don't see why you can't then create order out of chaos with
a pond area and bog garden.Buy a good practical book to help you with
design,buliding and maintenance. Paths should keep children on the
straight and narrow,if they do have easy access to your garden, and as
long as you don't have such boggy areas that a child could physically
get stuck(and to be honest, you probably have some of those in rainier
seasons anyway) a pond is no more or less dangerous than a swimming pool
in which children do drown every year from inadequate supervision.
d) once these practicalities are over, enjoy the increased
diversity of wildlife such a structure can bring.
I am sorry though that I have no practical experience yet in
pond making. We will however make a pond and bog garden next year
ourselves, but with less of the problems that seem to beset you.
I hope that when you have completed the project, you post back
to here to tell us how successful you have been. All the best
--
Chris French and Helen Johnson
Leeds, UK