Hi kev, welcome to WAB
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Originally Posted by -kev  The shallowest side of the pond edges onto a large, nicely overgrown bed. Because of the slope of the garden, I had to bank up the soil there a couple of inches to be able to get the water up to the level I wanted. So there's this silly long foot-wide ridge that the liner folds over, and I don't know how to go about hiding it, and making it a more solid permanent edge. I can't really make it any wider, as the established shrubs start just beyond it. |
Yes, that's the trouble with embanking
, you're on a slight slope, yes? Options to cover the liner would be: paving/decking for access; turf (any left over from your excavation?); logs/rocks to create hiding places for amphibs; ground cover plants e.g. Ivy, Lesser Periwinkle, which will spread across; or a combination of all those.
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Originally Posted by -kev Secondly, I'd obviously like to get planting. This forum is great for helping to choose native species - I long for bogbean, frogbit, hornwort, milfoil etc...
But I'm not sure if I should quickly order some plants and stick them in baskets...Or is it too late in the season now? |
Probably no harm in putting some oxygenators in now, but I'd be inclined to wait until next spring before planting anything else, the growing season is just about over
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Originally Posted by -kev I'm also considering putting a couple of inches of soil in the pond and leaving it until spring - presumably six months of rainfall would give me nice low-nutrient water by then? |
Any nutrients in the soil/water will still be there in six months time, rain or no rain. As jackinthegreen says, use subsoil if you must, but clean sand or pea gravel would be better.
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Originally Posted by -kev And then I could plant straight into the soil - the idea of baskets dotted around seems a bit odd to me...? If I did that, would a line of small rocks along the edge of each shelf be good for containing the soil? |
Yes, creating "planting pockets" like that is better than baskets.
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Originally Posted by -kev (Incidentally, I checked my local garden centre for oxygenators - to my irritation, all they have is parrot's feather, elodea, water hyacinth and water lettuce  ) |
Yes, leave your garden centre out of it - even if they have native species, these are often contaminated with bits of nasties
. There are plenty of online suppliers of natives. If you haven't done it already, download NE27 from Natural England
NE27 - Garden ponds and boggy areas: havens for wildlife for a comprehensive list of native plants suitable for various sized ponds.
It sounds like a nice project, have you got any photos?
T2