Garden Bears' World - Polar's Big Pond

 

We bears try to be helpful when Polar and Grizzly are working in the garden or on the allotment but, sometimes, the most helpful thing we can do is to stay out of the way.

This was definitely the case when Polar was building the big pond in the garden - or rather, rebuilding it.  She and Grizzly had built a big pond there when they first moved in, but it had leaked and been replaced by a smaller pond made from a pre-formed liner. 

However, Polar had always thought that one was too small and wanted a big one again, so one day she moved all the water and creatures out of the pre-formed pond and took it out.  The old big pond liner was still in place, so she cleared all the sand and gravel and mud out of it, covered it with old soft things - like holey T-shirts and threadbare towels - then put a new double-thinkness liner in.

The tadpoles and small wriggly things had to live in the big trugs until the big pond was ready and the eight big frogs she found were moved to the other pond, where they had to share with the frogs already in there, at least for a little while.

We had to stay out of the garden when this was going on so we didn't get muddy, but when Polar had filled the new pond with water and trimmed some of the surplus liner off, we were allowed to go and look at it. 

'Brilliant!' cheered Hanley Bear.  'That's definitely big enough for a bear boat!'

'It's very deep,' said Endon.  'Except where Polar has built shallow sections for plants, we wouldn't be able to stand on the bottom and get our heads out of the water.' 

'That's because Polar wants to make sure it doesn't all freeze even in a very cold winter, so things that hibernate will be safe and snug,' I explained.  'And she wants to get a water-lily, and they like quite deep water.'

Polar's next job was to put big stones all around the edge and into the pond.  All of the big stones, which are sandstone, were dug out of the garden when Polar and Grizzly first made their vegetable garden, and they still occasionally dig out another piece.  To protect the liner, she turned the edges inwards, so the big stones sat on four layers of it, and she put extra liner patches under the plant pots.

This was another job where it was safer not to have small bears running about, as the stones were too heavy for us to lift and might have squished us!

When she had finished, it looked as if the path was a little bridge across one even bigger pond.

We couldn't wait to see it, but first Polar and Endon had to put in the pond plants we had bought at Bridgemere gardens (Endon will tell you about our visit there in his next blog post).

After Polar had put the pond plants in, she set up one of her little solar fountains, then went in to have a cup of tea.  'Be careful if you're playing by the pond, little bears,' she told us.

We promised to be sensible, but soon Hanley Bear appeared from the greenhouse with a plastic mushroom tray, which he lowered into the water.

'Look, it makes a brilliant bear boat!' he said, carefully jumping in.  Waverley asked if he could have a go, so Hanley climbed out and lifted Waverley in.

The breeze caught the little boat and carried it right under the fountain spray and over to the other side of the pond!  'Wheeeee!' cheered Waverley.

Hanley ran off to fetch more mushroom trays, so he and Endon could join Waverley on the pond.  'You're too big for these boats, Sonning,' he said, sadly.  'I couldn't find anything big enough for you.  The seed trays are wide enough but too shallow to be really safe.'

The smaller bears started launching their boats but I was very worried they would drift under the fountain and my friends would get wet or, even worse, the water would sink their boats.  So I scurried round to the solar panel and unclipped the power cable, so the fountain stopped.

The smaller bears had great fun drifting around in the breeze on their little boats.  I enjoyed watching them, but wished I was a slightly smaller bear so I could go boating too.

Hanley and Endon had to be very careful not to wriggle about too much as they could easily have overturned their boats, but Waverley was so light he could walk around and sit wherever he liked.

I was watching the other bears to make sure they were all safe when Grizzly came down the path.  We thought he might be cross that we had made boats, but he laughed and loved watching us having so much fun.  'Poor old Sonning, not having a boat of his own,' he said.  'I think I've got just the thing for you.'

Grizzly disappeared into his shed and, when he came back, he had a double-sized mushroom box, which was just the right size for me to use as a boat.  He helped me get in and gave me a gentle push out onto the pond.

Soon I was bobbing about in the sunshine with all the other bears.  It was really lovely, although we were glad Grizzly was watching over us as we didn't have any oars on our boats, so couldn't go anywhere the breeze didn't carry us.

When Polar came out to tell us it was time for tea, she was a little bit cross with Grizzly for letting us make boats and go out on the pond without putting our life-jackets on.  Grizzly didn't tell her that the boats weren't his idea but Hanley's, because he's a good friend to us!

Polar and Grizzly helped us out of our boats and back onto the path and Polar put the mushroom trays back in the greenhouse, but Hanley Bear watched where she put them and says they are not too high up for him to reach, so maybe we will do some more boating on the pond soon.