Making Veddw 16: The Reflecting Pool

and yes, it came with a disaster or two.

The yew hedges grew and the issue arose

- what would we fill the spaces they gave us with?

I had a brilliant idea!! A very shallow pool! A big bird bath!

2001, I think.

My first idea was to have it so shallow that it could be a big bird bath. But that was not quite practical - it would be so shallow that a little heat would empty it. A little deeper then? It really could work. For reflections.

Water is very heavy, you know. So you have to think about that. When Charles made the pool by the Terrace he was lucky that we happened to have a visit from an engineer as he was doing it. Who pointed out that Charles was enclosing a vast weight of water behind walls which would probably not cope with the weight. Meaning a Bigger Splash sometime.

That wire is vital!

So Charles ran stock fencing all round the inside of a double wall - which also contained and hid the pool liner. The water has stayed inside.

So we knew about that. And about having the liner inside a double wall. I brilliantly thought, too, that we wouldn’t have to dispose of much spoil if it was a very shallow pool. A pool just for reflections. (I truly didn’t know there were hundreds of these around the place.)

I thought all this one day and can still remember rushing to tell Charles my Brilliant Idea. And, as almost always, he saw what I meant and agreed we must do it. It was a lot of money but was so exciting that it was necessary.

The pool was built with a massive retaining wall ( I didn’t anticipate that ££££…). There is a big drop where those clipped bobbles on the right here are.

The pool is just six inches deep.

We didn’t take pictures of the build, sadly. And somehow we messed up again. It leaked. And worse - from the point of view of this story for you - neither of us can remember why or how, just vaguely lots of attempts to repair it with waterproof paint. Which doesn’t work. Our clue to all this is this cryptic message in the photo album:

I have no idea why I was in a dressing gown. It looks as if I’m filling the pool - the tap was there.

Anyway, sparing you details of another Veddw disaster, it has (so far) stopped leaking. So next, we have to have a seat, to sit and reflect on. I have designed these seats, which are basically built out of concrete blocks. I believe builders can get ones that you can cut/shape with a saw. The seats are (uniquely?) designed to be comfortable for small women like me. ie the seat is low, so my legs don’t dangle. And the seat is deep, front to back. The design creates a right angled seat, which could be uncomfortable - but not so much if there is room to lean back. Just enough. It works - I think for everyone. And there is room to lie down on them too, should you need.

So we did a mock up:

That’s me holding up pieces of very thin plywood.

Which became:

Now, you’re going to find this unforgiveable, but it’s true and I must confess it. The builders got this far (above) and I realised the seat was going to be about five inches too near the pool.

Yes! They took it down and rebuilt it. And then it was right. Phew !

And the seat has proved very useful - the favourite place for photographs:

However, prior to all this, having got the pool made, at great expense and with the usual traumas, I was left wondering how to make it a reflecting pool. The liner was black, but that did not give us reflections. You could see the bottom of the pool clearly, with all the wibbles and debris. I added a some ink and that went nowhere. (well, what would you have done??) Then, confession time again, I added some black wood stain. It worked!!!!

But a bit dubious, to say the least.

Then I discovered that in America they used black dye in fishing lakes to protect the fish from cormorants, and I managed to get in touch with a friendly guy who was prepared to sell me some of the dye. That solved the problem and we had many friendly exchanges, until a food dye manufacturer in the UK cottoned on and began selling dye here. Sorted.

At some point Charles made a step into:

The Hedge Garden

Which was the next problem. The land at this point slopes, and slopes up diagonally from the Reflecting Pool to the back of the next space/garden. Hm. Too late to move the hedges and re landscape……

I had seen this though:

This photo of Piet Oudolf’s garden at Hummelo, in the Netherlands, is pinched from Noel Kingsbury’s blog

and I loved it. I wanted one. So, over many years, with much faff and fiddle, we made the Hedge Garden. One of us sat on the seat, while the other either indicated possible cuts - or actually cut the hedges to shape. As they gradually got big enough for that.

Beautifully rendered here by Callum Baker.

And, amazingly, I sat there one day with Piet Oudolf. Who said that he had seen an image of all this the day before at some talk in London, and regretted that he would never get to see it. And yet here he was. And, reader, he truly was.

Charles’s photo.

Here’s some possibly useful maintenance thoughts for our experience with this garden.

1. The yew hedges are getting too fat. It’s traditionally recommended that you cut them back to the bone (bare trunk) and let them start again. Horrified at that thought, we cut ours back by seven or eight inches. And I quite enjoyed the sight of all the twiggyness as it grew back.

   

   2. The surface of the pool gets stuff on it. Seeds, leaves and such. The way I clear it is by putting a sprinkler on it.

   

   This pushes the bits to the edges which I then take off with a fine net. (no-one paid me for that link)

I do like to be helpful sometimes.

Charles

The pool has been the source of great pleasure to us and our visitors; we can always tell when a group is in the pool and hedge gardens because there is laughter and noise as people play with getting fun pics.

The dark water makes the reflections very intense. And it’s also rather special just to have the space to yourself. But (just to emphasise my role as Chief Whinger) it’s also a concern. For instance, it’s not as perfectly level as it was. (The earth moves. Editor) And the concrete edges are needing repairs. (Well we do embrace Wabi Sabi, you know)

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