A thought for a small outdoor plant pond (90 litres or so)

[Steve Smith]

I've been thinking about putting together a small outdoor planted "pond" recently. When I say pond, I don't mean digging out a large hole and filling it with water (as much as I'd love to). The problem is I rent where I live. While the garden is pretty much mine to do with as I please, I doubt my land lady would want a pond. And I might move at some point this year/next, so its a lot of hassle.

Anyhow, what I'm thinking is simply a largeish plastic planter/container. I've seen one on ebay quite cheap and local to me, a hydroponics trough measuring about 80x48x32cm (90 litres). All I want to do is keep plants, snails and maybe daphnia and other food stuffs. I don't think I want to have any electrics in it. Not really sure about getting an electrical feed to outside anyhow.

Anyone done something like this that can give me some advice/tell me its not gonna work?

Cheers

 

[beeky]

I don't know anyone personally who's done it, but I've seen it done at various times on gardening programs. They usually use half barrels with a liner. You can get miniture (pygmy) water lillies and the smaller irises for the edges supported on bricks. Be careful where it's sited though as if it's in too much sun it will heat up too much and go green in no time.