Substack diary no. 135: Sunday, 26th. April 2026

This morning I find myself dwelling on the constraints of being a private tenant, which can limit your ability to make improvements around the home or, in this case, the garden.

I managed to get quite a lot of gardening done yesterday, especially at the far end along the party fence. The area is littered with broken bricks and roof tiles, I assume from the time the bungalow extension was built in 2006, eleven years before I moved in. I managed to remove those along with a substantial number of weeds and general detritus. I also topped-up the pond, not to its fullest extent but I held onto the hose for 20-30 minutes, which is not only tiring but also a hit on my water bill that I cannot really afford. My hose does not quite reach from the tap to the pond, hence I must hold onto it and ‘spray’ the water into it from a metre away.

The pond sprang a leak within weeks of my landlord replacing the lining. At the time I had my doubts of the quality and suitability of the pond liner he purchased, which looked far too thin and insubstantial to me, but of course I dare not say anything.

Observation tells me that if there is a slow leak the water level will gradually drop and birds are then required to gingerly step forward on the steep slope, naturally digging their claws into the pond liner as they do so, making things worse. The liner must also be at risk from the frogs in my garden for similar reasons. I love to see birds, frogs, dragonfly’s and all the other creatures attracted to the pond, and it saddens me to see the water level drop.

I simply cannot afford to keep topping it up, and only persistent heavy rainfall, such as we had for much of winter, will do the job. When the pond is full the ledges around it provide a perch for birds to get at the water with ease.

Of course, were I not a tenant (or I had a more reasonable landlord) I would be able to either build the pond properly – and move it to a more sensible location – or fill it in and do away with it altogether. The fact that I am powerless to do so gets me down, so I try not to think about it.