Wildlife Pond Advice
Discussion
After a few years of thinking about it, I've fitted a preformed pond in the garden with the intention of turning it into a wildlife pond.
It's about 1 metre x 1 metre in a sort of triangular shape and about 0.5 metres deep with steep sides and a couple of shelves, which may or may not be ideal.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone on here had one and if they could give me a step by step guide on how to proceed.
Which plants to use, and what they do, which creatures to put in it, like snails etc, not fish and what they do.
What if anything to put on the bottom, gravel etc.
I've had a look on the 'net and there's lots of information about how to make a pond but not how to proceed from there.
Thanks.
It's about 1 metre x 1 metre in a sort of triangular shape and about 0.5 metres deep with steep sides and a couple of shelves, which may or may not be ideal.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone on here had one and if they could give me a step by step guide on how to proceed.
Which plants to use, and what they do, which creatures to put in it, like snails etc, not fish and what they do.
What if anything to put on the bottom, gravel etc.
I've had a look on the 'net and there's lots of information about how to make a pond but not how to proceed from there.
Thanks.
IMHO just find someone with an established pond and ask for a handful of plant (Elodea / Canadian pond weed is a great oxygenator) and a few litres of their water for some starter bacteria.
You'll be amazed how many pondskaters, dragonflies and water boatment just turn up. Maybe get some frogspawn in spring - not much will happen until then. Maybe let some autumn leaves in, but not too many.
You'll be amazed how many pondskaters, dragonflies and water boatment just turn up. Maybe get some frogspawn in spring - not much will happen until then. Maybe let some autumn leaves in, but not too many.
Simpo Two said:
I'm not a pond expert but I think something that small is unlikely to maintain a viable ecosystem, but just be a 'decorative feature'.
Yes, I know it's a little on the small side but it's as large as we can practically have.Hopefully we will get some wildlife in it even if it's just a few birds having a bath.
Thanks for the info Mark. I'll have a look at the things you mentioned in a bit when I have a spare moment and look forward to any more info that you can share with me. ty.
Yes it is small so you need to think of its location. To much sun and it will over heat and turn green, to little and it will go slimy.
I would use it as a sump for a bog garden. You still have clear water in the middle but water plants on the outside extending into your garden.
As above... Get the water plants in but remember its not deep so will freeze in winter. Put a few little caves, drain pipes, rock piles etc to bring in over wintering newts, frogs and so on.
You can create amazing little features with your boundaries as long as you know the limits of the volume of water.
I would use it as a sump for a bog garden. You still have clear water in the middle but water plants on the outside extending into your garden.
As above... Get the water plants in but remember its not deep so will freeze in winter. Put a few little caves, drain pipes, rock piles etc to bring in over wintering newts, frogs and so on.
You can create amazing little features with your boundaries as long as you know the limits of the volume of water.
I'm in the process of completely renovating my girlfriend's new garden at the moment and trying to make a very small and run down/forgotten garden into something half decent.
This little pond (about 4 foot long, maybe 2 1/2 deep) was full of rotting crap and dumped garden ornaments etc. It was full to the brim but only had about 2 inch of "water" on the top - really unpleasant to clear out.
Rest of the garden now looks like this (after removing bags of bramble, clearing all 4 main beds and rebuilding (not finished) a rockery behind the pond) so sadly it'll never really be all that wildlife friendly.
All the same the pond will be for wildlife only with no fish. Yesterday I transported some water forget-me-not (loosely anchored in a basket) and some floating heart (i think) which was also in baskets - both on the shallower shelf.
Also added some water from the donor pond and a bit of duck weed - fully expect this to go slightly mental at first but it should be fairly easy to control.
Next step will be to drop some canadian pondweed (from a different doner pond) into the deep part and possibly buy another native oxygenator like hornwort for the deeper area. That'll probably be it for plants for that pond.
Behind the pond will be a rough, rocky and "unmanaged" rockery area and one of the side beds may become a bog plant bed to add a bit of extra cover and water for the mini-beasts.
Garden is unlikely to ever have amphibians (sadly) as it's fully walled and so isn;t really suitable. I won't put fish in as they tend to have a negative impact, especially on a pond so small.
I'll also add a ramp or entry/escape point in the shallow end using the gap in the surround where the pipes used to go out. Just in-case anything interesting falls in and wants to escape.
I might buy some pond soil/compost just to add a shallow layer to both shelves to help some of the plants that aren't in baskets so establish and give a bit of substrate for bugs and so on to hide in. The pond will never be overlooked or shaded so it's not going to build up much of a substrate or sludge layer on it's own.
Any waterbody in a garden is a good thing and a lot of insects especially can make good use of tiny ponds (from sinks or sunken tyres etc). Birds and mammals will also use them for drinking, and eating your tadpoles etc.
Try to get a good mix of plants - oxygenators, marginals that spread around the edges of the pond providing cover, flowering plants to atract hoverflies etc, lillies or other floaters for things to hide and hunt under.
This little pond (about 4 foot long, maybe 2 1/2 deep) was full of rotting crap and dumped garden ornaments etc. It was full to the brim but only had about 2 inch of "water" on the top - really unpleasant to clear out.
Rest of the garden now looks like this (after removing bags of bramble, clearing all 4 main beds and rebuilding (not finished) a rockery behind the pond) so sadly it'll never really be all that wildlife friendly.
All the same the pond will be for wildlife only with no fish. Yesterday I transported some water forget-me-not (loosely anchored in a basket) and some floating heart (i think) which was also in baskets - both on the shallower shelf.
Also added some water from the donor pond and a bit of duck weed - fully expect this to go slightly mental at first but it should be fairly easy to control.
Next step will be to drop some canadian pondweed (from a different doner pond) into the deep part and possibly buy another native oxygenator like hornwort for the deeper area. That'll probably be it for plants for that pond.
Behind the pond will be a rough, rocky and "unmanaged" rockery area and one of the side beds may become a bog plant bed to add a bit of extra cover and water for the mini-beasts.
Garden is unlikely to ever have amphibians (sadly) as it's fully walled and so isn;t really suitable. I won't put fish in as they tend to have a negative impact, especially on a pond so small.
I'll also add a ramp or entry/escape point in the shallow end using the gap in the surround where the pipes used to go out. Just in-case anything interesting falls in and wants to escape.
I might buy some pond soil/compost just to add a shallow layer to both shelves to help some of the plants that aren't in baskets so establish and give a bit of substrate for bugs and so on to hide in. The pond will never be overlooked or shaded so it's not going to build up much of a substrate or sludge layer on it's own.
longshot said:
Yes, I know it's a little on the small side but it's as large as we can practically have.
Hopefully we will get some wildlife in it even if it's just a few birds having a bath.
You will get things, many of which will turn up naturally with minimal encouragement needed from you. You should get dragon and damsel flies, various water beetles, boatmen, pond skaters, snails etc colonising naturally and surprisingly quickly. You can introduce frogs/newts etc (as tadpoles next spring) however again frogs/toads especially will find your pond as long as the garden itself is accessible.Hopefully we will get some wildlife in it even if it's just a few birds having a bath.
Any waterbody in a garden is a good thing and a lot of insects especially can make good use of tiny ponds (from sinks or sunken tyres etc). Birds and mammals will also use them for drinking, and eating your tadpoles etc.
Try to get a good mix of plants - oxygenators, marginals that spread around the edges of the pond providing cover, flowering plants to atract hoverflies etc, lillies or other floaters for things to hide and hunt under.
I went to the local garden centre today and a lot of the pond plants they had were starting to die back.
I decided to buy a bunch of oxygenating plants and will now leave it until the spring, hopefully by then it will be 100% rainwater and ready to go.
I'll try to post a picture of it later so people can see what it looks like.
I decided to buy a bunch of oxygenating plants and will now leave it until the spring, hopefully by then it will be 100% rainwater and ready to go.
I'll try to post a picture of it later so people can see what it looks like.
Sorry, forgot to come back on this. Japvee has pretty much covered most of what I would have said anyway.
Mine is currently planted with :
Hornwort
Starwort
Marsh Marogold
Yellow Flag Iris
Dwarf lilly
Bog Bean
Brooklime
Water Mint
Cuckoo flower
Water Cress
Water crowfoot
You are probably wise to leave till Spring now, but I was ahead time wise. I would suggest buying a bag of water cress from Tesco and bunging that in, as its incredible hardy.
Mine goes from about 2 feet deep to about an inch in two shelving sections, and was made with a liner. A lot of the liner is still visible, but Im hoping once evryhting settles down and matures, it will hide a lot of it.
The lavender will be very popular with the bee population, and currently hidden but growing fast is a nice Ivy which will eventually cover the fence to the rear. I will also train the Honeysuckle to fill round behind the back of the waterfall and hide that part of the fence.
Current inhabitants are :
Water skaters
Midge and assorted larvae
Small water beetles
Lots of birds and insects use it for drinking, and I had a popular birdbath prior to the pond.
My whole small garden is now planted for wildlife, and Im hoping next year to see the benefits as it all starts to mature.
Mine is currently planted with :
Hornwort
Starwort
Marsh Marogold
Yellow Flag Iris
Dwarf lilly
Bog Bean
Brooklime
Water Mint
Cuckoo flower
Water Cress
Water crowfoot
You are probably wise to leave till Spring now, but I was ahead time wise. I would suggest buying a bag of water cress from Tesco and bunging that in, as its incredible hardy.
Mine goes from about 2 feet deep to about an inch in two shelving sections, and was made with a liner. A lot of the liner is still visible, but Im hoping once evryhting settles down and matures, it will hide a lot of it.
The lavender will be very popular with the bee population, and currently hidden but growing fast is a nice Ivy which will eventually cover the fence to the rear. I will also train the Honeysuckle to fill round behind the back of the waterfall and hide that part of the fence.
Current inhabitants are :
Water skaters
Midge and assorted larvae
Small water beetles
Lots of birds and insects use it for drinking, and I had a popular birdbath prior to the pond.
My whole small garden is now planted for wildlife, and Im hoping next year to see the benefits as it all starts to mature.
Edited by Turn7 on Wednesday 26th September 20:14
When I made it:
planted ish
within a week it had this in it
and now, 4 years on, its gone utterly mental and needs to be deplanted to a large degree...but is also supporting 2 types of newts (loads of the buggers), frogs, dragonfly larvae, damselfy, elephnt hawk moth (bogbean does it), and every type of freshwater insect you can image. ponds rule
planted ish
within a week it had this in it
and now, 4 years on, its gone utterly mental and needs to be deplanted to a large degree...but is also supporting 2 types of newts (loads of the buggers), frogs, dragonfly larvae, damselfy, elephnt hawk moth (bogbean does it), and every type of freshwater insect you can image. ponds rule
Ours is about the same size as Nightmare's. Initially it filled with blanket-weed. It took perseverance and about 3 years to clear it but it's fine now.
Overhanging trees are a problem: the lilies have stopped flowering and it's a constant battle against the leaves. However, semi-rotted leaves go well in the compost heap.
Dragon-flies are great to watch in action but their larvae are evil, voracious carnivores. They'll lurk in the sediment over the winter for a few years, emerging in spring to devour every baby fish and all the thousands of would-be tadpoles the frogs have deposited.
Steep or overhanging sides don't allow easy access or exit for small animals or amphibians or for birds wanting to bathe or drink. We also lost a rabbit one winter's day. The sloping pebbles would have been frosty and slippery.
Lots of enjoyment to be had from a pond but a few pitfalls to try to avoid.
Overhanging trees are a problem: the lilies have stopped flowering and it's a constant battle against the leaves. However, semi-rotted leaves go well in the compost heap.
Dragon-flies are great to watch in action but their larvae are evil, voracious carnivores. They'll lurk in the sediment over the winter for a few years, emerging in spring to devour every baby fish and all the thousands of would-be tadpoles the frogs have deposited.
Steep or overhanging sides don't allow easy access or exit for small animals or amphibians or for birds wanting to bathe or drink. We also lost a rabbit one winter's day. The sloping pebbles would have been frosty and slippery.
Lots of enjoyment to be had from a pond but a few pitfalls to try to avoid.
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