Making a small garden pond

vfairbrass · 29 August 2007 at 10:59AM

I want to add a small pond to my allotment but don't have the space for more that the very smallest - about the size of a baby bath. Is there a DIY way of making one which doesn't involve much expense. And what could I put in it.
Valerie

smoky_joe · 29 August 2007 at 12:39PM

find an old bath often being chucked out by DIYers and dig it into the ground a few slabs round the outside and hey presto simple pond half a days work remember to seal up the plughole first though

Wiggly_Worm · 29 August 2007 at 12:54PM

An old bath may be too deep, and the sides will be too steep for creatures to get out (I've found one too many drowned mice in buckets of water on my allotment

). Make sure the sides are shallow, and have rocks and things for critters to crawl in and out of the water.

Get a bit of liner, and make sure you line your pit with carpet or newspapers first to stop anything puncturing the liner. I made a small pond on my last allotment with some doubled over sheets of heavy duty polythene - much cheaper than liner, and it was still fine when I left four years later.

I got a single pond plant called creeping jenny, which had lovely yellow flowers and went mad in no time. Plus a couple of strand of oxygenating weed from a pet shop, that did well too. Put down plenty of big stones and logs for frogs to live in. Have fun!

navig8r · 30 August 2007 at 5:59PM

If you use any thing that has steep sides all you need to make easy for wildlife to escape is to hang some plastic mesh,not the thin stuff like pea net but the small square mesh type,then place some turf on top which will grow into the mesh and make it look natural.The mesh if stiff enough will hang at not too vertical an angle so making the sides less steep.

Dave

Making a small garden pond

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