Making a wildlife pond

jennyjelly

We are not what you would call gardeners - our expertise extends to cutting the lawn and pulling out the weeds - but we want to encourage frogs and other wildlife to our garden by making a pond.

I've done a lot of Googling on the subject and although there seems to be a fair amount of advice much of it is contradictory. From what I can gather we should be siting our pond in a place that gets both sun and shade but is away from trees and it should be at least 18" deep (though some people say deeper) in the middle with gently sloping sides. We then need to line the hole with sand, then fabric liner, then the best butyl liner we can afford, and buy several different kinds of plants for different purposes and depths of water. Then we fill it with water and wait for the frogs to find it.

It all seems too simple! Please can anyone with experience give us any advice on the pitfalls we should be watching out for, and any tips for success? I'd love to get it right and not end up with a smelly stagnant mess!

Thanks in advance.

JJ

tanith

What you describe sounds like most wildlife ponds I have read about, but I do think its a balancing act with a pond such as you describe, of all the elements involved including light, site, planting, etc etc sometimes it comes good and sometimes not, we started out with a what I hoped would be a wildlife pond but we ended up with a filter as we couldn't get the balance right and it was constantly green , not matter what I did so although now we have fish in it (an absolute nono for a wildlife pond) we also get newts and frogs and toads and dragonflies.. although the fish eat all the spawn .
I wish you luck with your pond I hope you come back and tell us how it goes and I am sure you'll get lots of good advice here..

jennyjelly

Tanith, that's what I'm afraid will happen to ours. We really don't want to be faffing around with filters and so on. Do you reckon it's as much luck as judgement? There is a spot in our garden that is wrong according to all the adivce we have read as it's too shady and too near trees but it just looks like there ought to be a pond there. Maybe we should just go with our instincts and see what happens if siting it 'correctly' doesn't guarantee success either!

zzzLazyDaisy

OP thats exactly how my WL pond was constructed - except that I was advised to have the deep bit about 3 feet, to allow the water beasties to snuggle down safely when the pond ices over.

My pond has been in for 4 years now, and has been a delight. My only problem has been that the pond plants have gone mad and do need thinning out from time to time. Also, sometimes the pond water gets murky from debris being blown into it (leaves etc) but you can get a mineral which you shake into the pond in autumn which clears the water (can't remember the name, but will check next time I go into the garage).

Go for it! My pond is a delight!

irishwexford

We put a small ready made pond in our garden for the frogs. Put in a lily to give them shade and a water filter, otherwise just let them get on with it. When we were first filling it up a frog came along and jumped in so we knew that was what they were waiting for. I enjoy watching the blackbirds having a bath and many birds come for a drink. We tried to clean it out one year and found a load of frogs at the bottom so now just leave it. Don't want fish in it and frogs seem happy enough so no trouble to keep and its nice to hear running water in the garden. Thinking of putting one on the allotment to attract frogs who in turn will keep some of the pests down,.

Lotus-eater

I've got one and the two things that stand out to me, are.. it should be deeper than 18", I think 2ft is the minimum, get yourself some oxygenating plants (I haven't got a clue about this and can't seem to get any to survive in mine)
I used a plastic barrel, it's small, but perfectly formed

jennyjelly

Are the oxygenating plants those things in bundles like you put in fish tanks? I've kept fish for years and the plants always die. In the end I gave up and bought an air pump.

It's nice to hear that people are successful with their ponds, I can't wait to get ours up and running now!

jennyjelly

On the subject of the depth, we live in the warm south west where it hardly ever freezes, and if it does it's only the top half inch, so would I still need to go deeper than 18" do you think?

jennyjelly

LazyDaisy, I'd love to know the name of your magic water-clearing stuff!

Lotus-eater

If you're going to the bother of digging it and sorting it all out, going to the proper depth seems a good idea

Lotus-eater

jennyjelly wrote: »

LazyDaisy, I'd love to know the name of your magic water-clearing stuff!

Barley straw is supposed to work very well and is totally natural.