Shed Pond

Bob_at_Fant · #1 (**permalink**) 22-12-2011, 09:25 AM

Hi all, this completes the set..

This is Shed Pond, the largest in my garden, a preformed plastic job whose edges, as you may be able to see were not neatly finished. It's my largest pond with a surface area of around 1.5 sq m and is 550mm at its deepest with about 100mm of sludge at the bottom. It has lots of plants and a boggy area and a fair bit of duckweed. It has been used by a couple of frogs and a very large newt which I thought was a GCN but now I'm not so sure. Sady it had no frogspawn this year but lots of damsel and dragon flies later on. It also had a solar pump when I moved in but this was attacked and broken by (I think) a small to medium sized mammal some of whom seem to like this area of the garden.

Perhaps because it's next to a large shed and only gets direct sunlight in the morning the water in this pond freezes very readily. On the upside there is lots of ground cover a couple of log piles and a disused chicken coop nearby so plenty of accommodation even if the swimming pool is not heated.

Bob

GCN lova · #2 (**permalink**) 23-12-2011, 01:44 PM

Looks great. By the way if the newt was over 11cm it could be a GCN because apparently they're quite common in some places in kent. Nice to see that your ponds are wildlife friendly and are attracting amphibians.

Bob_at_Fant · #3 (**permalink**) 28-12-2011, 01:09 PM

I only saw the newt for a second but it could have been about that size - it was much bigger than the common newts I have elsewhere in the garden, I'll keep an eye out for it in the coming year..

Billabong Karen · #4 (**permalink**) 01-01-2012, 06:01 PM

Interesting Bob that you have several smaller ponds, which seem to be attracting different species. Most gardens only have one or at most two ponds, perhaps your garden setup is actually better for wildlife, offering various different depths, plants, and amounts of sun and shade.

Happy new year, by the way!

Bob_at_Fant · #5 (**permalink**) 05-01-2012, 12:33 PM

Hi Karen,

Happy new year to you too. I did get a bit jealous reading about people's big ponds with dozens of frogs but it does look like a have a good range of wildlife though rather dominated by newts at the moment. Something else that I think probably helps is the large variety of insects I seem to get (could do without the mozzies though). Having done some maintenance on the ponds it will be interesting to see what happens this year and how much spawn I get, if any..

Bob

Billabong Karen · #6 (**permalink**) 05-01-2012, 01:46 PM

How big is your garden? Do you get bats? I do, and they really help keep the mozzie population down.

GCN lova · #7 (**permalink**) 05-01-2012, 03:03 PM

I had a problem with mosquitoes when i first built the pond but once the other creatures moved in they disappeared and i have never seen one since!

Billabong Karen · #8 (**permalink**) 06-01-2012, 08:58 AM

Yes, I agree with you GCNL, my family were very worried about possible mosquito invasions due to standing water in the garden (we lived in Massachusetts for a couple of years, with a slow-moving river behind the garden, and the mozzies were truly AWFUL), but it really was not an issue at all here last year.

Bob_at_Fant · #9 (**permalink**) 06-01-2012, 12:49 PM

Hi Karen and GCNL,

my garden is narrow but about 120 ft long, there are bats and it was fun watching them on summer evenings last year. Part of the problem may have been that there were three open waterbutts here with no lids and they were full of mozzie larvae which I then transferred to my ponds when topping them up. I've now got butts with lids on so hope they won't be a big problem but they went for me in a big way last year and I had several uncomfortable days.

Bob

Billabong Karen · #10 (**permalink**) 06-01-2012, 01:10 PM

Keeping the lids on the water butts should solve that problem. I've also heard of people keeping goldfish in their water butts, but that sounds a bit cruel to me (as well as impractical; what happens to the goldfish when you want to use the water???).

Bats are fab, arent they? I got a bat box for Christmas, and am going to site it on the side of the house as advised by Dogghound and also as I subsequently read somewhere... Apparently ponds are very important for bats; they drink on the wing (I've seen them do it over my pond) and hunt over water as well. Next thing on my list will be a bat detector in the spring! Cant wait for spring and summer to come...