Quick pond question..

[Tobyh]

Hi all,

I'm lucky to have space for a reasonable sized pond that I intended digging over the winter some time then letting it naturally fill with rainwater.

My question is - will this just stagnate? I'm confused as to whether I should wait until just before spring, dig it then and plant oxygenating plants right after or whether I can dig it then line it and allow it to fill naturally over time.

I assume spring would be the time to plant anything? Or are there some that could be planted before if necessary?

It will be a wildlife pond without a filter.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.


TobyH

[naturelover]

i think it will take too long to fill with rain water,fill it with tap water because after a few days the water will be clear of any chemicles that have been added,then get lots of oxygenating plants added they will help the water not stagnating,thats what i have done over the years anyway.

[Cazzie]

Originally Posted by Tobyh

Hi all,

I'm lucky to have space for a reasonable sized pond that I intended digging over the winter some time then letting it naturally fill with rainwater.

My question is - will this just stagnate? I'm confused as to whether I should wait until just before spring, dig it then and plant oxygenating plants right after or whether I can dig it then line it and allow it to fill naturally over time.

I assume spring would be the time to plant anything? Or are there some that could be planted before if necessary?

It will be a wildlife pond without a filter.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.


TobyH

It's up to you how long you want to wait really! But if it's a fair size then digging now and waiting for it to fill I don't think will do it any harm. Just be sure to make a ramp of some description for hedgehogs etc. to get out if they accidentally fall in ok

I recently made a pond (couple of months ago) and the oxygenating plants that I bought/acquired are now dieing back for the winter, so maybe spring would be your best bet for planting up

[paulchandler6]

I dug a pond out last month and filled it with tap water, added some water from a local pond and added some plants all within a week. I now have a thriving community of backswimmers, water fleas, a few pond skaters and Diving Beetles and some more unidentified creatures. The plants are all established now and still growing. It depends on what the weather does over the next few weeks as to how your plants go.

Paul