New House - Pond

[NYBraby]

I moved into a new house about 8 weeks ago which has a pre-existing pond, being a complete newbie to ponds really wasnt sure what to do with it all I knew was it was very green with a ton of blanket weed.

So thanks to this site I've now realised that someone in the past had obviously created a wildlife pond which then hadn't been looked after. The good news, the pond is a good size over 6ft long and 3 ft wide, one side is shallow with lots of pebbles / rocks and then drops to a nice deep part (about 3ft) with a ledge round the edge. I have newts, Dragon flies and lots of pond skaters, one lilly and no fish, which I thought was bad but now know is good. Entry to the pond is shallow 3/4 of the way round with grass running up to the water line with the back edge being a rockery.

So all sounds perfect but after doing some detailed investigation I notice the pond liner is ripped in a good few places and rather baggy in a good few places so looks like it needs replacing (although rips are near the top so not leaking)

My question is when is a good time to replace a pond liner in a wildlife pond ? Reading various articles im thinking its round about now, my plan was to borrow my Dad's temporary Koi pond to empty the pond water into, fit a new liner then refill with the existing water. Also should I bother stocking with new plants at this stage or wait until next spring after clearing the blanket weed its nice an clear now.

Any tips would be more than welcome, I'll post some pictures later...

[slimrbp]

Well it sounds like the wildlife like it!

I'm no expert but I believe replacing the liner can be quite a mammoth task as there will be a lot of silt etc which will contain beasties as well. I think if it is holding water to the right level it might be ok to leave.

If apart from the odd tear the liner seems to be reasonably strong still I would be tempted to leave it as it is, if the tears aren't massive you can get repair kits to patch them.

I don't think there will be any harm in putting in some new plants, they proabably won't grow much as were pretty much in Autumn but they will be ready and raring for next Spring.

[NYBraby]

My first thoughts were not to change the liner and I can probably adapt what I have to make it look a lot better, flip side is the liner does look old and isn't set very well, so will probably need replacing soon so better to do now.

Something to think about !!

[nightshade]

There is never a right time, but better now than later, rinse off any
vegetation you are discarding into containers to save the pond invertabrates.
Put any newts etc. under a clean wet sack somewhere safe under a hedge
to avoid predators. Buy the most expensive liner you can afford, leaving some cash for the fleece type underlay. Take care to keep filiments of blanket well clear of the new pond area.

[tom00_uk]

in oct i would take this on, you want the water to be not so cold things have settled down for winter and lower air temps so that the containers used to house as much water as possible while relining dont get to warm.

try and save as much as possible in containers to give it the best chance of quickly reestablishing. if your happy with the shape of the current pond you can use the existing liner to line the hole, just slit/puncture the deepest point to allow any water that gets between the liners to escape.

remember to avoid cement when setting stones etc round the pond to avoid creating a pool of water with a very high Ph.

the other benefit of doing it after September is this is a very dry month usually, you want to avoid using tap water as much as possible when topping up as it will create more issues than it solves.

[NYBraby]

Thanks guys, I was thinking the end of September / October to do this, im going to put all of the water / plants into one of those temp fish pools, my dad has one at the minute as he had a leak in his koi pond so when he has finished with it I'll use that, it will easily take everying in my pond.

I'll keep you updated.

[Red Robin]

.
Seems like the pond occupants are lucky that the new owner of the house is sympathetic and appreciates a wildlife pond.

[NYBraby]

Well to be honest I didn't appreciate it and until I saw the newts, it could well have become a koi pond if not !!!

Also thanks to this site, it really got me into the idea of renovating it as a wildlife pond..

[Red Robin]

^^^^
It depends how far you want to take it, but a small wildlife pond is relatively low maintenance and a real joy to witness its evolution (with a little help keeping it healthy and balanced). You can go away for a few days or weeks and the pondlife still survives.