Building a new pond

[Deb London]

On the subject of substrates. My second pond was built on a low budget and was experimental. Overlaying the liner I put a layer of thick cotton fabric (curtain material I think) and then smeared clay over this. The fabric helped protect the inexpensive liner in the pond's early days, and gave the clay something to cling on to as the pond was maturing. The clay came from the pond excavation. This pond has been very healthy and tends to take care of itself. All manner of plants grew successfully in the beginning, but the rushes and Brooklime became the dominant plants (with hornwort as oxygenator).

[Malcolm Banks]

[quote=Kayleigh;727493]Make the shelves 1ft wide as mine are smaller and the planting baskets fall off so I had to plant into the soil aquatic compost I go from an aquatic pond centre
QUOTE]

Good tip Kayleigh, and if you can slope the shelf downwards slightly from front to back, also helps to keep the baskets on the shelf.
M

[Red Robin]

Also, another advantage of plant baskets is that they're easy to lift out for any plant trimming or maintenance.

I've got what I think is an alien and potentially 'invasive' (but very pretty) plant in one of my Iris baskets and an open mesh basket makes it really easy to keep it trimmed back and under control.

[Dragonyka]

Originally Posted by Malcolm Banks

Sorry, didn't read your bit above about amphibian hibernation habitat properly when I made my last post (I was preoccupied with underwater issues), but I did suggest earlier that you could use the soil from the pond to make a mound which you could retain with logs, and then make a planted rockery on/in the face of the mound. From your plan above it sounds like you may be talking about a hibernaculum, now that's another story.
M.

Thanks Malcolm - I'm sorry I couldn't remember who it was - I noticed from the other thread that I was reading that hibernaculums are a bit of a contentious subject. Would a simple log pile be as effective? How big a pile of logs are we talking about?

I'm going to be making a bank anyway, after all I have this big pile of soil that I need to do something with!

[Dragonyka]

Originally Posted by Red Robin

LOL The way this is going, there ain't gonna be no vegetables planted and growing for a loooong time!

The first allotment in the UK to become 100% a wildlife pond and environs!

I wish I could! I have to be considerate of the other plot holders though and I don't suppose they'd like all of my self-seeding wild flowers and so on growing on their plots, so I need to keep it reasonable.

This whole 'little pond' project just keeps on growing! Fortunately, there's not a whole lot else to do on the allotment at the moment - as I'm speaking the soil is all frozen because the temperature when I went out at 9am this morning was -4C! Unfortunately, this also means I can't dig any more of my pond either right now, although I'm hoping that I'll be able to do something later this afternoon (fingers crossed).

I feel a trip to the diy store and the garden centre are in order while I'm waiting for things to defrost a bit.

[Dragonyka]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

When you construct the edge/bank I had to re do mine as I got folds are you using a rigid or flexible liner..
I had to put bricks under the liner to support it and found the bricks were used as the frogs and newts went in-between the liner and the brick..

First - sorry about the multiple posts, I'm trying to keep straight who I'm answering!

I'm using a flexible liner, but I see no reason why I can't plant(!) some bricks under the edges of it (carefully not to rip it of course!) if only to give the wildlife another option of where to go. I have plenty of bricks that I've dug out of the ground that I can spare for their use!

[Dragonyka]

Originally Posted by Malcolm Banks

Yes it is certainly worth taking plenty of time and consulting widely on pond design before getting stuck into digging, but I guess you are past that phase aleady. If you are putting a 3x2 metre pond on a 30x10 metre plot, you should have room for a nice size bog and/or bog garden, or do you not have a blank canvass in the plot? Maybe a photo of your plot would help?

My alltoment finishes at the shed. The bit covered in black plastic is mine as well as the uncovered bit on the right as far as the path.

From the pond to the back of the allotment. Its about 5m away from the back fence.

The photos make the plot look quite short, but I promise it is actually 30m long in total.

The allotments had been derelict for 15+ years until they were brought back into use last year. Unfortunately, we didn't get access until the middle of July, so I didn't get to plant much, hence the lack of any obvious planting.

If you plan to add the liner this weekend you could find the cold weather makes it difficult to fold easily (not sure what liner you are planning to use?) so it might be worth waiting (I know it’s hard) for a few more degrees above zero.
Keep up the good work
M

Yes, I've sort of given up on the idea for this weekend. I see I've got a bit more remodelling to do before I get that far! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next weekend.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Dragonyka

First - sorry about the multiple posts, I'm trying to keep straight who I'm answering!

I'm using a flexible liner, but I see no reason why I can't plant(!) some bricks under the edges of it (carefully not to rip it of course!) if only to give the wildlife another option of where to go. I have plenty of bricks that I've dug out of the ground that I can spare for their use!

Sorry forgot to mention on top of the bricks went a thick pond underlay then a layer of builders sand then the liner and on top then on top of the liner is turf to make an easy access in and out and give a natural finish to the pond.
But watch for capillary action the turf sucks a lot of water from the pond if you let it grow into the water so I cut mine just above the water level.
All this was trial and error as you will see things dont always go to plan and a rethink to solve problems is likely but we are all here to help iron out any problems you might come across..
Good luck..

So I am sure there are things living under the pond as well as in it.

Here is mine looking a bit of mess atm..

[Dragonyka]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Sorry forgot to mention on top of the bricks went a thick pond underlay then a layer of builders sand then the liner and on top then on top of the liner is turf to make an easy access in and out and give a natural finish to the pond.
But watch for capillary action the turf sucks a lot of water from the pond if you let it grow into the water so I cut mine just above the water level.
All this was trial and error as you will see things dont always go to plan and a rethink to solve problems is likely but we are all here to help iron out any problems you might come across..
Good luck..

So I am sure there are things living under the pond as well as in it.

Here is mine looking a bit of mess atm..

Thanks for the extra info. I'll definitely plant some bricks then, as I said, I've plenty - although maybe that's the problem, the bricks have been breeding too !

How big is your pond? It's difficult to tell from the picture.

[Red Robin]

Originally Posted by Dragonyka

Would a simple log pile be as effective? How big a pile of logs are we talking about?

....Here's an arty pic of my log pile and it's not far away from the pond:





I'm sure it doesn't have to be so big but it depends on what trees you've got. A Spotted Flycatcher can be often spotted on my log pile, digging for minibeasts.

I've also slung some logs to rot straight onto the ground.