Plants for new pond.

[KenG0ORH]

Hi Everyone
I have just filled my new wildlife pond with 5000lts of water and need a bit of advice.
I will be putting in about 50 Sticklebacks, LOTs of tadpoles, etc etc etc,
What would be the best choice of water plants for a wild pond in shallow end.
Will washed gravel (size of stone!!) or pea shingle be ok as a base on the liner.

We have lots of frogs in our garden, when I took out my old pre-moulded pond to makeway for the new rubber lined pond 2 days ago, I removed 24 frogs.

Thanks

Ken

[bigdave60dog]

Have look at what grows locally and try to imitate that. that way you will attract the local free living aquatic and semi aquatic life to your pond.
Dave

[King Edward]

I'd leave out the Sticklebacks personally - you'll get more wildlife without them. Have a look at this leaflet: NE27 - Garden ponds and boggy areas: havens for wildlife - it gives some good planting suggestions for wildlife ponds. Grasses in the shallow water provide good habitat, either Sweet-grasses (Glyceria spp. (not Glyceria maxima) or Creeping Bent (Agrostis stolonifera). The latter is good growing in from outside, especially if the pond's next to a lawn area (don't cut it too short, especially near the pond, and let the grass grow down over the edge).

There's also no need to add tadpoles unless you have some from the old pond that desperately need a new home - sounds like the frogs will probably lay in it next year which'll be good. In general, I wouldn't deliberately add animal life (with perhaps a few exceptions, of which fish aren't one) as a lot of pond animals are quite mobile and will colonise on their own quite quickly (or arrive with the plants, e.g. snails).

Gravel/shingle should be OK on the bottom, alternatively clean sand. I've just ordered a load of play sand from our local builders' merchant for our new pond, mainly to cover the shallower areas. Apparently B&Q do good play sand if you wanted a small quantity. It's going to get covered in sediment eventually anyway.

[Red Robin]

If you use gravel rather than sand on the bottom it will provide better cover/hiding places for small creatures and it will gather silt in a few months anyway.

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi Ken, and welcome to WAB.

Some good info on pond plants - natives/what to avoid/plant management etc. in this leaflet: -
http://www.lancashirewildlife.org.uk...rden_ponds.pdf

Regards,
Mike.

[tom00_uk]

until the pond has cycled i would leave out adding any animal life, only plants until this happens

[Red Robin]

^^^^
What do you mean by "cycled", Tom? - Do you mean a 12 month/full season period of time?

My small wildlife pond will be 12 months old in a few weeks and it's been adopted by all sorts of creatures I'm happy to say. The plants will have played an important part in attracting them.

[tom00_uk]

its the short hand term we use to mean getting the nitrogen cycle going in a pond or aquarium, to ensure that ammonia and nitrite are as close to zero as possible thanks to microbial action.

Another name often used is fish-less cycling,

In the past people would often chuck in goldfish or other cheap easy to get stock and expect them to more than likely die while the bacteria levels were increasing to a sufficient level to ensure harmful ammonia levels did not accumulate. This version would be called forced cycling.

[Red Robin]

^^^^
Ah, thanks for explaining about cycles, Tom - It makes more sense now.

[KenG0ORH]

Hi Gang
Thanks to everyone who posted help and advice, re my new pond and plants.
The Sticklebacks are staying, (sorry King Edward) they have migrated fom my old pre- formed pond as to the tadpoles.
I was given 10 Sticklebacks, oh, (those memories of my boyhood, shorts, net, jamjar, in the local pond, hunting, as we did!!!) about 4 years ago, I was astonished to find at least 60 sticklebacks on emptying it!!!
I know have a shoal of tiny fish enjoying the wide open expanse of clean water.
Armed with my new found knowledge, it's off to the garden centre fishery dept for my plants.

Thank you

Ken