Bare pond

[dmsplat]

Hi everyone

Around 12 months ago we moved from a house with a small yard to a house with a fair size garden and two small ponds of completely different styles.

My favourite is the 8' x 5' "frog pond" at the bottom of the garden - this is in a fairly structured but wild part of the garden and seems to be doing well (apart from duckweed and the fact that the pond plants have had startlingly explosive growth this season - (I may need to do some careful mid season trimming to stop it from getting totally out of hand - I'll split a load of the plants in the autumn...). This is home to around 20 - 30 frogs of varying sizes and is teeming with tadpoles at the moment).

But the pond I have questions about is the "Fish Pond". This is a rectangular brick built pond about 15' long, 3.5' wide and 3.5' deep. It is filtered using a non pressurised hozelock filter. The pond currently contains 9 decent size fish, and not much else (apart from a load of algae).

I would quite like to put some plant life into the fish pond to add a splash of colour (and maybe help with algal control) , but don't know if this would work well with the fish. There's a net covering, so there's not much height to work with, either.

To match the planting around the pond, I would prefer something with white flowers - although anything green would be nice!

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks!

Dave

[GCN lova]

hi,

do you know what species of frog they are or can you post a picture of the ponds. im sure one of our experts can help you.

[GCN lova]

Originally Posted by GCN lova

hi,

do you know what species of frog they are or can you post a picture of the ponds. im sure one of our experts can help you.

welcome to WAB BTW.

[N0z]

welcome , how much clearence is between the water surface and the netting ? and do you want any particular type of plant (floaters, oxygenators, marginals ?) or are they all good ?

[dmsplat]

Well - the fish pond has vertical sides, so I thought floaters may be the way to go. I could put some baskets / sand bags in, I suppose - but unless I build stand out of bricks, they will be around 3' down.

Now - I'm a complete novice at this, but I am under the impression that oxygenators = good. The pond is in full sun all day, so I appreciate that there's going to be an ongoing struggle with algae - but to be honest I would just like it to look a bit prettier!

The distance between the netting and the surface is around 4 - 6". Here's a picture:


Oh, and here's a picture of a frog in the frog pond. I'm pretty sure it's a common frog... (I thnk I made a mistake talking about both ponds in one post - oh well!)


and finally, a picture of the frog pond as it was last year (I can't find one for this year):

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by dmsplat

Hi everyone

But the pond I have questions about is the "Fish Pond". This is a rectangular brick built pond about 15' long, 3.5' wide and 3.5' deep. It is filtered using a non pressurised hozelock filter. The pond currently contains 9 decent size fish, and not much else (apart from a load of algae).

I would quite like to put some plant life into the fish pond to add a splash of colour (and maybe help with algal control) , but don't know if this would work well with the fish. There's a net covering, so there's not much height to work with, either.

To match the planting around the pond, I would prefer something with white flowers - although anything green would be nice!

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks!

Dave

Water Lilies. Although not advisable for a small wildlife pond (for a range of reasons), I think they would be just the thing here. Google "Nymphaea tetragona" for a white-flowered dwarf variety that would be in scale with the size of the pond. They'll look good from your windows, the fish will appreciate the shade, and they will help keep the algae down. Add some oxygenators as well, but avoid invasive non-native varieties.

Why is the netting there? It doesn't look substantial enough to stop children falling in, so is it really necessary?

T2

[dmsplat]

Thanks for that!

The netting is for two reasons

1. To stop kid's toys going in (they're small and like to throw things)
2. To ward off the local Heron...

[Topic Swerve]Water lilies not recommended for a wildlife pond - can you briefly explain why this is? The frog pond has lilies in from when we moved in... should I take them out? The frog pond is also completely covered in duckweed - but I'm waiting for the tadpoles to change before I start scooping it out) [/Topic Swerve]

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by dmsplat

Thanks for that!


[Topic Swerve]Water lilies not recommended for a wildlife pond - can you briefly explain why this is? The frog pond has lilies in from when we moved in... should I take them out? The frog pond is also completely covered in duckweed - but I'm waiting for the tadpoles to change before I start scooping it out) [/Topic Swerve]

Two main reasons (that I know of):

1. Most (if not all) WL varieties spread rapidly, and can cover a small pond very quickly, shading out the submerged oxygenators.
2. They only have a few stems beneath the water, so provide little shelter for the invertebrates that are an important part of pond ecology.

WL are not, in themseves, inimical to wildlife, so I wouldn't worry too much about the ones already in your frog pond, just be prepared to thin them out occasionally. It does sound as if this pond could do with a clean-out come Autumn, though.

Originally Posted by dmsplat

The netting is for two reasons

1. To stop kid's toys going in (they're small and like to throw things)
2. To ward off the local Heron...

Fair enough.

I'm surprised you get a heron coming that close to the house. In the longer term, the Water lilies should give protection to the fish, and there may be other ways of deterring herons, but you can think about that when the kids are a bit older .

T2

[dmsplat]

As the fish pond has been in situ for a while, with apparently little or no negative impact on the fish, I think I might leave it until Autumn, when I clean the other pond.

At that time, I can split the water lily, which is growing like mad and plant the new plant in the fish pond. I might get some a couple of samples of the floating plants from the frog pond and see how it goes in the fish pond...

In the meantime, I think I'll hang out here and do some reading - I have a lot to learn!

[GCN lova]

the frog is a common frog. im surprised there are still tadpoles but i suspect it to be the result of duckweed and water lilies covering the surface of the pond. you should check if there are any newts because if there are you may find a newt larvae when cleaning it out.

frogbit could be used instead of a water lily (they're smaller) or water soldier but the choice is your especially if you want flowers (frogbit have smaller white flowers).

just try to use mostly native plants because non native plants may be invasive, not be able to adapt to the climate etc etc. broadleaved pondweed is doing well in my pond and my water lilies (which i added just a couple of weeks ago) are growing in my rather small wildlife pond.