Making Raised Pond Wildlife Friendly

[Dave Blake]

I would like some advice on how to make a raised pond more wildlife friendly.

First the pond: It is built using oak sleepers with a butyl liner waiting to be fitted, and oak capping to hold the liner down. This capping will over hang the inside edge by 2". The pond is 30" at the deepest, with a 10" deep planting shelf running round 70% of the edge. Built into a slope, one side is 24" above ground level with the other only 12" above ground. Overall it has about 10.5 sq m surface area (4.6 cu m volume). So far it has nothing in it, not even water!

It seems to me that the over hanging capping and the raised sides present a barrier to wildlife, yet I hope it can be a home for frogs, toads and newts etc. Not really wanting to keep fish (far too lazy a gardener!), just make a wildlife haven with lots of water plants. I hope that I can adapt this basic raised design to make this work.

It is also going to be a non-electric pond (using yet more power in the garden as well as the house does not seem very environmentally friendly). Solar power is expensive, and I have yet to see solar move anything more than a tiny trickle of water intermittantly. So I hope to manage the water quality with planting (not that I know anything about it!)

My main idea is to construct a sloping flower bed or rockery on the lowest sides (50%), so things can crawl up. But I still worry that animals (invertebrates and otherwise) won't be able to get out of the water because of the straight interior sides and over hanging capping. I had thought about making a bog garden in one corner (inside the liner), removing the capping at that point and have the rockery merge into it, but I am not sure if this would cause either wicking or a bad evaporation problem. Would the odd "ladder" of stones in a pile on the planting shelf do the job?

Just how good is nature at over coming dumb man-made obstacles like raised sides and over hangs?

Any suggestions welcome.

Dave

[wyevilla]

Originally Posted by Dave Blake

Just how good is nature at over coming dumb man-made obstacles like raised sides and over hangs?

Any suggestions welcome.

Dave

Hi Dave

Well the answer is that some species can overcome obstacles and some will need a bit of help.

First lets look at the problem of getting out of the pond. I think the planting shelf is the place to start. Piles of stones can work, but tends to be short term as they tend to fall down. However bricks are much more stable. On bricks pillars, planters can be anchored containing marginals (plants that send their leaves out above the water). if these are clumped to gether at a couple of the corners a marshy effect can be constructed to enable small creatures to climb up and away from the pond. Dragonflies and damselflies are prticularly good at using plants eg reeds, irises, sedges etc on which to undergo their final moult and take flight.

if you do put bricks or stones into the pond, do think about protecting the butyl liner. Bits of old carpet work a treat and will last a long time.

i would also look to soften the edge of the pond at (at least) one side. Use plants with a spreading habit that will grow down into the pond. I use creeping jenny which works really well (in fact my newts lay their eggs on the leaves of submerged stems). You mentioned that you had thought about making a bog garden in one corner (inside the liner), removing the capping at that point and have the rockery merge into it. I think this would be an excellant solution. The wick effect is not really going to be a problem. Evaporation can be best reduced by planting marginals, water lillies and plants over-hanging the edges. This will then allow access and egress to the pond. Don't forget to place hollow logs, wood-piles etc and plenty of plant cover so that amphibians can find places to hibernate outside the pond as well as find their way in and out without being too exposed to predators.

i think that as long as at least one side and a couple of corners can be designed with the needs of your potential inhabitants in mind you should have success with your wildlife pond.

Good luck.

[Tursiops2]

Hallo Dave

Just a couple of thoughts to add to Wyevilla's:

A crucial component of a wildlife pond is a selection of oxygenating plants - submerged, free-floating plants that release oxygen into the water and stop it becoming stagnant. Only use native species for this, avoid exotics like Canadian Pondweed and Parrotfeather like the plague - they'll take over the pond and can cause serious ecological problems if they escape into natural watercourses. These people have a good selection and can give advice:
March at Wiggly Wigglers

You say that the uphill side of the pond stands 12" proud of the ground surface, yes? In this case I think you'll need to provide some means of access to the pond along this side - piles of logs, rocks etc., or an earth embankment planted up as Wyevilla suggests.

With regards to a "bog garden" within the pond, I have heard of somebody using old car tyres as a container for this purpose - I don't know how successful it was, or if there'd be any pollution risk, but it's a simple option worth thinking about.

A great project, wishing you sucess!
T2

[Kymba]

Welcome to WAB Dave
make sure you take some Pics so we can see your pond it sounds great.

This link might help you with some idea;s it is one i found while researching Ideas for a wildlife pond for my Wildlife Centre for children

Plant Life Facts 2

[smartie]

You don't say whether your pond is in the open or overhung by trees or shrubs. It's a good idea to plant a twiggy shrub or two of your choice close to the pond, so visiting birds will have some cover near the pond which will make them more confident in taking a bath. Once you have a mat of floating vegetation they will use this as a raft and splash about on top of it. As a general rule, you might expect to have about a third of the water area covered with vegetation of one sort or another, to provide shade for the water life when it's sunny.

A word of caution - native is generally best, as others have said, but beware the native water lily Nymphaea alba, as it is very vigorous and only really suitable for large lakes. Once it takes hold, it will fill your pond and is really difficult to get rid of (as you will probably guess I speak from bitter experience).

Also watch out for the bulrush Typha latifolia or similar. Again not suitable for the small pond, they can arrive on the wind from elsewhere, as they did in our pond. Though stately plants, they are again very invasive and have sharp roots that can cut through a butyl liner. If you see any, get them out before they seed. Otherwise, like us, you wil be fighting them for years

[Dave Blake]

Well, we have finally got the liner in place in our raised structure of sleepers after a long delay over the wet summer. A picture here may give a better idea of the project.

At the moment it looks more like a swimming pool, but the idea is to fill it with planting (wide shelf space inside ready and waiting), and build wildlife navigable features on the 3 lowest sides - left and foreground side are 1ft high, right and far side just over 2ft. You can also our "squirrel proof" bird feeders in the back ground, but that is another story! Foreground end I hope to have a rockery "overflow" into a large planting area within the pond - hopefully providing enough of a slope for small creatures to escape the water. My ideas for raised beds are as follows, using wood poles to make the terraced structure



Any comments or suggestions on these ideas very welcome.

Having filled it with water at the weekend we rushed eagerly off to the leading local aquatic centre to buy plants only to find a very sad collection of dying leaves and blanket weed filled baskets. In desperation to get something for my new pond I bought the only healthy plant I saw - a Primrose Willow - which I have now read is an environmental threat. No wonder it looked healthy!! Also got the last 3 bunches of Elodea Crispa - well at least we got that right, even if our 10.5 sq m pond probably needs 50 to 100 of them. To cap it off a friend has given us an iris from her pond covered in Duck Weed. Our initial planting is not getting off to a flying start, so all of these are in a quarantine zinc bath while I figure out what to do next. Advice very welcome here too.

Is autumn the wrong time to even consider planting things in a new pond?
Is there any point in my quarantine approach, or is Duck Weed and Blanket Weed infiltration prevention impossible, does it just come with what you buy or those kind gifts from friends?
Will the tap water filled pond kill the plants? Just how we get this off to a good start?

Excitement of filling it with water slowly turning into panic.

Dave

[mh68]

Hello Dave,
The nasties in tap water will evaporate after a day or two so the water should be ok. You could also consider going to an established pond and getting a bucketful of water/silt to give your new pond a "kick start".I would also throw some loose soil into the water to establish a layer of sediment which is far better than leaving the bottom of the pond bare.I`m no expert on pond plants so i`ll leave that subject for others to answer.
Looking at your plans, the raised beds should allow easy access to and from the pond-by continuing it inside the pond, in the ways the others have suggested, it should be fine.Looks very impressive so far, it`ll be nice to see the pics when everythings finished

Mark H

[Cazzie]

Hi Dave

That looks fab!

I've recently constructed a wildlife pond in my garden too! Here's a link...

Common Garden Frogs?

There's some info on plants and where I got them (after some help from the very knowledgeable Tursiops2 ). I'm well chuffed with mine and the wildlife is starting to turn up - so glad I made one even though it was hard work!

Can't wait to see yours progress and keep the piccies coming ok

[Dave Blake]

Your pond looks great Cazzie, and you did it all in record time. Very inspirational, but I'm afraid we are the slowest DIYers in the West so a finished pond will take us a bit longer.

The planting info in your thread is really good. Unfortunately I think our problem is going to be finding a supply of plants at this time of year. I looks a bit like water plants become unavailable on 1st Sept, regardless of weather etc. I am wondering if we are going to have to leave the pond empty until spring. That sounds like a disaster, without planting I fear it will just turn into a green soup of algae, and be a death trap for anything that falls into it.

I will stick some escape "ladders" in so that any wildlife can get out of the butyl desert, but I so wanted to get started on creating a habitat. I will track down a bucket full of water from an established pond (none locally, so going to have to wait for a friend living 10 miles away to return from holiday) but I wonder what good this will do without plants.

Going shopping again this weekend, will see what we can find but I'll take the list of good plants with me this time!

Dave

[galanthus]

Originally Posted by mh68

Hello Dave,
You could also consider going to an established pond and getting a bucketful of water/silt to give your new pond a "kick start".I would also throw some loose soil into the water to establish a layer of sediment which is far better than leaving the bottom of the pond bare.

Mark H

I'd agree with the kick start from a local pond, however, personally I wouldn't put any loose soil into the pond unless it's 'aquatic compost/soil'. Too many nutrients in normal soil so you'd have algae problem.