New pond!

[Billabong Karen]

On a different thread I explained how next door's house and garden is up for sale and development, and that I was afraid their little pond, which is part of a chain of garden ponds along our street, would be filled in.

I suddenly got a rush of blood to the head at the weekend, and decided to build a small, shallow pond so if in the spring next door's pond is destroyed and I need to rescue any amphibians, I will have somewhere to put them. Also, the recent threads on shallow ponds (thank you King Edward!) made me want a shallow pond as an alternative to the larger, deeper pond I have now.

I made use of an old raised vegetable bed, dug down a bit, lined the hole with cardboard and then covered it with pvc left over from creating the big pond last year. Then I put bricks around the sides, and left it to fill with rain water. Simples!! The whole thing took around an hour to complete. Obviously it will need planting up in the spring and some prettyfying, but on the whole I am quite pleased with my efforts (probably out of all proportion to the actual results):





It is about 2' by 4', and about six inches deep at one end and eight inches deep at the other. I will get pebbles and stones to create a 'beach' at the shallow end, and obviously will have to make the surroundings more frog and newt friendly. The branch and rock are to help any mice or hedgehogs (I wish) escape, should they fall in.

This is the already existing pond, by the way, looking over from the new one:



Any comments? Suggestions?? Criticisms??? (Of course what I really want is PRAISE ). Karen

[Janec]

An hour? really? I'm impressed!
I'm sure they'll love it.
Love the existing pond as well.

[Kayleigh]

I don't think you have anything to worry about regarding the filling in of next doors pond as all the wildlife will move in with you..

Its a great looking small pond the frogs will breed in there away from the predators (newts) of the bigger pond I wish I had more room to have a lovely gig pond like yours, a rethink and rearrange of the garden might be in order if I get rid of the greenhouse maybe..

Back to the criticism..
The only niggle I have is if we get a hard frost in spring I fear a shallow pond could freeze through to the bottom and you will loose frog-spawn..
Time will tell and don't forget to post on KE Ice on ponds thread.

[King Edward]

Impressively quick construction - it'll be very interesting to see how it does over winter and next year, and what sort of animals move in. Hopefully you can get it fairly full before it gets really cold, so you can let us know how much it freezes.

Since it's steep sided, I can't see much benefit to letting the level drop much in the summer, so probably a good idea to keep it fairly topped up. It would be useful to have a store of rainwater for this (and to fill it initially) - do you have a water butt collecting water from the roof? If it looks like getting too hot in summer, some temporary partial shade might be useful as well.

In the shallower end, to get a more gentle depth gradient up to the top, how about something like a couple of sand-filled plant trays (with holes in) sitting on the liner. For instance, a long 2" high one cross-ways at the end, and a smaller one on top in one corner, to give a sort of stepped effect from 8" to 6" to 4" to 2" deep. Not to fill up half the pond or anything, just at the end / in the corner. Should make it easier for visiting birds as well.

[Billabong Karen]

Yes - it really took just a little over an hour to do! Of course I was lucky because I had the materials to hand, and it actually needed very little digging. Still pleased with it though...

I like the sand-filled plant trays idea. This little pond will I hope fill up naturally with rain water - although I do have a rainwater butt which is full at the moment, so I could use that, both intially and to keep it topped up in summer. The new pond is situated in partial shade anyway, so I am hopeful it will not dry out too much.

Kayleigh, I think that although this little pond may freeze through in the winter, by the time there is frog spawn it is unlikely to freeze right through again. There may be ice on the top, which would kill off the top layer of frog spawn, but I doubt it will go all the way through in late February/March. But I'll keep you posted!

Hooray - a new project! Now we just have to wait and see what the Other Half says when he gets back from his business trip to Dubai on Thursday...

[Billabong Karen]

The new little pond has filled up with rainwater, and I have been collecting rocks every time I go out with the dog, in order to create a slope on the shallower side for amphibians to get in and out. Otherwise, nothing much to report. The weather has been so warm that there has been no danger of this pond freezing through yet - indeed, the bigger pond got ice on it, but this one is more protected, with a fir tree on one side and a privet bush on the other, and has scarcely had any ice on it at all.

Cant wait until the first lodgers move in!!

[King Edward]

Good to see it full at last. There does seem to be a bit of a slope though - it might be more satisfactory in the long run if you were to correct that, ideally by digging out a bit more on the right.

[Billabong Karen]

I know, you're right about the slope... Too late now, I'm not taking it all apart and digging any more now. It'll look fine in the long run, that area gets very overgrown with wild strawberries and ivy etc, so I am expecting the edges to be covered very quickly come summer.

[Billabong Karen]

I'm thinking I might try watercress in this little pond. What do you reckon?

[King Edward]

Should be fine - if it grows too much you can always reduce it.