We're Making a Wildlife Pond

Thanks @ARMANDII . I'm so pleased. A Linnet dropped in for a drink today.

As regards balance; I hope so. It is pretty clear. The oxygenators are growing like mad and (touch wood) there is no sign of the dreaded blanketweed! We have a water recapture system in place which takes the runoff from from some nearby buildings, hopefully keeping it refreshed every time it rains. We did have an overabundance of pond snails which I admit to having removed and placed on the grass for the blackbirds to hoover up. I'm embarrassed to say how many.

 

Someone asked on another thread how to place waterlillies in the deep part of a pond. This is how we did it.

Well we had quite a job of it!! I was given a large Nymphaea Alba, the native one, by a friend. The root was about the size of a small beachball. We planted it in an old laundry basket. It was heavy as you can imagine. Next day after spending the night in the shallow parts of the pond this is what we did and it was worthy of a Buster Keaton film! Other half had made a coricle awhile ago so coricle at the ready, plus inflated inner tube, paddle, ropes and long stick, OH paddles out to the deepest part of the pond. I'm at the side and push the laundry basket out a little.....OH manoevers it into position with the help of the inner tube and ropes when it is then slowly lowered into place. .....we nearly loose it and it starts to topple over and the coricle nearly topples over too but we catch it and eventually manage to lower it into place with the ropes and get it in almost the right place. Inflated inner tube was essential to stop everyting crashing down. A Buster Keaton film would have ended with us falling in but we didn't. Two weeks later and it looks beautiful! Picture below was taken the next day. Now it has lillies.

 

That is amazing, I am now sat here very jealous as my wife has refused a wildlife pond, although it wouldnever be anywhere like that if I could!

 

@Redwing nice job mate but worth the effort i'd say ...you need a little boat on there

 

The drought is causing big problems requiring big changes.

We haven't had rain for nearly three months and the water levels on our 10 month old wildlife pond are dropping a lot. We installed a rain water recapture system but as it hasn't rained there is no rain water to capture! The wildlife isn't in danger but it looks awful with the pots showing and the ugly liner showing. This requires drastic action. A few weeks ago while at an RSPB reserve where they were revamping their pond I saw what they were doing and decided to do similar. They had made low walls inside the pond of sand bags to contain soil and gravel in which plants had been planted. As the water level drops there are no plant pots to be seen and this looks so much better. Here is what our pond looked like a few days ago; quite ugly. Sand bags are laid out at the side.



We moved the plants into deeper water and put the sand bag wall in place.


Soil placed behind sand bags; already it's looking better.


Now it's filled in with gravel on top of the soil. As the water level rises...when we finally get some rain....it will spill over and through the sand bags (we left a few gaps). Then I will replant the plants into the soil and gravel and do away with the pots. Hope this works. Already it looks better but we really need the rain.


Next we'll have to decide what to do with the far end and right side. I'm tempted to continue the sand bags and gravel around the far end and go for the moss option on the right side which is more shady and steeper. This is all learning to us as we've never made a pond on this scale before. Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

Redwing you've worked well there and the look the gravel as made really makes it stand out...shame you can't work it the other side

 

Lovely looking pond. Ours is a tidler in comparison 30ftx16ft.
Was in it yesterday clearing some blanket weed. Fish seemed very happy afterwards.

 

If it helps, on a much smaller scale I am pleased with the moss option. Generally, even despite the drought they are starting to bind together, and form a firmer edge. Looking at your pond, you would probably not have much footfall on the shady side, so it would establish quite quickly.

The only downside is that I have very hungry blackbirds lifting the moss where it edges into the water as they hunt for grubs and worms, as that is the only bit of soft soil in the whole garden! You will get a little wicking of the water, but I think you have that covered with your submerged planting tiers. What a brilliant idea! Sort of taking the bog-garden into the main pond!

 

That's good to know about the moss and that it's working. Once the weather cools and dampens down, probably in the early autumn, I'll get some moss to place along the right side. You're right, not much foot traffic along there.

I'm very happy to have Blackbirds poking about in the moss!

When we saw the RSPB pond I was immediately taken by what a good idea it was. They know what they are doing. I wish I'd taken a picture. Most pond advice is to use the baskets on the shelves but they and the liner do look bad when the water level drops. I guess it's ok if the pond is small and you can just top up with the hose but we don't want to do that for several reasons. 1) we are being asked to conserve water 2) our water is metered and 3) I want the wildlife pond to be self sustaining and look after itself and also look good.

 

I'm delighted! It's lovely to see how thoroughly they work the edges

I'm with you 100% on this. We are being asked to conserve water, and we are metered. But I probably don't have much more than 3 cubic metres of water, and a relatively large surface area, so the evaporation is quite severe... it would be a completely different kettle of fish, (or pond of frogs!) if our pond was on your scale!!

 

Five years!!....I want it to look good before that!