Hiding a stream

hi all, just after peoples opinion before I set about this. I have at the bottom of the garden a very small stream, it is actually a spring from about 20m away but runs the width of the garden. At the moment it is hardly a trickle and is attracting lots of flies. But in winter it gets about a foot deep by about a foot wide. I am thinking of putting a pipe in and then covering with earth to level the garden out and hopefully get rid of all the flies. Anybody any thoughts or advice please?

 

Welcome to the forum @enki . My first thought was ''lucky sod'' Just yesterday I was reading about the Sarracenia pitcher plant in the Gardeners World magazine. They are apparently hardy plants and gobble up flies with relish (no, not relish outa jars)
My main concern with your stream would be the way the ground slopes - away or towards your house?
I wonder if you could use this natural asset to create a wildlife pond instead of trying to hide it?

 

Sarracenia flava

 

Make sure that if you pipe it to use a bigger pipe than you need at full flow in winter, because if the pipe isn't big enough you will get water backing up and then pos flooding

 

I agree with Tetters work with it than against it, i would love a stream running through my garden options are endless.

 

I agree.
I would consider building a wildlife pond and have the stream trickling in and out.
If it were big and deep enough, it could cope with the volume of water in the winter.

 

thanks for the replies. My first throught when we moved in just in January was to make a nice feature or it including a pond. But now with summer here and the water flow at more of a seap pace, not even a trickle it is more of a Blow fly attraction, so yes the Sarracenia Flava may be a good bet. I was looking at something similar just the other day at the garden centre but more for trying to reduce numbers of these flies in the sun room - arrgh!
As for the garden slope it is from right to left at a gradient of 1ft per 10m.
Could really do with some normal British weather as here it has not rained for must be 2 months

 

Have to agree with the posters above; I would be very happy to have a stream running through my garden. Wildlife ponds are great for many reasons, not least because they attract amphibians who will eat the fly larvae. I think it would be very sad to pipe spring water away.

 

Yes i agree with the others, make a wild life pond.Do you attract the birds? They'll get rid of the flies.

 

The farmer behind us put a pipe in a dyke and backfilled with soil. That land is now prone to flooding. The flooding doesn't effect us as such but it is an obstacle in the seeking of planning permission.

G.