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Hi folks. My newest project is building a Wildlife Pond in the garden so I thought it might be fun to document the progress as I go about this. I realise that this should maybe have been started a bit earlier in the year but better late than never I suppose. We’ve been thinking about a pond for a while now but the only place we can really put it is quite close to some trees down the left hand side of our garden. I think this may raise some concerns with the root system puncturing the pond liner but I’m thinking if I can line the pond with maybe a thick piece of old carpet, sand and pond liner insulation, thing should be fine. The trees that are close to where the pond is going are conifer types so aren’t actually too deep rooted. I’m also considering building a small Hibernacula next to the pond in the hope that this may encourage Frogs and Toads to take up residence here. The pond itself is not going to have any pumps or filter systems, I’ll be relying on the correct plants and creepy-crawlies to carry out the task of keeping the water clean and oxygenated. I’ve been looking at a lot of other threads on here in regards to other peoples Wildlife Ponds so I’m hoping that I may get some good advice along the way, this is all new to me so any and all suggestions and help would be very much appreciated. There are another few issues in regards to the slope of the garden but I’ll get to these as we go along. The first step was to decide on the size and shape of the pond which wasn’t as easy as it may sound. I didn’t want a rectangular pond nor did I fancy a teardrop shaped pond. After about an hour or so of messing around with a hosepipe on the ground, we decided on the shape that you can see in this first photo.
Once this had been decided upon, the first cut went in...
And the job of removing the turf began...
I've been doing most of the work in the evening after I come home from work and I managed to capture this sunset at the end of the first night.
This next photo shows the area where the pond is going to be, taken from the upstairs window in the house.
The roots from the trees are actually quite small and shallow so hopefully things should be fine in regards to this. I suspect that the further down I dig, the less roots I'll come across.
Anyone who's taken turfs off a lawn will know that it's actually quite hard work, they're much heavier than they look to be.!!
I'll maybe add some photos of the birds that visit the garden as well, like this male Blackbird. I've been spoiling him a bit by feeding him pastry and now when I go out into the garden he almost always appears and follows me around until I've given him his pastry fix. On the upside, he comes really close to me at times, within a foot or so although I always throw the pastry balls into the middle of the lawn in case any of my cats are lurking around. I saw him feeding a youngster the other week but I haven't seen the youngster since. He always takes the first load of pastry away, then returns and eats the second lot himself.!!
At last, the turfs are all removed.
The pond doesn't actually look as if it'll be too large and I know that it'll 'come in' a bit once it's planted up, but when you look at the area that the removed turfs cover, I think the entire surface area is in the region of sixty square feet. I've laid the turfs aside for now as I'm still not sure if I maybe need some of them during the build.
I do actually have the basic outlines of a plan for all of this. I've made this up on the PC as I didn't really want to show off too much with my excepionally neat handwriting....!! Like all plans though, it may change as time goes on.!!
As you can see from the plan, the shape of the pond on the left hand side is also to accomodate the Hibrenacula, plus I need access down that side for trimming the trees now and again. You'll have noticed that I intend to put a wall at the bottom end of the pond although this is only going to be a few inches high. I still have lots of stones left from my recent wall building project as you can see from this next photo. I have plans to use a lot of the stones in the pond but more about that later.
I thought ity would maybe be fun to have a wander round the garden at times so I'll start off with a wee look at what's going on in the Greenhouse at the mpment. Mrs A has been gathering bedding plants as you can see from the next few photos.
A few more...
She's also got four hanging baskets planted up although they've still to be hardened off before being put uot at the start of June maybe.
The first two...
And another two....
The only thing that I have in the Greenhouse at the moment are these Carrots. (Ignore the scruffy handwriting, a deranged five year old child must have snuck in, erased my perfect handwriting and replaced it with his own).!!
Whilst we're on the subject of vegetables, I've got a few things going on in containers and bags. From left to right at the back we have five bags of Potatoes, Mint, Rosemary, and a stone container with Herbs in it. I know there's Chives, Parsley, Thyme,Fennel and a few other things that escape me at the moment. In the containers at the front from left to right we have Peas, Spring Onions (which I've only put into half of the container, the other half I'll sow in maybe a month's time), Onions and Cabbages. I'll maybe keep you posted on the progress of these as the Pond build goes on.
Speaking of the Pond, I've begun the process of digging it out.
I'm starting off by going down to around one foot in depth althought this won't apply to all the way round as I intend to have a few gradual slopes going into the water. I'll dig a one foot deep shelf all around the back of the pond (the edge furthest away from the path). The soil was actually quite dry so the digging hasn't been too difficult (so far).!!
And a bit more progress...
A few more birds have been in the garden as all this is going on, like this handsome Jackdaw....
And one of the first young Starlings to appear although their numbers are starting to take off now.!!
A quick dash out to the front of the house now to show you this Lilac tree/bush in the front garden.
And what may be my first ever sighting of an Orange Tip Butterfy? Mrs A spotted it.!!
Since I'm still on the subject of plants, here are one or two others which are starting to come out at the moment. This Aquilegia has started to show (I think that this may be one that I grew from seed last year but I'm not 100% sure of this).
I've no idea what this is.!! It's really pretty though.
Getting back to the pond again, one issue that I have is that the garden slopes away the further down you go. This next diagram shows the difference from one end of the pond to the other.
This leaves me with what I think may be two possibilities. I could build up the surronding area of the pond to have the wall at the far end raised about eight inches as is shown in the next diagram.
The problem I have with this idea is that the new wall that I built recently would be hidden from view along the front of the flower bed when viewed from up the garden. The front of the new wall is only around four inches high. I think I may have decided to raise the wall at the end of the pond to around two inches and then when digging back to the other end I'll actually sink the pond's maximum level around six inches into the ground, if you follow my meaning. The next diagram may help explain this a bit better.
You can see in the diagram where the Hibernacula is possibly going to fit into all of this but more about that another time I think. I've got a few summer/autumn flowering Heathers to plant on the Hibernacula as you can see from this next photo.
As you can see from this next photo, the weather got quite wet for a few days.
This led me to erect a small Gazebo above the pond area, after all, I'm not quite ready to have it filled with water yet.!!
The final photo of this particular post shows the progress made to date. I'm not hopefull that too much will be achieved in the next week as I've come down with a stinker of a cold and I'm also on holiday for a week and had two or three days out planned. (The stones in the hole are just in case a Hedgehog manages to fall in, allowing it to get back out more easily).!!
Thank you if you've read all of this and I'll update it once more progress has been made. I do know that I still have drainage/overflow issues to look at but I have a basic plan for that as well. Until the next time, I hope you've enjoyed.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Thanks for your brilliant update. I can only repeat what Hazy said, when I think how messy pond-digging is, your garden looks immaculate. Well-done to Mrs A on your beautiful front & back garden & all the lovely flowers & herbs & vegetables. Well done to you with all the hard digging & you've found still time to take bird photos & have a beer.
I'm sorry to hear about your wheelbarrow, I thought it was a bit heartless though, buying a new one straight away! Many years ago we took part in a Red Barrows display at work & our wheel-barrow was painted white with a red cross on it, as it was the ambulance! It is now over 30 years old & has had a couple of new wheels, but still going strong. The white paint has faded now but as we have another 2 old inherited wheelbarrows, we still have the occasional race up the garden to the hummed music of the "Dambusters" theme. Silly aren't we! LOL
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Thanks Hazel, your kind comments are very much appreciated as always. I had no option but to buy a new wheelbarrow, I was in full digging mode and the weather was due to change for the worse for a few days.!! The Red Barrows sounds like a great bit of fun although I can't picture Mrs A allowing me to charge up and down her lawn with a wheelbarrow.!! On the subject of the pond, a friend contacted me yesterday and told me that he would soon have two old carpets for me to line the pond with, so yet another piece slowly falls into place.!!
I think the others have said it all Paul - your thread is so entertaining - reads like a book as Hazy said, with all its little twists and turns and side plots!
It must be taking so much time and effort and is going to be fabulous just like the rest of your garden (my congrats to MrsA too on keeping it so well).
Of course - after all this effort you are going to need a grand opening ceremony with someone to cut the ribbon.....! May I suggest your garden for a Community meet up!! Lol.
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
Thanks Christine, you are very kind. I don't mind the idea of a meet up but at the rate I'm going it could well be Christmas before the grand opening comes about.
That sounds a good time to have a party Paul.
Hi pond pals, it’s been ages since I’ve updated this thread but that doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been any progress with the pond. The pond is actually coming along fine but it’s been so long since I added any photos here I think it’ll probably take another few updates just to bring it all up to date .!! We’ll start where we left off the last time with the basic hole being dug out and I’ll see how far along I can get in this update, believe it or not there aren’t too many distractions in this one.!! The first photo shows the pond basically as it was but with the addition of an extra layer of turfs having been removed around the edge to make room for the liner when it arrives.
You may have noticed that there is a small section at the far end of the pond which has been dug out slightly lower than the rest of the upper edge, this is going to be the overflow and the height of this will determine the maximum depth of the water in the pond. The next photo shows a closer view of this area.
I was going to show you the materials I’ve got to continue with the build but first I’ll show you what happened to our old bird bath after Mrs A accidentally dropped it whilst cleaning it. As you can see, they don’t like to be dropped.
After receiving several withering looks from the birds, it was decided to go out and get a new bird bath, which you can see in this next shot.
Whilst I'm at this area I'll now show you some of the stuff that I've got for the build. These wooden pallets are intended for use when I get round to building the hibernaculum, but that will have to wait for a wee while yet.
I've been stocking up with bags of sand, gravel, pebbles and the likes, it's surprising how much stuff is actually needed to build a pond.!!
I've also been collecting old bits of carpet.!!
Looking back up the garden you’ll notice that I’ve dug a series of steps to accommodate my intended sloping beach down into the pond. I mentioned in the first post of this thread that my plans could possibly change as I go along and the sloping beach may turn out to be one of these changes, I’ll probably tell you about this in a different update.
Here's a closer view of the stepped shelves, the reason I had done this was in an attempt to prevent a sloping beach from sliding down into the pond when it's finished.
I almost forgot to tell you that I had previously measured the pond and ordered the liner. I opted for the EPDM liner (which is a 1mm thick synthetic rubber) as Higgy had advised a while back, and I also ordered the liner insulation to help protect it. I'll not mention the company that I used but they were very efficient and the liner arrived on time, on the day that they had promised it would. I happened to be working on that day so I had arranged to have the liner delivered to my workplace in the somewhat naïve belief that I could throw it in the back of the car and take it home with me. When the man arrived with the delivery it was instantly apparent that it wasn’t going to be going anywhere near the back of my car.!! I’m quite lucky to work within a few miles of where I live so a bargain was struck with the delivery driver via the seductive and somewhat tantalising flashing of a crisp and shiny five pound note (actually it was a somewhat grubby and crumpled five pound note) but nonetheless still a perfectly legal and more importantly, a spendable five pound note.!! We chatted happily on the five minute journey to my house and the very nice man used his hydraulic pallet truck to deposit the liner and insulation in my driveway.!! I didn’t ask him how he intended to spend his new five pound note in case this would perhaps encourage him to try to modify the deal in an attempt to remove the equally crumpled and also somewhat grubby ten pound note that I also had in my pocket, but somehow forgot to mention it in the negotiation process.!! By the time I had remembered about this, the delivery man was far away, undoubtedly on his next delivery.!! One of my neighbours was out working in his garden and between us we somehow managed to manhandle the liner into my back garden, where this next photograph was taken.
The liner arrived on a Friday which was perfect because the weather on the Saturday was to be dry and a good friend of mine had offered to help me put the liner into the pond. In this next photo you’ll notice that there are some pieces of wood lying on the ground in front of the pond. I had spent a bit of time deciding one way or another as to whether I was going to use wood in the build, and eventually I decided that it would maybe be a wise thing to do, as you’ll see soon enough. An added benefit was that when I went to the timber merchant to get the wood, I also decided to stop go to the council re-cycling centre to drop some rubbish off. At the re-cycling centre I noticed that someone had recently dumped an old carpet so it was retrieved from the skip and taken home with me because it was touch and go whether or not I already had enough carpet to line the entire pond. You’ll notice in the photo that I’ve also removed more turfs around this end of the pond to accommodate the overlap of the liner.
Because I intend to line the inner wall of the pond with largish stones, I decided to put a surrounding band of weather treated wood under the area where the stones were to be placed. The idea behind this is to help spread the weight of the stones and to prevent them from sinking too easily into the clay and possibly puncturing the pond liner. The next photo show the wood in place after putting a cushion of sand beneath it and having it cut to size to fit the circumference of the future inner wall.
Some small pieces of carpet were then cut and placed over the joints as an added protection measure against puncturing.
It has unfortunately all went wonky again, please bear with me as there is more to come
It's all looking so promising Paul, hope this weather doesn';t break for you.
Lot to learn
I'll try to push on and finish this update but it's really an uphill struggle as it's already taken me two hours to get this far. Getting back to the pond, a further layer of sand was then put down to further insulate everything.
And so the task of carpet fitting began.!! The more insulation I can get the better due to the pond being so close to the trees and running the risk of roots penetrating the liner.
One piece at a time, the carpet slowly creeps around the pond.!!
Perhaps not everyone’s idea of the perfect colour scheme, but I like It.!!
Please tell me that you like what I've done with the stairs, you should see the bathroom.!!
It's a thing of beauty; next time you're watching 'Grand Designs', remember that you seen it here first.!! I've got a retro standard lamp and an occasional table in the post as we speak.!!
The layer of carpet was then topped with yet another layer of sand.
I think it going to wreak havoc with the vacuum cleaner.!!
We then started to put the pond liner insulation into the hole. This comes in long strips which are two metres wide and also helps the liner to move a bit as it settles when the water is added.
It's nice, but don't you think that white is just so yesterday?
Anyway, the liner was then placed in a central position, ready to be rolled out.
Oh...I nearly forgot to tell you, the Jackdaws just love the new bird bath.!!
The Sparrows think that the Jackdaws are maybe just a wee bit mad.!!
The Sparrows may just have a valid point.!!
Whilst this is going on, the first drops of cool clear water are entering the new pond....!!
As if by some sort of pre-arranged signal, the Red Arrows perform a distant fly by.
Meanwhile, the Starlings are still a bit unsure about the new bird bath, could it be that they've been bathing somewhere else for the past few weeks?
That's all for this time folks, until the next update, I hope that you've enjoyed all of this.
Really fascinating reading Paul - I had no idea how much work was invovled in creating a pond - your whole garden looks beautiful - you can tell how much work you and Mrs A must do in it. Can't wait to see the finished article and then the subsequent photos of its new residents as they arrive!
Thanks folks, the pond is actually a good bit further on than this update suggests, I just need to try to find the time to bring it all up to date.