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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
Wendy,I'm not so certain that I can count on a bribe. I think something else might happen if Paul gets desperate: I don't know what I'll be doing if Paul threatens again to send Tee Tee after me if I don't help him ;-)
I consider the two of you to be equally cruel with your taunts and have to say that this could possibly result in a drop of several places on my Christmas card list.!! I'm confident that I'll solve this once I get home this evening.!!
Oh no, not the dreaded TT threat ... Take to the hills B!! Lol
Hear from you later then P(FdL)A!!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Ha ha Wendy has you there Paul, I think I also may have the answer, but will say nothing so Wendy will not be wild with me!!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Ah-ha.....Ferdinand de Lesseps, I believe, the brains behind the Suez Canal.!! That was perhaps another one of those days when I must have been otherwise occupied during a history lesson at school. It worries me slightly that everyone and his cat is aware of Ferdinand de Lesseps, and yet this is the first time his name has come to my attention.!! In all fairness, I take my hat off to you, Wendy, for this intelligent observation but to Bente and Catlady, it also worries me somewhat at the speed in which you both jumped in to prod at me with pointy sticks.!! Nevertheless, all is forgiven (until Christmas card time that is, when we’ll perhaps have to see how it goes), as the relief of finding the answer washes over me. I can now happily get on with putting together the next update which I hope will interest all of you as the pond build continues.
PS. I didn’t read anything about a ‘dry well’ being used in the building of the Suez Canal, which means that I’m either a genius....or a fool.!! I prefer to think the former.!!
Hello Paul,
congratulations for solving the problem!
Please forgive my "pointy stick", as you call it. We didn't talk about Suez- and Panama-Canal in our history-lessons, so it was only today I found out about Ferdinand de Lesseps. It made me feel quite proud of myself and I needed to show-off a little. Can you forgive me? I promise I'll try to make up until Christmas.
Kind regards, as always! Bente
P.S. I hope Tee Tee is still safely at home!
Give the man a Lager Shandy for I feel he has well earned one following his triumph after such a frustrating 24 hours!! I firmly believe that the reason FdL did not use dry well technique in his big pond was that he did not have PHA as his structural engineer!!! Does that get me back onto XCL??
Edit: Thank you B & CL for keeping stum!
Hi folks….I know….the 3rd update in one week, it’s unprecedented, but I did say that we were falling a wee bit behind so I’m trying to bring all of this up to date. Admittedly, even after this update there is still a bit to go before we get to where the pond build is at this moment in time; many small steps make a long journey as they say.!! Wendy, Bente and Catlady, all is forgiven, where would we be if we couldn’t have a bit of fun along the way? The Christmas card list has been retrieved from the wastepaper basket, un-crumpled, ironed, and put back into the top drawer. I’ve scheduled a brainstorming session with Harry, Ceilidh and Tee Tee to discuss the positioning on the list, but I honestly think that everything should be fine.!! I’ll once again start this update where we left off the last one, with the stones going into the water to line the circumference of the pond. I’ll not bore you with a stone by stone photo stream, so this first picture gives the basic idea of how it all fits together.!! As I said in the last update, all of the stones have been put together without any mortar so as there are lots of ‘nooks ‘n’ crannies’ for the creepy crawlies to get into. It’s maybe not too obvious from this photo, but I’ve also placed a lot of wider stones on the bottom layer of the ‘wall’ to give the wee beasties some shallower areas in which to go about their business.
This next shot shows the steps at the top end of the pond and also shows the wider stones which are shallow below the surface. You’ll maybe have noticed that the water is beginning to get a bit cloudy due to the dust and dirt coming off the stones as they go in. I actually had to go into the water with my shorts on and in my bare feet to position all of the stones but you’ll be happy to know that there were no photographs taken of this.!!
Luckily the weather was nice and warm (although the water was a good deal less so) as you can see from this young Rook on the old chimney stack, trying to cool off a bit.
There have also been a lot of Oystercatchers going about and I've eventually managed to get a shot of one as it went over.
One of the biggest pleasures so far for us as the build has gone on is the fact that the birds absolutely love the pond. They drink and bathe in the pond in great numbers and on a regular basis, for this reason alone, I’m so happy that I’ve put in the effort to build the pond. This shot shows a few Starlings enjoying a good bath.!!
And another, I could watch them all day long.!!
I've scattered a few bags of sand into the pond to give the various beasties somewhere to burrow into if they feel the need. The water is really cloudy in this next photo but please be reassured that it will all settle down and hopefully clear as time goes on. You'll maybe notice the small triangular area on the near shore which I've specifically built into the wall for the birds to have an area where they can drink and bathe without having to get too close to the deeper water, although they do tend to use any and all areas available, regardless of whether there is a steep ‘drop off’ into the water. The built in bird bath is about 2 inches deep when the pond is at its maximum level.
The House Sparrows also love to drink and bathe in the pond…
Whereas Tee Tee still looks upon it with a great deal of suspicion.!!
I’ve been pouring varying amounts of aquatic compost down behind the ‘wall’ as this type of compost has fewer nutrients which can cause excessive green algae in the water. I promised not to get too technical in this update so I’ll only say that this is the correct type of compost to put into the water. The thinking is that if anything feels like making a home here, be it plant life or other, the environment should be well suited for all things aquatic.!!
We'd been to a local garden centre and acquired a few oxygenating plants to start the business of nutrient removal, but the selection of plants was somewhat limited based on the fact that I intend to stock the pond in the main part with native plants, although this may not be entirely practical as you’ll see in a later update. I said I’d try to keep it all from getting too technical but in this case it’s possibly unavoidable so please bear with me because I think that this is important for anyone who’s thinking of building a new pond. As I understand it, when you build a new pond, especially if you initially fill it up with ‘tap water’, the water is filled with far more nutrients than you would find in basic rainwater alone. This seemingly gives the microscopic algae lots of food (which makes the water turn ‘pea soup’ green) and every new pond will initially turn exceedingly green until all of the nutrients have been eaten by the algae. Once the nutrients have been used up, the algae, starved of food, then die off and should theoretically leave you with clear water in the pond. The main purpose in stocking a pond with oxygenating plants is that these types of plants also use up a lot of nutrients so that when the initial algal bloom dies away, the oxygenators keep the nutrients down and help prevent further algal blooms. There are a few other considerations in regards to this but I think you’ll agree that that’s enough ‘tech talk’ for now. This next photo shows the first of the oxygenating plants going into the pond. Please don’t ask me what the plant names are at the moment but if anyone really wants to know I’ll nip off down to the greenhouse where I’ve kept all of the plant labels for future reference.!! The plants are initially only placed into the water and are not in the position where they’ll be left once the pond build is complete.
This next photo shows the pond once all of the basic lining stones are in place. It’s still really cloudy but this will clear somewhat before the algae gets going to mess it all up again.!!
This next photo I've been dying to show you for ages, as (to my eye) the pond is now actually starting to look like a pond, once the excess liner has been trimmed away.
If you were with us on my ‘wall’ thread, you may remember that one of my neighbours was growing Sparrows on a bush. I suspect that one or two of the feathers have blown into my garden, subsequently germinated, and I now have a small tree where the House Sparrows are almost fully grown and ready for takeoff.!!
In the first post of this thread I told you that I had initially planned to have a ‘pebble lined’ sloping beach that ran from the top level of the lawn down into the water. Since then I’ve been doing a bit of reading and I’ve read that it has been known for small ‘Froglets’ to perish at times due to them sticking to the hot pebbles and subsequently drying out and de-hydrating when attempting to leave the water. In view of this, I’ve decide to lay turfs all the way down to the water in the hope that if I do get ‘Froglets, Toadlets or possibly even Newtlets, (I know….these aren’t even real words but I’m sure you know what I mean), they should then have the best possible chance at survival with only a short area of stones to negotiate when leaving the pond via this particular exit route. This next photo shows the turfs that I’ve put down the slope towards the water. As was the case with the ‘dry well’, given time, the turfs will quite happily ‘knit together’ and blend in.
Another view, from further down the garden.
This particular shot is from the top area of the garden, looking down.!!
I still intend to have a ‘pebble beach’ effect, albeit a modified version which has now been placed under the water. This photo shows the beach as it was, running only as far as the shelf where the depth drops off to 2 foot deep. It has since been extended into the deeper water but that particular photo will have to wait until a later update. Anyway, this is the MK I underwater beach.!! (Ignore the colour of the water, like I've said, this will clear, given time).!!
We're now starting to get to the bit where the landscaping begins. I can almost hear you saying "get the turfs back around the edge and be done with it" but this is not how I pictured the pond to be.!! You may remember the fantastic flagstones that were donated to the cause around five or six weeks back? Well, it may seem like sacrilege to some of you, but the decision was made to break most of these up and to line the pond with some of them on the side nearest the path that runs down the garden. This next picture shows the flagstones, unaware of the fate that awaits them.!! (Apart from the one on the top left which was accidentally dropped and ironically triggered the idea to break up the rest of them).!!
This next shot shows the broken flagstone laid out in an attempt to find the ‘best stone for the best place’, all the way down the side of the path. I had initially thought of a ‘castellated’ effect (akin to the irregular stones built along the top of the ramparts of a castle) but this idea was rejected mainly due to the flagstones breaking approximately in the middle.!! The second stone down, (behind the wee yellow brush), was eventually replaced with a flagstone of a similar length and width to the rest of them.
The ground beneath the flagstones was prepared using paving sand to get an approximate level for the stones. I'm not being overly fussy about keeping the flagstones 100% flat.!! The general idea is to make the pond have an ‘aged’ look as if it’s been there for a very long time….Tech Warning…The paving sand is made out of crushed, recycled glass which allows for good water drainage as opposed to ‘normal’ sand which can retain a lot of water. This helps prevent the trapped water from freezing and expanding during the winter months. This can be a cause of paving slabs lifting themselves up from the desired position when it’s really cold and icy in the winter.!! Moving along swiftly….the paving sand, after giving the flagstone a good old ‘shoogle’ to settle it in.!!
A couple of good 'dollops' of a roughly mixed mortar were then flung in to secure the flagstones; this will help to keep them in a secure position when people… (me actually)… are climbing all over them and peering into the depths.!!
The flagstones slowly but surely make their way down the edge of the pond. (Ignore the second one down, as I said, at some point this one will be replaced).!!
What do you think? It's starting to look really pondy.!! Excitement is setting in.!!
I mentioned in an earlier post that we've been letting our house cat, 'Ceilidh', out into the garden of late. Before we moved here, we lived in a house where all of our neighbours had dogs and there was a busy road close to the house, so Ceilidh spent her first five or six years as an 'indoor' cat and as such, she hasn't really got good ‘road sense’, if you know what I mean. We decided to start letting her out into the garden with us, under supervision, and I have to say that other than on a few occasions, she's actually been quite content to stay in the garden where she generally rolls about in the dirt becoming grubby.!! Please don’t let her cute looks deceive you though, even Tee Tee doesn’t mess with Ceilidh; she’s the cutest, cuddliest, and on occasion,without a doubt the most violent cat that I’ve ever come across. This is my wee pal, Ceilidh.(pronounced Kaylie).
Whilst we're away from the pond, is this a Meadow Brown Butterfly? I spotted it on the flowers outside of Mrs A's greenhouse but I'm not 100% sure if this is what it is.!!
We’re getting close to the end of this update now and this next photo shows one of the plants that I’ve put into the pond. I forgot to mention that before I put the pebbles in for the beach, I had emptied a good bag and a half of aquatic compost below where the pebbles were to go, the idea being that I could plant stuff straight into these areas without the need to keep the plants in a basket or pot. This is the very first plant to be ‘planted’ into the pond but once again the name of it eludes me at this moment. If you really must know I’ll find out but the plant is doing really well and is actually spreading out, which I can only take as a sign that it’s happy to be where it is.!!
More flagstones are manoeuvred into place as I work my way around the bottom half of the pond.
Moving slightly off topic for a moment, around four miles away from where I live there are a series of shale ‘bings’ which are known as ‘The Five Sisters’. These are a remnant of the shale oil industry which flourished in this area at the end of the nineteenth, and on into the twentieth century’s. Anyway, a good friend of mine took his six year old son on an ‘expedition’ to the top of the Five Sisters where they planted a flag to commemorate this mighty feat. This next photo was taken from the bottom of the garden and clearly shows the expedition flag, still firmly planted on the top of the Bing, around 4 miles in the distance.
This next shot is a heavily cropped image of the last one, clearly showing that the 'wee man' did indeed scale the heights of the Five Sisters. Nothing to do with the pond I know, but I just thought that I'd share this with you. (My friend also says that a good number of different birds were seen on the expedition so I'm thinking that an expedition of my own may be on the cards at some point, it must be 30 - 35 years since I was last up there.) Incidentally, Mrs A and I were up in Edinburgh castle last year and the Five Sisters can actually be seen from the battlements, around 20 miles in the distance.!!
The Wee Man’s flag.
Moving back to the pond, I think I may have said in the last update that the overflow was as yet incomplete. This next photo shows the final ‘hessian wrapped pebble bundle’ being put into place at the overflow, before the final flagstone cap is put on top to hide it all.
The final shot in this update shows the pond with all of the Flagstones in place. Please ignore the gaps between the Flagstones because believe it or not, I have a plan to sort this out.
OK, just one more, taken from the upstairs window, just to show you how the pond sits within the garden.
I hope that you've managed to stay with me in this update and I offer you my thanks if you have, hopefully it didn't get too technical for anyone. We’re now a good deal closer to the current state of the pond but I’ve still to tell you about the water plants, and there’s also the matter of building a Hibernaculum, this of course will also need to be planted up, so until the next time, I hope you’ve enjoyed this.
Wow Paul - updating this thread must be almost as much work as creating the actual pond itself! I am so impressed with all the detail.
But before I go on to make further comment I must say I've somehow managed to miss all the banter of the last couple of days. That Wendy - taunting you like that! Lol! If it's any consolation I'd no idea what the initials meant either!!
Ceilidh is gorgeous! Does she like to chase birds? I'm sure you've got her under control!! I really do like cats, but am just a bit off them at the moment because I now have four in my garden (none of them my own!) and only a couple of days ago I saw one disappearing into the privet hedge with a baby starling in her mouth. At this point the starling was very much alive and staying very still, and in my mind, I like to hope that at some point the cat may have opened her mouth a little to allow the bird to escape. She likes to have a go for the pheasant too, but I don't fancy her chances much with that one! I do hope you don't think I'm trying to knock cats! I know they are only doing what they have to do!
Anyway, back to your pond - it is simply gorgeous, as it the rest of your garden. You must be so proud of it after all your hard work, and I could even follow all the technical bits this time. It's amazing all the things you have to take into consideration - not just a question of digging a hole and filling it with water then!! It's great to see the starlings and sparrows enjoying it already! Bet we'll see some smashing bird photos in times to come.
I think your butterfly might be a female meadow brown rather than a gatekeeper, but don't take this to be 100%. I can often be wrong! Apparently the eyespot on a gatekeeper usually has two white 'pupils' rather than just one on the meadow brown.
Anyway, keep up the good work - once again it's made fascinating reading. :-)
See my Flickr photos here
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Morning Paul. Well things are moving on now. Thank you for forgiving me about me having a pokey stick! I will give you a laugh now, but you have to promise not to laugh. When I sourced FDL, my guess came up with, Fond Du Lac, which is a Sewer Service in Wisconsin!! Well it is to do with water after all!! Back to the pond, I wish you had given us some photos of you in the pond, in shorts, setting the stones! Ceilidh is lovely. It looks like a pond now, awaiting the finishing touches, plants and the hide for the beasties. So looking forward to the next update. Until then TTFN.