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We have sadly just filled in our medium sized pond that had become a clogged, overgrown mess and decided to begin again. Before doing this, we added a much smaller preformed one in the spring, so any uprooted wildlife still had a home albeit downsized. I'm glad to see that frogs are happily hopping around the lily pads and today I spotted a baby newt.
Before sorting a bigger pond, we would like to be properly organised this time and get depths, planting and levels just right this time. Has anyone any suggestions for planting? We're going to try to use native plants only.
I read in this helpful guide http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/Resources/Pond%20Conservation/Documents/Creating%20Garden%20Ponds%20for%20Wildlife.pdf . In here it says that you should use underlay, liner, more underlay and then add play sand or washed gravel. Has anyone found this a good method to get ponds established?
Here's a couple of pictures of 2 half grown (yearlings?) that we spotted yesterday. There is an adult female too I think, but she's very quick to bob below the water when we try to get a shot of her.
Lovely to see your wildlife pond with two yearlings, really good they are doing well in your new pond. I would love to have a bigger pond to attract more frogs and toads but I am a bit limited for space, but hopefully I might be able to provide a deeper pond, I have a wildlife pond and we make sure we keep the ice at bay we have a pond heater we switch on when it gets really icy weather in winter, so they can stay in the pond if they want too. I know lots of frogs hibinate in the garden, so always have plenty of places they can hopefully overwinter in my garden!!
Hi Primrose, thanks for your post! Over the years i've created a couple of ponds for the family, including preformed and using a liner. Whilst the preformed offers an easy set up, the liner offers greater flexibility and you can get creative! To prepare for the liner I excavated the hole, removed sharp stones, added some sand to shape and protect and then used some old carpet to give an extra layer of protection. I must say it does look pretty odd at this stage and any nosey neighbour might have a bit of a surprise!
When you are planning the pond try to make sure you have at least part of the centre of the pond to a depth of 2 to 3 feet, this should ensure that any amphibians that are going to hibernate in the pond have enough water to do so without freezing. Around the edges try to make sure that they are gently sloping in many places allowing amphibians to gain easy access as well as for bathing birds. For the amphibians breeding they like nothing better than an area of shallow open water, it also makes watching them easy!
As for native plants, have a look at the list we provide on our website here which also contains plants to avoid.
Let us know how you get on!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Hi all, my garden pond is now almost totally full of reeds, sedges etc leaving very little water. I want to clear it out completely & start again. Is there a best time of year to do this? This years froglets seem to have all gone in the last couple of weeks. There are no fish in the pond. I get fairly regular visits from grass snakes.
I'm in rural Somerset so in theory at least a relatively mild climate if that makes a difference!
Thanks
Hi Geoff, the late summer and autumn months are probably the best time to do any cutting back in ponds. The pond dwelling critters are still active but able to move about should they wish to and it's too early for them to be settling down for the winter so you don't need to worry about disturbing them that much, just watch where you tread!
I'd start by taking out all of the dead vegetation, if you are still left with an overgrown jungle of a pond, you can get away with cutting pond plants like reeds and sedge right down to the base, they usually bounce straight back. Try to leave some marginal vegetation so that the frogs that are coming and going have somewhere to hide.
Good luck and let us know how you get on!