Alex, our residential volunteer's Wildlife gardening Blog #2
WATER
Water is the most valuable resource on the planet. There really isn’t much that can survive without it. If it wasn’t for water, we wouldn’t have what we have, we wouldn’t be here at all. Which is why habitats such as wetland, marshland and fenland are so important for our wildlife. These habitats lend a home to a whole bunch of well-known species such as Beaver, Otter, Water Vole, Oystercatcher, Kingfishers, and Mallard but also a plethora of not so well-known creatures too, like the Natterjack Toad, Bittern, Golden Plover, and the Swallowtail Butterfly. Wetlands cover around 12% of the UK’s total land and they are one of, if not the most biodiverse habitats in the UK.
I'm Alex, the Old Moor residential volunteer, and this is the second in my series of blogs about designing and creating a wet wildlife habitat in your own garden. No matter the size of the water body, it will become a home to dozens, or even hundreds of species. You can easily create a wildlife pond at home. It doesn’t have to be huge, even an old washing up bowl with some rocks and a few plants in it will suffice. There’s no doubt that you will get something take up residence, which is what I’ll be going over in this blog.
There are many ways to make a pond, some people prefer raised, some prefer dug in, different shapes, depths, preference of plants, etc. The choice is up to you. The main thing in a wildlife pond is to make sure that you create a ramp or a ‘beach’. This enables animals such as Hedgehogs and amphibians to freely enter and leave the pond. A beach in a pond is the perfect place also to plant bog plants such as Yellow Flag Iris and Marsh Marigold (which can be interchangeable with Marginal Plants). These plants are great for all kinds of pollinators and pond insects such as dragonfly nymph (baby dragonflies) and Great Diving Beetles. Amphibians such as Common Frogs will use the stems as a raft for their spawn while the foliage also gives them a good place to hide from predators.
It's also important to include multi-layered shelves in your pond. These shelves or steps are perfect for plants that prefer various depths, such as previously mentioned Yellow Flag Iris. Being both a marginal plant and a bog plant, they can be planted anywhere from the middle of the beach (as long as the bulbs are covered by 2 to 4cm of water) to around 15cm deep in the pond. Marsh Marigold, Water Mint, Cowslip, Devils Bit Scabious and Brooklime are just a few more plants that you could put in the margins of your pond which will benefit a huge number of insects and pollinators such as Bumblebees and Red Admiral Butterflies.
Ponds are separated into various sections. It starts off with the surface. On this level you’ll get floating plants such as Duckweed that will float on the top of the pond, dangling their roots down, and insects like Water Striders, which are really fun to watch as they skim over the surface of the water.
Next you have the bog level. This is, naturally, found on the edges on the pond or water body that are wetter than surrounding areas, or are in areas where the ground just meets the water. Here you’ll find plants such as Lesser Pond Sedge, Water Mint, and Ragged Robin. Bogs are home to plenty of insects and nymphs/larvae such as Damselflies, Mosquito Larvae and Large Heath Butterflies. As previously mentioned, a bog could be integrated into a beach on a garden pond.
The next level down is the margins. This is the important part of the pond, which I have already gone over slightly, but I’ll go into a little more detail. These Marginal plants are great for pollinators but also provide cover and food for insects and tadpoles. As well as this they provide a good rafting platform for frog, newt and toad spawn. Like I said earlier, there are a wide range of native aquatic plants that you can buy at garden centres or online.
The next step down is where the cool stuff happens. This is the deep water zone, and it's here where you’ll find oxygenating plants such as Hornwort and Water Violet (which is primarily found naturally in Southern England but will do fine in a more northern setting). These plants provide food for Ramshorn Snails and plant-eating invertebrates. Deep water plants also include lilies which grow from the bottom of the pond up to the surface, providing shade which denies any excess algae growth.
John, our QA and Maintenance Volunteers has been hard at work digging his pond with some fantastic results already!!
I hope this blog has given you a few things to think about in the design of your wildlife pond and I will be very interested in seeing your ponds in the comments below.
Next time we'll talk about more fun stuff like water quality, soil types and wildflower meadows/hedgerows. See you then.