Last week I revealed the results of the first five months of slog last summer and autumn digging my new garden pond. Inspired by the amazing ponds I had seen in the gardens of Sue Camm and Ennis & Richard Chappell (as featured in Nature's Home), I had pledged to be as ambitious as I felt possible.
But could I create a pond that would buzz with wildlife?
By November 2015, the shape was created, with loads of gently shelving shallows and a deeper area. Steps 1-8 were complete. Now to push for the finishing line.
9. December. Down with a layer of pond underlay fleece to protect the liner from puncturing from below.
10. Then the liner itself, which weighed over 300kg but we found could be rolled out on plastic pipes like the Egyptians did when building the pyramids, then tugged into the shape.
11. Then another layer of underlay went down, but this time as protective overlay, which was then covered with gravel (recycled from the swimming pool foundations) to stop Heron beaks and Fox claws going through the liner.
12. On top of the overlay I built an island out of bricks, mortared like a chimney (I'd then fill it with gravel), and I 'painted' the steeper slopes of overlay with clay slop so it didn't glare through the water.
13. Time to let the pond fill! It's mid December 2015 and - at last - it is turning into a pond.
14. Jump forward two and a half months and here it is, the 'finished' pond last weekend.
15. And a reminder of start to finish. Two people. No heavy machinery. Same photo position.
Before:
After:
Was it worth it? The liner and underlay/overlay cost £1700, so it didn't come cheap. But then it is 16 metres long and 8 metres wide.
To have had a Grey Wagtail visit on the very first day having never come into the garden before, and the Sparrowhawk that comes to bath every couple of days, and the huge clumps of frogspawn - well, it has already given such huge pleasure, and such a home for wildlife. What will its first spring and summer bring? I can't wait!
Good question, Sue S! You know what? I'll do a blog post about that next Friday. Thanks for the prompt,
Brilliant what plants would you put in it please ?
Absolutely stunning! Thank you for sharing it with us, it's going to be an interesting journey!
Definitely worth all the work and expense, it looks so natural even without any planting. Please keep us up to date with its progress.
My first inhabitant was a newt, it arrived when the liner was only loosely in place and had barely two inches of water in the bottom.