Wildlife water features

Responding to my blog about Snail-proof Gardening, Sunflower asked, "Any advice on a water feature would be good.  I can't dig holes or feed in electricity!"

Well, last autumn I set myself exactly that challenge - to see for myself the pitfalls (and joys) of having a wildlife water feature suitable for exactly the scenario Sunflower describes.

Long-term readers of the blog may remember that I bought myself one of those old white porcelain sinks that your grandmother used to have, and showed you it just after I had put it in. Check it out here.

So how has it done? Well, it came through the winter well, despite the harsh weather. I made no attempt to keep it clear of ice because I wanted to see how it would cope. And here it is now (left) - the pond snails survived; the Gammarus (freshwater shrimps) are thriving; and the Hornwort, Rough Horsetail and Water Mint are doing fine.

The latest challenge was how well it would withstand drought. We had almost no rain throughout April and May, and the water levels dropped and dropped until I was forced to top it up. I took the water from my pond, but of course you could take it from a water butt, or, as last resort, from the tap (best left standing in a bucket for a couple of days before being added).

Interestingly, with damselflies darting all over the pond only two metres away, none have bothered to go and investigate the sink; they presumably know it is too small. But watching the other smaller pond life in there, especially as it is raised up, is still great fun. The Gammarus in particular are far easier to see against the white sides than in the pond, shooting around on their sides.

So the options I'd suggest to Sunflower and anyone else in the same position are:

•  small: try a sink or trough pond, but don't go smaller than that. You could make a pond from a half barrel, but you will need to do the fiddly thing of lining it with a rubber liner or else chemicals in the wood can leach into the water
• medium: buy a preformed pond liner and build a raised area out of bricks or timber sleepers to house it, bedding it in onto a bed of sand. Don't be too ambitious with size - the weight of the filled pond will be difficult to support adequately
• large (well, fairly large!): build a raised pond, again making the surround out of bricks or timber, but line it with butyl rubber liner. You need to be good at DIY to do this, and the construction must be sturdy - the water will apply massive pressure to the side.

And whatever size you go for, if your water feature has steep sides, always ensure anything that falls in can get out.

Good luck! Let us know your successes and challenges if you've tried any of these. Oh, and don't forget to do your Make Your Nature Count before the 13th!