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A New Wildlife Pond (Finished...at last)

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

  • You really are doing an amazing job Paul, with the Pond & Posting. I have probably only done half a job or less in the past. Mine is a B&B & yours is the Ritz Five Star!! It's a pity you couldn't have a multi-coloured liner to match your lovely flowers!! I can't wait for the next update.

  • Hello Paul,

    I'm quite shocked. I'm afraid if I had attempted to make a pond, I would have made so many mistakes that all would have ended in a disaster. Just take your time with posting the updates. I think we'll all be waiting patiently, and it will be a good thing to wait for on gloomy september-evenings ;-). I'm sure your days are full with work right now, so we appreciate the trouble with posting even more.

    I'll be very interested to see what the pond will look like in a year's time, and what visitors you'll attract.

    Kind regards, Bente

  • Thanks folks for your very kind comments, I'm sure that your own pond is much better than any B&B Hazel but I do appreciate your kind compliment. You are correct in saying that my days are filled with work at the moment Bente, although I do enjoy getting stuck into a project like this so it doesn't actually feel like I'm working as such. The weather has been very kind up here for the past month or so which means that plenty has been getting done as you'll all see in the next update. Once again thanks to all of you for your lovely comments and encouragement.

    Paul

  • Hi folks. It’s a bit unusual for me to do an update in the middle of the week but due to a heavy shower of rain a short time ago, the midges are unbearable at the moment so here I am, updating this thread again. The pond is still much further on than even this update shows but at least I can show you what’s been done up to around the last few days in June. We left the last update with the Starlings being unsure of the new bird bath. I’m now happy to report that they’ve gotten over it and are now actually very much enjoying the new bath, which is slightly deeper than the old one.

    We also left the last update with the water starting to fill the pond; this next photo shows the pond which is now filled to almost the maximum level. You’ll notice that there’s a lot of spare liner overlapping but this was unavoidable as I wanted a small part of the pond to go down to around three feet deep which was always going to leave me with extra liner at the shallower areas. (The maximum depth is actually 32 inches due to around 3-4 inches being used up with the sand, liner and carpet in the bottom of the hole).

    I also mentioned in an earlier post that I had a plan for drainage and overflow issues. The next few photos show how I went about digging a 'dry well'. If you don't already know, a dry well is basically an underground space that won't fill up with silt or sediments but allows water to fill the space so as the excess water can then drain away at a slower pace into the surrounding soil. You’ll see from this first photo that I’ve dug a channel that’s sloping down into the ground at the end of the pond. This is the part that I told you about in the last update which is the lowest area on the rim of the pond and will therefore determine the maximum depth of the water as it will always overflow at this area first.

    I then set about digging a hole which is going to be roughly four foot long, one and a half foot wide and approximately two foot deep.

    Quite a few old roots to get through at this area.

    The hole is finally at the depth I wanted. (Did you know that it's impossible to dig half a hole?).

    The next step was to use a piece of (hessian?)…a material that can be bought at garden centres and which allows water to pass through but prevents silt and the likes from getting through it. It also is really tough and doesn’t rot when it's in the ground.

    As you can see from this next photo, the pond liner has been cut so the overflow water is guided to the dry well at an angle of around 30 degrees sloping downward. You may also have noticed that the warm weather has somewhat caused a great deal of evaporation to my Lager Shandy.!!

    The dry well is then lined with the hessian sheet.

    A layer of old bricks were then put in; the lower layer of bricks are spaced as far apart as possible so as to give me the maximum amount of ‘free space’ below the ground when the hole is filled up again. I estimate that the well will hold around three or four gallons of water at the most, but bear in mind that the amount of overflow should really just be the same amount of water that the pond's surface area would have drawn in if it had still been a lawn. I hope this makes sense to you.!! (The warm weather has once again robbed me of some of my Shandy via the evaporation effect).!!

    A layer of large pebbles are then laid on top of another bit of hessian and placed onto the slope of the overflow. The big pebbles will still have plenty of space between them for water to run through, even when they are compressed under the soil.

    The next step is to wrap it all up nice and snug. I freely admit that by this time I may have had just the very smallest sip out of my glass.!!

    There have been one or two birds going about as all this was going on, like this male Chaffinch under the feeders.

    A Wood Pigeon who came a wee bit closer than they usually do...

    One of his distant relatives was also out and about, this rather pretty Collared Dove.

    Back on the construction site, the dry well is back filled with soil and packed down nice and firm.

    The turfs are then replaced and jumped up and down on to ensure that everything is solid. OK, maybe not jumped up and down on as this can cause fatigue and dizziness which in turn could end up with me in the pond.!! They were trodden on 'very firmly' and will easily 'knit together' as time passes.

    This next view shows the overflow as it is seen from the top end of the pond. You can see that it's a wee bit lower than the rest of the edge which means that the water runs out here first. The liner is still a bit loose in the overflow but this will be compressed down with another layer of hessian wrapped pebbles when we get to the 'landscaping' part of the build.

    A few Jackdaws were going about their business on the roof of the house.

    One of which decided to come down for a closer look.

    And a more detailed inspection from the comfort of the washing line.

    It's maybe not too easy to see from this photo, but this is the pond now full to capacity with some water in the overflow. As expected, the water takes some time to trickle down into the dry well but I wanted to try it out to see how it would work before I continued on with the build.

    We're almost at the end of this update now but before I go we had a visit from this young Blue Tit. There's lots of natural areas and feeding around where I live so once they are fledged, you don't usually see too much of them until later in the year.

    And a rather colourful shot of our lovely male Blackbird.

    Just enough time for a few more photos as the next stage of the build got under way. This shot shows some of the spare insulation which I've lined the shelf of the pond with to help protect the liner as I start to put the stones around the shelf. The pebbles are only there to keep it in place as I work my way around the pond.

    The first of the stones are put in place under the water, no mortar, just gravity to keep everything steady.

    I'll finish this update with a panoramic shot over the fields behind the garden.

    It's only taken just over two hours tonight which reminds me why I don't do long posts on a weekday. I'm also not sure how the photos have loaded as most of them don't look as clear as they normally do. The only way I'll know is to hit the 'post' button.!! I hope you've found this to be interesting, until the next time.

    Paul

  • Yup, I knew they hadn't uploaded correctly, if you want to see them clearly I'm afraid you'll have to open each photo up individually.

    Paul

  • Hi Paul, I can see each and every photo very clearly without having to click on any of them so well done on your mammoth effort!  You must have spent an awful lot of hours on your pond by now.  It all gets a bit technical for me, but I have so much enjoyed watching your progress and reading all about it.

    If that is a 'few' jackdaws, I think it would look like Daphne duMauriers "The Birds"! if you got a lot.

    My husband would understand better than me about the lager/shandy evaporating, although in our house it appears to be the malt whisky that evaporates!  Everytime he goes for a "nightcap", he swears blind it has evaporated in the bottle!  And that is with the lid on!

    Looking forward to the next instalment!  

  • Thanks Christine, hopefully the next update won't be as technical as we're beginning to get to the good bits where it all begins to look quite nice, and you're correct in saying that I've spent a lot of hours working on the pond.

    In my house the Malt Whisky used to do a bit of evaporating until around seven months ago when a few old friends visited and a huge amount of the stuff evaporated in a really short period of time. Since that particular occasion there has been no further evaporation occurring and I can assure you that there is no inclination on my part to see any more evaporating at any time in the foreseeable future (shudders).!!

    On the subject of a few Jackdaws, this was the scene at feeding time in the morning around a week ago. Not the best photo but I think that the ones on the roof were maybe just an advanced scouting party.!!

    Paul

  • Good grief - talk about the eagles have landed - well the corvids at any rate!  Bet there's no need for you to ever aerate the lawn!

    All I can say about the 'evaporation' is that it must truly have been a very good evening.  And with the added benefit that you are now saving a small fortune on malt whisky bills!!  

  • Morning Christine. The Corvids do a good job of aerating and also fertilising the lawn, with the added benefit of providing a very entertaining ‘five minutes of madness’ first thing every morning. They only appear in these kinds of numbers in the morning and are much less prolific throughout the rest of the day. On the subject of saving a small fortune on Malt Whisky, there appears to be a primitive barter system in place where over the years I have given out and also received many bottles, for favours asked and favours given. A friend once told me that he had put a small ‘nick’ on the label of a bottle of Whisky he had given to someone and he now claims that several years later he was given the exact same bottle back, from a completely different person.!! Whether or not this is true I don’t know, but I don’t think that it’s beyond possibilities, especially in a smaller localised community such as the area in which I live. The evening that most of the stuff ‘evaporated’ was indeed a very good one although the following day I think is best to be forgotten about.!!

    Paul

  • Hello Paul,

    were you driven away by the midges? What a pity! My own experience with them was (luckily for me) only a brief one (until now), but it gave me an idea what a nuisance they can be.

    Like Christine said: This is getting rather technical. I understand what you are trying to do, but I have no idea if it is going to work, although I'm sure that you've thought of it from all sides. For me it as a number too big. But it looks really good...

    Are you sure that your Lager Shandy has evaporated? Couldn't it be that Harry, Tee Tee or Ceilidh have sneaked up behind you and taken a sip now and then????? Just joking...

    The name of this material "hessian" irritated me somehow, as I live in a part from Germany that is named "Hesse". So I'm hessian myself, and consequently looked it up. I knew all along that Hesse had been an independent German state long ago, and accordingly had its own regiments and soldiers. Your Hessian-material is similar to the cloth of their uniforms, and so it was named like this.

    I had to smile when you wrote about this bottle of whisky that is probably passed around as a present. Have you ever read short stories by Ephraim Kishon, an author from Isreal? They are mostly satires. One of them is about a box of chocolates. Mr Kishon and his wife received it as a gift. They opened it and found green fluffy pieces in it. So they knew the chocolates to be quite old and investigated the matter. They asked around and traced it back. Finally they found out that it was the very same box of chocolates that they had given themselves to an old aunt of theirs years ago.

    I have to stop now. I'll be on nightshift again, so I have to see that I prepare something to eat and then take a little nap.

    Have a nice day!

    Bente