Show me your pond!

Just finishing the installation of ours now. Will show off when complete. In the meantime, we built a raised bed for it, so some of the issues that apply to ground-level ponds won't apply.

I built a small wide life pond during the 2nd week of lock-down (2M x 1M x 0.6M deepest)

Just now getting Dragon Flies visiting and various little things swimming about probably larva of pond flies etc. Still waiting for Pond Skaters,Frogs or Newts to arrive.

I used Amazon to deliver the underlay, pond liner, Oxygenating plants, Lily and Aquatic compost.
For the plants I used plastic flower pots, drilled holes and use a hemp liner with gravel on-top
which seems to have worked.

According to my Daughter its kept me happy and quiet 🙂

Just wish , I have space to build a mk2 bigger version.

Following with interest. I've always wanted a water lily or two, and some wildlife. Also some running water noise to drown out the occasional speeding hooligan. We've a garden split onto two levels with a terracy bit and a gardeny bit. Thinking of a raised, square pond on each level linked with small waterfall. Kids can send their lego off the top to the bottom too. Given the landscaping involved, probably going to save this job until the borders/raised bed die back, but all tips and inspiration in the meantime most welcome!

My wife built ours a few years back and it's very nice. Of a similar size to above, about 3m by 2m. The wildlife loves it, but alas no frogs here : (

It would be nice to have it a little bigger. My wife who knows more about all this, was saying recently that she'd like a small fountain in it, to help with oxygenation.

The only issue she's had is that the birds and perhaps cats that use it to drink from have put holes in the liner, which means it doesn't fill as high as it did. Something like stones perhaps might have prevented this - others may have ideas on this.

I used cobbles to protect the liner above and slightly below the waterline. We have two Cats and they use it as their go to drink station. I did stick some of the cobbles down using some waterproof guttering adhesive to make it more secure and it seems to have work so far...

Lol @ Perchy! I was asking my boss where he goes cycling with his son locally last week, he said the name of some wee nature reserve, I googled it and yes, it was the Perchy! 🙂

Or, to give me my proper name, Greenhead Moss Community Nature Reserve.

That's the one. He lives in Newmains, or Newhouse, I always get mixed up.

Newmains.

No one lives in Newhouse. Not even Peggy White.

You're far from an idiot, ponds are great, well wildlife ones are anyway.

picked up a modest pond that someone was going to skip. After a few years it's rammed with frogs and newts. Got a log pile as well so they have somewhere to hide when the tadpoles develop.

Can’t do pics, when I bought my house 13 years ago It came with a wooden raised pond and some fish.
About 4 years ago the wood started to rot so I replaced it with a brick build, 5 courses high and 1 metre dug down, 4 metres long and two metres wide.

I never wanted to keep fish but most of them are still alive now and eat for England. Sometimes we get offspring too.

We put in a very small pond 12 years ago. Then during summer I saw a dragon fly, so that spurred us to take out the little pond and enlarge it.

The impact for wildlife has been amazing. We have the usual frogs but with 4 times as much spawn. Water boatmen (with tiny offspring). Pond skaters, little beetle things, some tiny larvae.
The plants I bought are all from a proper place where they know their stuff and they're native.

It's attracted more birds and insects into the garden.

Luckily because we knew we were going to rebuild, we made sure to collect 3 water butts full of rain water ready to fill it.

Sometimes during the lock down I've made little film clips for neighbour's and our families children, it's mesmerising to watch things grow and develop. Bring on the first dragonflies.

Materials ordered! Thanks all for the kick up the bum. Build to follow...

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Can't help with Pond design, other to encourage more ponds, they are great fun!!! BUt on a serious note, I can heartily recommend the following podcasts, very informative and aside from incidental music choices all very good indeed!

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/pond-playlist-jules-howard-SjnByPsTWf0/

If that link doesn't work then search for Jules Howard and Pond podcast.

All sort of options for how to listen etc there, but it's amazing what turns up in a bit of water.

Built ours last year. It's great. Fish (which are breeding fast, don't overstock), frogs, dragonflies, newts. Note you will get predators. We get heron and a kingfisher. Otters at our neighbours. My attitude so far is let them be. Not had the pond cleared out yet.

Gardener helped with mine. He recommended concrete, underlay then a liner which we did. Seems good so far.

Have you got electrics close? Got biofilters with UV in mine. Like all hobbies, it can get expensive but up to you how far you go with it 🙂

I've had sparky around today and he's given me a list of jobs to get power to the shed and pond so I can have a waterfall thingy, but I didn't fancy fish as my understanding was they're a bit needy and eat the eggs of the more 'wildlife' animal's babies; tadpoles and the like.

That said, pond plan has now grown to 3m x 2m.

Yours looks good though!

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I built a small pond - barely more than 1mx1m.  It’s deep enough in the middle to not freeze in winter though. I should have made the underwater steps/terraces for putting plant on much wider - by the time I’d put the liner down the bits I’d dug weren’t really big enough. If you can get a bucket of sludge or plants from and established pond it will really help your new pond establish. And when it goes green and slimy (it will!) use a small bale of barley straw. I’d recommend avoiding having fish unless you’re going to go big on filtration and electrical gubbins. The balance of the water in a small pond is much easier to get right for wildlife without fish.

but I didn’t fancy fish as my understanding was they’re a bit needy and eat the eggs of the more ‘wildlife’ animals.

Yeah much simpler without them, more natural. As soon as people get wind of you digging a pond you tend to find everyone offering you fish, cos most ponds are overstocked.

Lots of waste to deal with, so I've got two biggish filters. You end up playing scientist checking the water...

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Almost the teenage ninja turtles but not quite...

Those of you with waterfalls, or filters for ponds with lots of fish...have you worked out how much it costs to run? I have some relatives with a large fish pond and its got a big pump and filter set up running 24/7 which must be a significant cost.

For your average small waterfall running daytime only, is it feasible to run from solar power alone?

Our little one is crammed with tadpoles but starting to dry up? Since apparently you can't use tap water for a top-up, how do you go about filling it up?

In the absence of pond/ aquarium conditioner from a shop, fill buckets etc with tap water and let stand for 24h then add a small amount of water from the pond leave for another 12 h and introduce.

Monty Don's now telling me not to stick a water feature in; the pump for a pissing cherub will liquidise tadpoles and turn frogs inside out apparently, so now researching ways of protecting pump and not creating a watery graveyard (combinations of buckets, shingle & stockings seem to be the way to go).

"Just dig a hole in the ground" I thought at the start of this bloody idea.

combinations of buckets, shingle & stockings seem to be the way to go

That's just a normal Saturday night out in Leeds

😜

a pissing cherub will liquidise tadpoles and turn frogs inside out

Thanks for that vision...

Sorry.

Think I've had enough internet today: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Natures-Call-Puppy-Pond-Spitter-Garden-Water-Feature-Ideal-Gift-Idea/273759212552

Those of you with waterfalls, or filters for ponds with lots of fish…have you worked out how much it costs to run? I have some relatives with a large fish pond and its got a big pump and filter set up running 24/7 which must be a significant cost.

Yes. Not insignificant. Two 58W pumps/13W UV lamps in mine, so it's a couple of old-school light bulbs left on all the time. Couple of hundred quid a year?

Also, one thing I thought of after I dug mine (and from experience during a wet winter) was an overflow to a soakaway somewhere? Otherwise, you regularly have to bail it out to stop it overflowing. Depends on the pond design, but mine has no wall around it.

We inherited a pond with the house. Split level job with a waterfall.

I've done very little to it but clean out a bit of dead plant life once a year and replace the pumps and UV filter. I had no idea about the frog liquidiser thing but we have the waterfall on only when sitting out in the garden. Very soothing.

We have fish, frogs, newts and loads of water snails. Heron occasionally visits but so much plant life that the fish just go to ground and you think they must have been eaten then 2 or 3 days later they pop back to the surface again!

Ours is chest deep in the middle which helps keep the water at a constant temp. We top ours up from the tap after a lot of evaporation and it has made no difference to the pond life.

On behalf of Mrs Daz (I had nothing to do with this)....

It started as a veg patch that didn't grow anything due to being in the shade...

Took a few days to dig...

And a few hours to fill..

And then some gardening...

And done..

And all this because she has an amphibian obsession..

^ nice job, starting to feel a bit inadequate about my washing up bowl accidental pond.

Nick - any pond no matter how small (our first one was a double butler sink) is good. It attracted water snails, frogs and I even grew a mini water lily in it.

About the question for topping up the water. If possible get somewhere to store the rainwater from your roof. We have 3 water butts and I use them to water veg, plants and topping up the pond. Anything from an old bucket or tank will do.

The funny thing is that we put the washing bowl there to catch rain water running off the greenhouse roof, a bit of wood fell in and the frogs moved in soon after. It's like a little place for them to hang out, stay moist, loads of frog spawn in next door's pond and we figure they roam around between gardens, hopefully eating all the slugs.

Cheers BSims (belatedly).

Small is easier to manage. We have to put a net over ours to stop the ducks and the local heron eating all the newts.

Some lovely ponds here - really inspiring. So materials have started arriving with faux sleepers landing within 24hrs.

We are turning this raised bed into a pond, it's been on the list for a while, but this thread, and wanting to achieve something in lockdown was the nudge I needed:

The wind finished the tulips off and first job was the mammoth task of moving c100 barrows of soil and the bed to the bottom corner of the garden (nothing like the amazing pond/earthworks above though!). The bed is now in a shaded woody bit so thinking that it might become a fernery and tulips relocated to the borders.

Next up 6 inches of stone to level sleepers. There used to be a patio here, and before that a stone shed, so the base is solid even if the labour is unruly and unrealiable.

We're planning on building a second pond for this one to have a waterfall into, so need to knock a hole in the wall. We're hoping for an 'infinity pond' type thing to draw the eye down into the garden and a waterfall to make a bit of noise to drown out speeding chavs. "Easy" I thought. Nope - there's more concrete than stone. and removing 4 courses took all afternoon. There's still one stubborn lump of concrete which is going to take more than a lump hammer.

Mocked up, and started fixing the corners yesterday:

In due course will fill bolt holes with 30mm section and sand flush. Also thinking this might be quite a nice way of fixing the sleepers vertically, but it could also be a bit of an ordeal drilling massive holes and want to be able to remove the top tier should we ever have to replace liner.

Just in from lunch, mocking up the 'spillway' I need to find a 1200mm length of 50mm timber to raise the top sleeper enough to allow up to 50mm for liner, the stone for the spillway (thinking slate as it will have a nice sharp edge to create a smooth flow into the lower pond) and adhesive and mortar.

Looking at pumps and based on 100 gallons per hour for a 50" wide waterfall, we're going to need a 5000GPH pump. hmmm. Wondering if the 'infinity' pond may work better with a smaller pump and trickle down the wall type effect.

liner on order, we're taking the depth down to 600mm at one end incase we go opt for fish in the future. Looking for some old carpet to line the sides and base before the liner goes down, and obvs will remove all rubble and pointy things.

What have I missed?!! I am dreading making mistakes early on and having to undo the whole lot.

ah photos aren't working. Here's a link to the iCloud album - seems to be in chronological order. Pond build

Looks great, as do all the gardens on here, and all giving me ideas - but can you all not be quite so successful though please with your massive and beautiful ponds & gardens? Nick's accidental frog hotel makes me feel better about my plans, although I suspect that washing bowl is probably located in a fabulous garden the size of the Derbyshire.

I picked up some rocks today for a bottle of plonk that I'm very pleased with (I was going to the supermarket, officer) but am basically still endlessly researching & planning. It all starts in two weeks either way...

Looking forward to seeing the progress @bearnecessities! I am becoming far too engrossed in this...

please remember if you stick any rocks into the pond (larvae and pond dwellers like some shelter), don't rip the liner. I'm guessing your rocks are for around the edge Rick.

Thanks Bunnyhop but rocks are for the edges between plants:)

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Garden currently:

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Then grass over (I'm a master of photoshop, as well as a skilled landscape gardener)

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And current favourite location of pond is here...bit quirky and will be smaller than mapped out.

I'll probably change my mind by tomorrow anyhow.

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These are 2 different angles of our pond. Bug hotel in the background.

It's about 7 months old and really making a difference to the wild life, bird life and insect life.

@Bunnyhop - do you have any designs for a bug hotel?

All the ones I've seen in garden centres are quite flimsy. We live in an exposed location with an almost ever-present westerly

💨💨💨💨

Elshalimo - we too live in an exposed garden, thus the big slab on the top.

I suggest using bricks (sideways on) where the holes themselves provide housing for bugs. Then fill the brick structure in with anything that is natural and will give a bee, insect or bug a home. Moss, fir cones, bits of old bamboo, twigs, dried seed heads all good.

Ours is a sturdy wooden casing and I just filled it. Good fun for children to make.

Important where it's positioned. Ours is North westerly facing and out of the sun, you don't want to cook or fry the new residents ;0)

Bit of pond pottering today. Managed to drill/smash up the big lump of concrete and get a level for the spillway, mocked up with a 5.5mm sheet of ply we had lying around. Have ordered a sheet of 18mm ply and the right size bit of timber to go between it and the bottom sleeper. This will bring the level up to 25mm under the overhang/lining with leaving room for tiles. Hopefully that's the fiddly measuring done. Started shifting the soil/rocks to create a deep(er) end, and, having built this primarily to grow some waterlilies, have learned they prefer still water... hmmm. going to have to think carefully about where the inflow goes - hoping that half way down will give us enough still water for the roots at the end furthest from the waterfall.

Photos...

Looking good!

Here it's skip Monday, hired help arriving Tuesday to break up garage base and noticed on (sorry) Facebook that someone a few hundred yards away was giving away free soil, so I've been bagging up all afternoon to backfill the garage base for the lawn. Chucked him a few beers as this is saving me a fortune. Back tomorrow for twice as much again, as my arms and back were giving up. (it was full after this photo)

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Still haven't decided on pond location / size, and have been tracking the sun in intricate detail throughout the day to get best position. Frog houses, wildflowers and sheltering shrubs are on the cards though, although the design gets quirkier by the day.

Thanks @Bunnyhop

Crikey, here's a pond project... Note to self... don't get too attached to the pond. Which is fine at the moment as the liner still hasn't landed.

so we started ours about 4 weeks ago

lined it

got some rock on a roll stuff for the edges & a few rocks

a few plants from my brother-in-laws pond

but we have ordered some more

and a 15 quid solar mini fountain, that I need to set up properly, it only works in direct sunlight, so gonna fix the panel to the fence i think

we have a problem with the sycamores dumping helicopters in

lots of mosquito nymphs so far & a lot of birds coming down to eat them!

Put some water in today. And some liner. And a rug I found in the loft to prevent a puncture (shh!).

We took the depth down to 600mm in the end to give us the option of some fish, pleased we did for the limited additional effort.

All the levels have worked out ok (phew). Need to pick up 2 600x600 tiles for the spillway, then it's onto the bottom pond (arf) and pump and wotnot.

Photos!

I've successfully wrecked my garden.

Ironically, whilst watering a raised planter earlier, a frog jumped out from underneath it and had a good sit about and slowly hopped across the patio, took a look at me and then hopped across another patio and disappeared under the shed. Why I'm spending a fortune trying to create a haven for wildlife is beyond me; I clearly just need to lay another patio.

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I’ve successfully wrecked my garden.

Don't worry, always looks worse initially!

@willjones intrigued by yours. Will the waterfall be freefall or a cascade over rocks into the pool below?

@bearnecessities YOUR LAWN!!

Nearly there with part 1... painted, tiled and sealed the waterfall bit, the little verticals at each side have been a pain, and still need to trim the left hand one as it's a smidge too high:

Had a trial run, just overfilling the thing with hose to see what would happen...

And as I thought would happen (but was quietly hoping wouldn't), we've a couple of leaks - both seem to be from under the tiles, in the corners which were hiding under folds in the liner. Bit more fiddling then I can fix the copings, put some gravel or similar down and move onto water plants and the pond at the bottom.

@Jamze - hoping for a free flow waterfall into a second much simpler pond at the bottom. Will probably sort that in the winter when the hydrangea is smaller, and live with the Covid infinity pond as is (minus leaks) for a bit. This will also give chance for plants to establish before we start pumping water around.

Love "covid infinity pond" 🙂

Those of you with ponds that attract frogs & pond-life, do any of them only get a 4 or 5 hours of sun a day? Internet tells me needs full sun with a shaded area, but where I really want to position will be partially shaded, but 60% of it will only get 5 hours sun a day at the most.

I’m glad this thread is still going, since between when it began and now, we have managed to finish our pond (relatively speaking):

@Bearneccessities My bond barely gets any sun at all. None in the winter, maybe an hour or two first thing in the morning, and that's about it. Frogs don't seem to mind, they all gather there on a hot day. I built it where I did because it was too shady to grow any interesting plants!

@stwhannah Yay, good to know thank you. Post up a picture 🙂

(Do you ever get any frogspawn in there, or just basking layabout adults?)

Our pond is in full sun for about 6 hrs. I was amazed in this warm spring we've had, how warm the water got. We've also had some ice during the warm spell. None of this seems to affect the wild creatures.
Annoyingly the tadpoles are eating my oxygenating underwater plants, but it's the price you pay.
It's also not properly rained for over weeks, so the water level has been it's lowest since the build. Hoping for some rain tonight to top it up and the water butts.

Tomorrow I will learn how to add a photo of my pond it has newts and dragoginflys and wild things.
I've 500w of solar running the pump and battery for it. On a good day at least. It needs about 50w so it's designed around cloudy days. Nothing beats watching nature move in. Enjoy the project.

Water level is low hence looks a bit like a builder's tip round the edge - but at least the hedgehogs can climb out. Built three years ago, no fish but lots of self-started wildlife. Loads of toad tadpoles this year but as commented above they're chomping through the oxygenators.

Watered the ground for an hour yesterday and after 15 minutes of rotavating just now, it's still rock solid and basically just a machinery-bouncing, noisy, dust cloud of pain. I can't stop my arms shaking and I'm absolutely spent.

Oh, and it's £150 for a 5x4m piece of chuffing liner apparently.

****ing **** nature!

Edit: Nice pond Hamish 🙂

We spent the weekend digging a small pond (2 x 3 m x 60 cm deep at its deepest).
After an afternoon of taking off the turf, I had to crack open the SDS Drill with the chisel attachment to break up the stony/clay/rubble debris.

Still very much a work in progress, but the first damsel fly was spotted today.

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oldtennisshoes - very nice indeed.
I wouldn't call 2m x 3m small.

Here is one angle. I've some of old photos somewhere of its construction and wild life.

Edit that didn't work. Back to school...

jef_uk could you post details of your solar set up please?

It's all kind of getting level now for new lawn in the dust-fest, pond starting to get dug out, and I have a foreman overseeing proceedings.

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(A mere £20 from a good friend's new venture if you're interested https://www.homesatheart.co.uk/ )

Our newt making a rare appearance a couple of days ago

We made a wildlife puddle pond last weekend

View this post on Instagram

Visible progress! Pretty much prepared for seeding now, although that's going to be the very last job.

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No sign of a pond yet though and it's too hot to dig, so I'm *cough* planning it.

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Hi Newt! Love their hands. It's been really helpful/motivating seeing the progress and established ponds/pools/lakes/puddles on here. Cheers all.

We've fixed the leaks (only needed one pass with the sealant thankfully), bolted down the coping and added a lily and some mare's tail to ours since last post. Looks diminutive at the moment, but I know these will spread. I've just been reading about Iris and looks as though we can plant this in the margins/shallow end which will be good as we've a glut in other parts of the garden that could be separated. The only wildlife we've seen so far are giants pigeons having their morning bath, and a bunch of flies.

Next job for a quieter period is tidying up the stone work, then it's on to the lower pond. I'd really like to keep the hydrangea, but it's going to be a bit tight.

Did anyone watch the macro filming of pond life on Spring watch last night?

It was great watching how (in close up) you can see how the tadpoles develope (they have several lips).
The water contained many creatures that I had no idea were there. Fascinating stuff.

A wildlife photographer friend came round recently to have a go at our pond. Who would have thought pictures of a snail could look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Well this is taking an incredible amount of time.

Part of the lawn has been seeded today at least. 12th house-skip arrives tomorrow for the rest of work and pond partially dug.

This in't really an update, but just to say it's not forgotten.

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It's a Zen garden!

Slowly, very slowly, it's coming together.

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Looking good though. Better weather next week too 👍🏻

Pleased our toads are back. The dog made the mistake of picking one up the other day, spent the evening with an irritated mouth. They secrete toxin, don't they?