Making a new wildlife pond

[Jungle Jane]

It worries me if a hedgehog falls in,I piled some large stones up at the side of my little water feature next to this plant in the photo. Frogs need something too they can’t jump out of water & would be stuck in there unable to climb out. We had a newt & toads over the years,that’s a plastic duck incase it looks real in the photo that pot does pour water out of it I just never plug it in,it makes a little humming sort of noise,I can’t remember but if there’s moving water you can put some of the barley straw in some old pair of tights to sink in the water,to help against pond weed,our cat likes drinking out of it even though there’s two cat bowls of fresh water daily on the patio,I find that really strange he must like the taste of plant -

[burnie]

The wildlife pond is maturing nicely

[peanut]

That's looking fantastic Burnie!

[burnie]

Thanks, I planted the ragged robin and forget me nots along with water mint and the plants in pots under water, quite a few other plants seem to be finding their way in and we have water boatmen, diving beetles, pond skaters and damsel fly larvae living in there too. We had a frog visit , but that has gone, hopefully we might get some tadpoles next year, need to keep the slug numbers down lol.

[burnie]

Autumn update, I am moving one or two plants into the deeper water for the winter, the Yellow flag Iris might be going into the bog garden next year, so I will remove it from it's pot in the Spring. I'm removing some of the fallen leaves, but not all, they will create habitat for the wildlife.

[burnie]

Pond update...........................................we have a Smooth Newt, not sure if it's on it's own as it's started raining so we came inside and stopped watching.

[Containergardener]

Pond update...........................................we have a Smooth Newt, not sure if it's on it's own as it's started raining so we came inside and stopped watching.

We have had them every yr now since they appeared. Babies too

[Plot70]

Last August I thought for a few moments we had an oil slick.
On closer examination it was living and was made up of thousands of little insects.
It did not last long as inch long water beetles arrived and ate the lot.

[burnie]

Just been to Dobbies in Monifeith, first visit to a garden centre for over a year, bought a Marsh Marigold that is now planted in the bog garden by the pond, plants are mostly showing signs of growing, but not all, the surprise is the Lotus that we grew from seeds, looks like 3 have survived the winter.

[Containergardener]

I only have a small pond. What pond plants can anyone recommend for it? Id like something to help clean the pond too. I do have newts but would like to attract other things, maybe dragonflies as we do get them around here.

[ameno]

I'm surprised by how quickly certain insects, etc. move in, even into something which isn't really a pond.
I have a bathtub half filled with soil and then filled up with water, in which I am attempting to grow lotuses. It's only been there for a couple months and it's swarming with water fleas, along with a fair number of water beetles (which are presumably eating the water fleas).

[burnie]

Small ponds can get swamped with certain plants, some are a bit thuggish, I have Hornwort for an oxygenator, a water lily, water hyacinth, a yellow flag Iris,
a bog bean and some reeds, I have gone for native plants rather than imports, bought on line not in pots saved quite a lot of money.

[Containergardener]

I've just been looking at some. I see what you mean . Some can take over. Definitely native better. I have yellow flag in the garden already , appeared from somewhere. Trying to take over.
I've looked at Water forget me not and Water violet as oxygenator.

[burnie]

I have forget me not in the bog garden at the side along with Ragged Robin and Marsh Marigold.

[burnie]

We have copulating Newts!, definite signs of hanky panky going on, I would have thought it was a bit late, will keep an eye out for tadpoles over the next few weeks, looks like there's 3 females and a male, fascinating watching the miniature wildlife.