Pond

[annie8]

I created a small pond towards the end of the summer last year. Didn’t get a lot of wildlife apart from some larvae. Wasn’t sure what I should be doing and when to prepare it for this year. At the moment the watercress I added to the water is still there although I did clear some of it away at the end of the year. Any advice?

[Purple Primrose]

If you know of a local pond that is doing well, see if you can get a bucket of mud from it. It'll contain the eggs and larvae of all sorts of creatures and that'll give your new pond a good kickstart for its ecosystem. Avoid having too much plant growth on the surface so if you've got any floating duckweed, clear away as much as you can. Pondlife doesn't like chlorinated tap water so collect rainwater to use if it needs refilling. Marginal plants for the pond edges will be available from your local garden centre. These'll help the wildlife establish. If you do get any amphibians, don't put in goldfish as they eat their eggs. A gently sloping edge to the pond will help the amphibians climb in and out when they need to.

[burnie]

I have some lily pads to give shade in the pond, you can end up with green water if sunlight is on the water all day, you get an algae bloom, I have also added oxygenator plants, this adds structure for the wildlife that lives in there. With no fish, you should get all sorts of wildlife, depending on where you are in the country.

[annie8]

Thanks will clear it a bit. Wonder if I might be able to get some water from a nearby pond.

[Nicos]

There are two lines of thought on that Annie...some say don’t import potential viruses etc into a new pond, whilst others say go for it.....

[nick the grief]

There are two lines of thought on that Annie...some say don’t import potential viruses etc into a new pond, whilst others say go for it.....

I must say when we had a pond I never used water etc from an established pond. It was a fish pond but had marginal planting - rushes, water mint, water marigold loads of oxygenators and a lily. it took a couple of years but we ended up with Newts, frogs and 3 types of dragon/damsel flies breeding in it.

Anuone interested in wildlife gardening could do worse than getting hold of Chris Baines book its quite old now but still well worth having.

[Grafitti]

The size of the pond and its location can also have an effect on the amount of wildlife - if it's quite small and in a very sunny location then the temperature can get above ideal, and you get an explosion of algae and weed which can choke out the rest, as well as starving the water of oxygen once it begins to break down. My pond is in a semi sun location, about 200L, I did bring frog spawn in last year and they grew to maturity well. Unfortunately the cats kept going after them so now I have goldfish in it instead. But one thing that really helped the ecosystem was buying bunches of willow moss and hornwort which came with tons of baby snails in it, and they are massive now, chomping away at the algae.