Thinking about getting a pond...

[IgglePiggle]

I was thinking about getting a plastic pond. I was going to put it in at the top of my garden, but there is tree's there and I'm worried the roots might damage it in the long term maybe? Anyone here got one, what they like? I just want it as a wildlife pond, so I can take the little one up there and show her all the bugs etc

[BumbleB]

I quite like the really small ponds that do not take up much room and are not such a danger to kiddies (although any water is a hazard). I built one once at a previous house, just from some left over rocks and a thick plastic sheet. Within a week I had a large toad who visited then later on was given some frog spawn. It was marvelous to watch the tiny baby frogs as they grew and learned to swim. All pond life is fascinating :-)

[IgglePiggle]

I quite like the really small ponds that do not take up much room and are not such a danger to kiddies (although any water is a hazard). I built one once at a previous house, just from some left over rocks and a thick plastic sheet. Within a week I had a large toad who visited then later on was given some frog spawn. It was marvelous to watch the tiny baby frogs as they grew and learned to swim. All pond life is fascinating :-)

My garden is on a hill, so I'm going to flatten abit at the top for it, then really fence it off. I want it to be a real wildlife area, I get slow worms so have to watch out for them when cutting the grass, so hoping they will stay up in the wild area

[SarzWix]

Instead of trying to dig down into tree roots, could you build soil etc., up around it? So it's sitting in a little mound?

[IgglePiggle]

Instead of trying to dig down into tree roots, could you build soil etc., up around it? So it's sitting in a little mound?

Doh! That might work out better as my garden is on a hill

[BFG]

Got any stone lieing around? I sunk mine a foot and then built up around it with loads of stone I had around. I made loads of hollows in it as I was building for toads, frogs, newts, slow worms, bumble bees etc I also used bits of broken slabs to put dry roofs on the caves as I was going along.

I only did it a few weeks ago, but some bees seem to like it already.

Ebay is the best place for ponds and stone (and anything else that can't be posted), do a search with 10 miles of your house and you'll get loads of bargains.

The moulded ones are great for small areas. Much easier than liner. I've got 2 joined together by a watarfall and surrounded with a big rockery for under £50.

[IgglePiggle]

That's a good idea as well! I've got loads of moorland slate, only have to dig down a spade and half in places and its there! Easy to break up as well, I've been using it for drainage in my pots

[BFG]

Lucky you! I'd love my own slate supply. Useful for loads of things as it's light and flat. Definitely use that with some rocks or bricks to make lots of caves.

I use slate to return the splashes from the waterfall back into the pond.

You could also make a wildlife tower with layers of slate and bricks to form lots of cavities and then put different materials in each section. Hollow canes, twigs, moss, stones etc and you'd provide homes for all sorts of creatures.

[BFG]

Bogs by ponds are supposed to add a lot of wildlife value.

I've got my pond in my little wildlife area and am going to have a rockery, bog and mini meadow all joining parts of it.

[IgglePiggle]

A slate tower sounds good! I've got some old roof tiles, so can use them as well. I might get some tarpaulin and try and make a bog bit around the pond, Monty Don done a horseshoe shape one around a pond that looked good.

I wish I could have a waterfall in mine, but have no idea how to do that!

[bubblewrap]

My pond is an old children's sand pit got on free-cycle.....
It works quite well & the frogs love it.

[rana]

With trees in the area it is not so much the roots that will be the problem but wind blown falling leaves in the autumn which will gather in the pond and foul the water.
Certain species of tree also have more toxic leaves.

[BFG]

My waterfall was easy, but I was lucky enough to have a raised terrace to start with, so the ponds are on different levels. I angled the top pond slightly, so it'd overflow towards the other pond, made a slate overhang, put a strip of pond liner on it to catch the water and take it over the edge and then positioned the 2nd pond below. A pump pumps water to the top which overflows and falls into the bottom pond.

You could do something similar, but you'd obviously need to raise the top level somehow.

[BFG]

If you only want/have one pond, you could still create a waterfall. Just make a rockery for some height and pump the water up and let it drop back in.

[Gryfon]

Our pond is raised up about 2' so there was hardly any digging down involved. We also have some of that reinforced steel they use for building to put over the top to stop the children getting in. On one side there are rocks for the frogs to climb up, as we forgot and Mr G saw a poor frog desperately trying to jump up the side!