Topic: New pond help please

[k@ren]

Hi
I am in the process of digging a wildlife pond, the plan is not to have fish, and It should be lined and filled by sunday. I will leave the water to settle for a couple of weeks before introducing plants.

Firstly is this correct so far?

second, What varieties of plant shall I choose for a wildlife pond. I see that some of you have problems with some plants, so a little bit of advice could save me some trouble later on.

The pond is around 10 ft long about 5 foot at its widest and hopefully will be a depth of around 2 foot at the deepest and then sloping upwards a beech type level. It will have a few marginal shelves  of varying depth from 8 - 12 inches.

third, What plants would you suggest for planting around the outside edges.
bearing in mind that the area does receive quite a lot of sun. and the idea would be to have a marshy area on the beach end.

I would be able to try and source some plants from your suggestions while I am waiting for the water to mature a little, thus hopefully save some time.
With thanks   :)
K@ren X

[wardy]

Hello there.  I'll dig out my notes from a wildlife pond course I went on.  It was only a one day course so my knowledge will be a tad limited but I have made one before and hope to do one on my lotty quite soon.  Mine was deeper than 2 feet.  Mine was about 3 foot six and I put soil in the bottom.  I used marginals which were not especially pond plants, eg astilbes, candelabra primulas, grasses, flag irises, iris siberica.  That was in my garden pond though but for the lotty pond I want something natural

I'll go and have a look for the info sheets and then get back to you  :)

Wardy

[Svengali]

Hi, generally speaking, putting soil in a pond is not a good idea, even gravel will prevent you from giving the occasional good clean out, and even without fish this will become necessary. (Even in a wildlife pond, I would recommend that you do keep a dozen or so small fish, minnows are ideal, just to keep down the inevitable mosquito larvae.)
The first thing you must do is get yourself a water test kit. I have recently built a 10.000 gallon wildlife pond, and my plants, which by now should cover 2/3 of the pond area, and the essential oxygenators should be prolifically occupying the lower levels, are all stunted, & just surviving. Why? Because the water, as supplied by my utilities company, has a ph of less than 6.0 and a hardness of basicly zilch!
The water companies are allowed to supply water down to a ph of 5.5, and in this, plants just don't grow!
I have managed, at long last, to source a bulk supply of bicarbonate of soda, but it was a long search!
You may not have this problem, but it is best to check!
The most important plants are the Oxygenators, and probably Canadian Pond Weed is the most readilly available, cheapest, easiest to grow, and is most prolific!
YOu should get a couple of water lilies, because their large leaves give a good surface cover, but not if you are going to install a fountain - they will not tolerate moving or splashing water.
This subject is so big, and it is so late, that I will sign off for now, but I will try to find a couple of good plant supplier links & post these.
Jeremy