Topic: Using a bath as a pond.....advice wanted please

[sweet-pea]

Hello all

I am planning on using an old bath as a pond on my allotment but was wondering how I should seal the plughole and the overflow.  Also if anyone else has any tips on putting together such a pond, I'd love to hear them.  It's going to be a wildlife pond when finished.

Many thanks

SP x

[Tin Shed]

I have had a bath as a pond on my lottie for years - but can't remember how I sealed the plug and I didn't seal the overflow. I have put some large stones etc in so wildlife can get in and out - the sides are pretty slippery!!!!!!!!! Digging the hole to put it in was hard work - it was a lot of soil to shift!
But the frogs found it pretty quickly and I now have some newts as well!

[DenBee]

Find an old plug for the plug hole?  Not sure about the overflow.  Depends what type it is I would think - maybe some sealant piped in?

[GrannieAnnie]

A bathtub was our first pond. I put a rubber plug in just incase we wanted to drain the water out and start with fresh. But here's my 2 cents.  I will say it was a huge amount of work to put it in...and just as much to take it out. I'd recommend using  a piece of black plastic liner and digging a free form shape- so much easier in many ways than a bathtub. The plastic doesn't even have to be special. I think our second pond we just used black tarp and it lasted for years with the dog climbing in and out repeatedly.

[PurpleHeather]

Yuk.
Baths on site, are unsightly and uncovered water attract rats, who need to drink. They soon fill up when it rains. The stagnant water attracts mosquitos in summer too. They lay eggs on the surface.

If you must make a pond, then dig a small area in gentle steps, so that creatures can come and go and line it either with proper pond lining or the old fashioned way is with clay. Strong plastic weighted with stones can work too.

Do the job properly using pond weeds and snails have a goldfish or two to eat the insects.

If you get spawn from frogs or toads, they will need a little raw meat to eat. a pinch of cheap raw mince (like a meat ball) knotted on to string or sewing cotton and suspended in the water so that it does not sink to the bottom. One pack of mince divided up and placed in the freezer, so that you can take out a bit when you go to the plot, once or twice a week . Otherwise the tadpoles will eat one another. They will surge to the meat. Take out any that is left once they have stopped feeding or it will pollute the water.

Hedgehogs like a few small logs tied together to make a house and ladybirds will over winter in the hollow middles of garden canes. Place these in a sheltered area. Mind you other insects and animals you may not want may also use these for cover, you can not pick and choose your tenants.

A bird box on a nearby tree or the side of your shed can easily be made with cut up plywood or off cuts of timber. Birds eat lots of insects and caterpillars. Often it will take two or three years before birds will nest in a 'new' box, so don't give up. A nearby feeder may help to attract them.

Chickens will eat the slug eggs and other nasties from freshly dug soil. If you know some one who keeps chickens 'borrow' one for the day, they are not ideal for keeping on an allotment site permanently.

[redimp]

I'd forget the goldfish if you want tadpoles - goldfish will eat them.  After a year or so, you will have plenty of carnivorous beasties in there (dragonfly larvae etc) that will keep the mosquito/gnat larvae down.  Also, I wouldn't worry about feeding them too much.  Once a pond is established, they will get enough to eat - when they become carnivorous later on, they will eat any dead matter in there including their brothers and sisters.  No-one feeds them in the wild.

[markyb23]

I've got an old bath on my plot which i'm hoping to use for carrot growing etc. I've decided against using it for a pond because of the slippery sides. I just think it's a bit too risky from an animal and insect welfare point of view. I may well be wrong but i just don't want to take the chance. I understand about  the stones for exits, but i just thought that, due to the shape of the bath it would be less hassle, and safer, to use some pond liner. Just giving my thoughts, I would be interested to hear what other people think. :)

[GrannieAnnie]

Our pond has over 20  goldfish and oodles of tadpoles and frogs every year. I don't understand this worry of goldfish eating up all the taddies. Just never seems to be a problem.

[redimp]

Just for info purposes, here's mine:

On the left is the boggy area and there are two shelves at either end.  It is regulation depth in the middle and with it being so small, the sides are steep.

[star]

Its so small I cant see it RC!!  8)

Did you forget the link perchance ;D ;D ;D

[redimp]

Try now :)

[star]

Yes  thats better, can see it now.
Two of the sides in mine are steep and two sloped. Mine isnt much bigger than yours I think :)

Have you had any spawn yet?

[saddad]

There's a very successful one on our site... small water lillies , the works.... make sure there is an easy escape route for good guys like Hedgehogs who might fall in...
 ;D

[sweet-pea]

Thanks for all the replies, it has definitely given me plenty to think about.  Have to admit I was worried about things not being able to get out, and ideally would prefer to make one with pond liner, but the stuff is so expensive!  I thought a bath might be a good cheap alternative, but maybe I'll look into using thick black plastic as an alternative.

SP x

[The Cardinal]

i bought one of those plastic storage boxes from a cheapo shop. It's about two foot deep, two foot long and a foot wide. I sunk it into the ground in the shade of the monster Rhubarb. It's just the right size to cover with a bit of wide holed Cage that I found to stop people stepping in it. Ideal.

[STEVEB]

Yuk.
Baths on site, are unsightly

i take it you have unlimited water supplies?

[betula]

Old baths are great,so many uses.Very good at the water tap to save a queue forming,Also for ponds,with escapes for the wild life.Growing crops.
The list goes on. :)

[Old bird]

Well said Betula - the uses of an old bath are multitudinous and I wouldn't be without mine!

I have an old bath at the door to my polytunnel - and whilst I agree with SteveB they don't look great - they are absolutely perfect for my purpose - which is filling with water and warming it before watering the tunnel!  I keep 3 watering cans in there and all I need to do is dip them in and scoop up the water.  I fill it from my huge oil tank shaped water butt which in turn is filled by a row of garage roofs.  I rinse off my hands in it - I dip plants that need a soaking,

The water in the bath does not stay there long enough to go green and slimy.  There is a piece of wood in the bath for insects and small mammals to climb out of the bath although they have never bothered to fall in as far as I can see.  The water tap and trough is miles away from my plot so this is the more environmentally friendly way of watering and having a constant supply of decent soft uncontaminated (without added flouride or chlorine) water to hand and with the odd insect larvae to hand - fertilising water!

Yuk.
Baths on site, are unsightly and uncovered water attract rats, who need to drink. They soon fill up when it rains. The stagnant water attracts mosquitos in summer too. They lay eggs on the surface.

If you get spawn from frogs or toads, they will need a little raw meat to eat. a pinch of cheap raw mince (like a meat ball) knotted on to string or sewing cotton and suspended in the water so that it does not sink to the bottom. One pack of mince divided up and placed in the freezer, so that you can take out a bit when you go to the plot, once or twice a week . Otherwise the tadpoles will eat one another. They will surge to the meat. Take out any that is left once they have stopped feeding or it will pollute the water.

Chickens will eat the slug eggs and other nasties from freshly dug soil. If you know some one who keeps chickens 'borrow' one for the day, they are not ideal for keeping on an allotment site permanently.

You don't automatically get stagnant water and mosquitos Purple Heather and what is wrong with keeping chickens on an allotment site permanently?  They are far better kept "permanently on an allotment site" than "permanently kept in a battery cage or factory producing 'Barn eggs'"

Also having water on an allotment does NOT attract rats!  As you will probably already know rats thrive in most areas - mostly around houses and streams (running water).  You - apparently - are never more that about 8 foot away from a rat - and that is the whole of Britain - so what is this pre-occupation with rats.  Sure I wouldn't encourage them - but they are not that bad - and they are there anyway with or without water!

Sweet Pea - give the bath idea a chance if you have the energy for digging the hole!!  It is the cheapest way (free) to do it and they have many other uses!  And the plus side is that it has a plug hole if you do want to empty it (even though if it is sunk in the ground it would take a while!)

Old Bird

 ;D

[redimp]

Yes  thats better, can see it now.
Two of the sides in mine are steep and two sloped. Mine isnt much bigger than yours I think :)

Have you had any spawn yet?

Sorry about not replying.

I have had mine for four years.  The first frog moved in after about a week.  I now have over 20 frogs :o and yes I have had spawn.  It is currently teeming with tadpoles - some large and developing legs, some smaller (I am hoping these are toads)

[star]

Thats fantastic RC, our taddies are doing well (not from our spawn though). Some are now mini frogs and leaving the water, I know we have definatly got 2 toadpoles that have survived a rescue from a wild pond that someone had netted and left on a pier.

We spend lots of time just gazing into the water and are still amazed by mother nature.