Built a wildlife pond on the allotment,and bird box galore

[KMARKSnr]

Hi all,
         I have created a pond on the lotty,and any helpful advice will be much appreciated.Basically i have dug the hole at differing depths from shelves,to 18inches at the deepest,with a pondliner in place,and surrounding area paved,one flag width.This was done two months ago,and wildlife is now regulaly calling in for a drink at the waters edge.
        One of the allotmenteers has built umpteen birdboxes,and sited them on each allotment,- i have a blue tit going into mine,and so do all others,with one exception,a greater tit going into one of the boxes.
         My allotment suffers from slugs,snails,and was hoping the attraction to frogs might help  ;).


                                  Regards,
                                       Mark

[KMARKSnr]

[Paulines7]

I see you are a newcomer so welcome to the forum Mark.  Your pond sounds ideal; have you got any plants in it yet?    As you have found out already, it doesn't take  long for the birds to make use of it.  All you need now is some frogs!   ;D

I have a waterlily and irises in my pond and frogs seem to find it a good place to spawn.  See http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,26/topic,17105.0

To be honest, my pond has just gone wild and needs a good sort out but then if it is doing its job of attracting birds and frogs I am not too bothered with having it manicured.

It is lovely that you have a neighbour who has put up all those boxes.  Blue and Great tits will help keep down the pests on the allotment.   :D

[Debs]

Yup! that's what I need, a pond teeming with frogs to eat their way

through 'slug heaven' which is a good description of my plot.

This half-term, i took my two children to a local country park, where they

charged £3 per child to make a birdbox and a bird feeder from solid

wood. The kids, Grandma and myself spent an enjoyable couple

of hours and came away with very respectable looking items.

£3 well spent in my book ;D and I now know how to make 'em myself ;D

Debs

[Toadspawn]

You will be surprised at how quickly the pond becomes inhabited. Within a few months of filling a new pond the large green and yellow tragon flies laid eggs, and to my surprise adults emerged after one year.
To help the wildlife have you created a beach to allow easy access for birds to drink and bathe in the shallows. Also it allows anything that falls into the pond eg. hedgehogs an escape route.

[jeanaustin]

If you get some frogspawn in your pond and it hatches, when it gets to the 'froglets' stage these would have difficulty getting out if you've got flagstones all round.  Would be helpful to them to get out if you could have part of the edge as turf down to the water's edge and not too steep - perhaps you could do this in conjunction with the beach as suggested by Toadspawn
As Toadspawn says, ponds very quickly become inhabited - the one in the wildlife area of our allotments was dug in October 2004 and we had masses of frogspawn last Spring and it was fascinating watching the tiny froglets coming out of the pond after a rain shower.  We've no sign of frogs yet this year but its still early - in our garden pond we usually get frogspawn around 10th March.

[KMARKSnr]

Hi all,
       Yes a beach is in place from the build,all the way around,then it`s the flagstone footpaths between the raised beds ;)
       Any more advice happily accepted please  ;D



                                      Regards,
                                           Mark.

[Debs]

Yes, I have a pebble pile for access and exit. My small wildlife pond is

surrounded by grass and plants for the taddies to cling to and  the tadfrogs

to use as a ladder to exit, incase they didn't notice the pebble pile ;)

Debs