New Small Pond

[Irish-Digger]

I would like to put a small pond on my allotment to supprt wildlife.

I have no running water.

Any suggestions ?

[Irish-Digger]

[Baccy Man]

The rain will fill it in no time.

[Chrissie]

Hi Irish-Digger,

Great idea - frogs are terrific slug-eaters.

One or two tips: make sure the sides are gently sloping so that anything that falls in can get out easily; add some water from someone else's pond to get things going (but no invasive plants or, especially, duckweed - though it may come in anyway on frogs' legs) and don't add fish - they eat tadpoles! It's also best to site a pond in an open, sunny position if possible to avoid leaves falling in and rotting.

The jury's out on whether you should introduce frogspawn from elsewhere in early spring if you haven't any of your own. I think it's probably OK as long as the original pond is nearby and there's been no sign of disease.

I've just dug a little pond on my plot and have bought some Polyex liner from www.BradshawsDirect.co.uk. If you buy the stuff with a 35-year guarantee it comes with free underlay, and it's also reversible with a nice earthy shade of brown on one side (actually much better than it looks in the picture).

You've probably already done yours so all this is too late. Good luck anyway! Once the pond is there the wildlife will arrive as if by magic - dragonflies and damselflies, beetles, frogs, toads, birds and bats as well as small thirsty mammals. Make sure you have a seat close by to watch the action.

[saddad]

Watch out for great diving beetles... one gave me a nasty nip!
;D
We set up one on the lotties and we now have newts!
:o

[gordonsveg]

We have a small pond in our garden,its afew years old now and we mormaly have little trouble.
     Last year we had green algae and this year its brown,the barley straw seems to be taking a long time to clear it this time.Are we doing the right thing?.

[Irish-Digger]

All set up, just waiting for the spring.

Have fished our 9 slugs in the past week.......  success.

[Lauren S]

I just think a pond adds character to a garden/allotment. The wildlife watching can be very mesmerizing. A little oasis for wildlife can only be an assest. A *pub* for birds to take a drink . Toad/frogs to have somewhere to live while eating all those nasty slugs etc.