Week one - plans and preparation
We made some designs and then started to clear the weedy patch under our window. We uncovered our 'puddle' which was prone to drying out but still full of water fleas, water slaters and midge larvae. We saved some plants to use around the pond later.
Week two - we get digging
We marked the pond out roughly with rope and started digging. The ground was really dry, hard and stony (we saved smooth stones for later). Rather than struggle to dig down, we built the edges up with the soil. We dug three levels - a marshy end, a shelf, and the deep section. We lined it with coir matting and felt from an old mattress and old carpet.
Week three - filling the pond
We wait impatiently for rain! But there was hardly any so we emptied our water butts, added some tapwater, and brought lots of water with the pond plants. Finally it felt like a real pond. The mesh covers the shelf and deep section for safety (and prevents footballs being kicked in!).
Week four - wildlife houses
We decided to add some homes for the wildlife that will come to the pond and garden. The hedgehog house is filled with leaves and dry grass, mounded up with soil and the roof supported on the logs. The pipe entry tunnel is at the back. The mini beast mansion is built amongst some young trees using layers of old fencing and bricks, filled with leaves, grass, twigs, paper, cardboard, nutshells, stalks; pretty much anything we could think of! Then topped with some old roof tiles to keep rain off. We especially like the mini mini beast house made of the old ice cream tub filled with moss!
Week five - finishing off
To make the edging around the pond we salvaged broken slabs from around our garden, robbed stones from our overgrown rockery, used logs and an old stone window sill. We planted the plants we'd saved during week one and added the stones we'd saved. We also built another mini beast house, installed a bat box and a bird box that we'd been given a while ago and turned a reclaimed stone jar into a bee house.
The finished pond - September
It has been amazing to go from a scruffy border to an exciting wildlife pond in just 5 weeks! It was simple, straightforward and most of all, great fun!
We have seen loads of wriggly things living in the pond: water fleas, midge larvae (including Chaoborus), mayfly larvae, a water beetle, lots of water slaters, flatworms, leeches, and water crane-fly larvae. Visiting the pond we've had Blackbirds, Robins, Great Tits and Wrens. The surface plants were covered in aphids during the warm weather which attracted ladybirds. Also, caterpillars of the Small White butterfly have been eating the watercress! Many bees, wasps and flies have been to drink the water or feed on the flowers of the marsh plants and we've seen many pond skaters.
We had a toad in residence while building the pond and we plan to add hostas and purple loosestrife around the pond edges to provide more hiding places for mini beasts to feed any toads, frogs, birds, and maybe even a hedgehog, which would be wonderful! Voles are already living in the hedgehog house.
Thank you to Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Fordhall Farm for inspiring us to do this; we will enjoy it for many years.
We have seen loads of wriggly things living in the pond: water fleas, midge larvae (including Chaoborus), mayfly larvae, a water beetle, lots of water slaters, flatworms, leeches, and water crane-fly larvae. Visiting the pond we've had Blackbirds, Robins, Great Tits and Wrens. The surface plants were covered in aphids during the warm weather which attracted ladybirds. Also, caterpillars of the Small White butterfly have been eating the watercress! Many bees, wasps and flies have been to drink the water or feed on the flowers of the marsh plants and we've seen many pond skaters.
We had a toad in residence while building the pond and we plan to add hostas and purple loosestrife around the pond edges to provide more hiding places for mini beasts to feed any toads, frogs, birds, and maybe even a hedgehog, which would be wonderful! Voles are already living in the hedgehog house.
Thank you to Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Fordhall Farm for inspiring us to do this; we will enjoy it for many years.
The pond through the seasons
The pond plants died down as the weather got colder, leaves blew in and the mini beasts were harder to find. However, with autumn fungi, ripples made by rain and now the ice patterns as the surface freezes over, there is always something interesting to see. There are voles living under the mini beast mansion, lots of spider webs, and at least one ladybird who has chosen to hibernate in it rather than on the gate; there were over 70 seven-spot ladybirds there at the last count!
