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Pond life

But anyway - neighbour has just built one - 2 foot wall round it then pond liner then fish. going to build up round it.

Another neighbour I noticed has some flat stones built up round the edge, looks really good.

hth :)
 
Lots of hot pond chat from the summer here.

www.urban75.net

A simple garden pond.

Okay, there are other pond threads on here, but this is about starting from scratch and keeping things as simple as possible... I was inspired by this Springwatch video. I want to make one out of a good-sized washing-up bowl or container of similar size. Do you need to keep ponds clear of...
www.urban75.net www.urban75.net
 
Pre formed liners are shit btw. They warp in the hole unless it fits the contours of the hole perfectly. Carpets and liners instead- Gravel in , conditioner and a few litres of someone else’s pond water and it’s ready to start living. Trimming , edging and shizzle like plants and fish later. Plant suggestions welcomed

E0BFBC4D-6AE3-4F7D-98AB-22EEA4E2C795.jpeg
 
It’s about 350 litres maybe 2 and a bit ft deep in the middle and about 5 ft long. Built shelves using the London clay unearthed during the dig.
 
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its mad, you get concerned that maybe the pond isnt going to work but already i have copulating toads, birds coming to drink and insects hanging about the place. somehow pond weed seems have appeared from nowhere- suppose the handful of plants i brought in had their seeds already. fish to be added, but no fish wants to eat Bufo Bufo eggs and kids as they taste bad. i'm excited for the newts to show their face, i have seen a few over the past few years in the garden
 
not-bono-ever said:
its mad, you get concerned that maybe the pond isnt going to work but already i have copulating toads, birds coming to drink and insects hanging about the place. somehow pond weed seems have appeared from nowhere- suppose the handful of plants i brought in had their seeds already. fish to be added, but no fish wants to eat Bufo Bufo eggs and kids as they taste bad. i'm excited for the newts to show their face, i have seen a few over the past few years in the garden
Click to expand...
That’s encouraging. I look at my new pond and wonder how long stuff will take to show up. Water fleas are present and that’s it. Do I need pond conditioner whatever that is? I got a jar of sludge and water from a park pond but that’s all I have done.
 
i snarfed some water from a neighbours old pond to seed it. i let it fester for a few weeks after with tap water to allow it to clear down any impurities. plants will contain bacteria and stuff i assume, so that helps. not bad for a something i didnt fill up until last month. i can hear the toads calling at night !
 
So the pond was grim over the winter. Fish barely showed themselves and were not eating. Within the past fortnight it had turned into a thick biological potage. Toads sexing their faces off and laying strings of eggs, newts swimming around and what looks like a big lump of frog spawn- I didn’t know I had frogs. Could be newt spawn I suppose but I don’t know what it looks like. It’s a boiling mass of life. Never seen anything like it
 
A380 said:
Got frog spawn already!

View attachment 313867
Click to expand...
20220311_103540.jpg

Snap.

20220311_103424.jpg

They've been at it for a bout two weeks now. We can hear them croaking from our bedroom when the windows open.

This is a little filter project I did last year when we moved in. It's like a reedbed gravel system idea from two belfast sinks that were in the garden. It works quite well. The plants are just sprouting again.
20220311_103640.jpg
The pond's been left to itself for 5 years prior to us buying this place so nature has really done its job. We've got newts and a lot of animals that vist it in the evening as well as birds using it all day. No fish which is how we intend to keep it.
 
Only just found this thread, but as I'm building a pond at the moment, thought I'd share some in progress pics. Our back garden won our local 'In Bloom' competition last year, so we felt we had to raise our game to win it again this year. That, and there was one spot at the end of the garden that we hadn't done anything with yet, so a pond seemed like the obvious thing to do. On top of all this, I always over plan and over spec these sorts of projects, which is why this has turned into a bit of a mammoth thing as shall be seen...

Here's the end of the first day's work, digging a foundation trench for the main bit of the pond. It's going to be 2/3rds pond and 1/3rd bog garden, so I've not bothered with a foundation for the bog garden, but I have for the pond itself, especially given it's built into a bit of a slope.

1 starting digging.jpeg

One thing I hit when doing it was a load of dead tree roots. This bit of the garden was all overgrown when we got the house, so whilst we've cleared in on the surface, there are still echoes of the past in the ground. I was naughty and used my chainsaw to cut them apart, which then led to a fun evening cleaning mud and water out of the thing.

2 tree roots.jpeg

Tree roots cleared, the pile of waste soil just gets bigger.

3 starting digging round.jpeg

Once the trench was dug and concrete foundations poured and leveled, the sleepers started to go in for the main tank of the pond. I'm using oak sleepers as apparently they're less prone to rotting underground. The line of sleepers at the back turned into a bit of a pain as they were consistently higher than the others, and a bit wonky too. Another half day of digging out and around them seemed to fix it. Bit of a faff though, especially as oak sleepers are incredibly heavy.

4 main tank.jpeg

I've put some large coach bolts down vertically to join some of the sleepers, but most of the supporting work is being done by oak sleepers as upright posts. These went in, then more concrete was poured in to bring it level with the ground, effectively concreting in both the support posts and the bottom two rows of sleepers on the main tank too.

5 wall and posts.jpeg

After that it moved more quickly, the faff of having got everything level to start with meant the upper sleepers just dropped in like jigsaw pieces and could be screwed straight into the support posts. One does not simply screw into oak sleepers though, otherwise the screws get very stuck and have to be snapped off. All sorts of pilot holes are essential.

6 wall built.jpeg

With two of the sides now built, I started putting the dug out soil around the outside wall. Partly to support it, but also partly so the pond will be hidden until you walk up to it, which should be a nice effect. We're calling this part of the garden the 'secret garden' for that sort of reason.

7 starting to mound.jpeg

After getting that done, I pressed on with building the other walls and digging out the main tank for the pond.

8 soil moved.jpeg

Digging out took less time than I thought, as as long as you cut the soil into cubes, it moved pretty easily, like cutting peat. The rest of the soil got mounded up around the frame for the pond and bog garden.

9 Mounded.jpeg

Here's everything all dug out. The pond is going to have a deep bit in the tank, a 40cm shelf on the left of the tank, and then a shallower shelf (to be filled in with gravel once the liner is in) which should be 20cm deep, and allow our kids to go pond dipping and so forth.

10 Dug out.jpeg

Still more work to do, but making progress so far.
 
Gerry1time said:
Only just found this thread, but as I'm building a pond at the moment, thought I'd share some in progress pics. Our back garden won our local 'In Bloom' competition last year, so we felt we had to raise our game to win it again this year. That, and there was one spot at the end of the garden that we hadn't done anything with yet, so a pond seemed like the obvious thing to do. On top of all this, I always over plan and over spec these sorts of projects, which is why this has turned into a bit of a mammoth thing as shall be seen...

Here's the end of the first day's work, digging a foundation trench for the main bit of the pond. It's going to be 2/3rds pond and 1/3rd bog garden, so I've not bothered with a foundation for the bog garden, but I have for the pond itself, especially given it's built into a bit of a slope.

View attachment 313870

One thing I hit when doing it was a load of dead tree roots. This bit of the garden was all overgrown when we got the house, so whilst we've cleared in on the surface, there are still echoes of the past in the ground. I was naughty and used my chainsaw to cut them apart, which then led to a fun evening cleaning mud and water out of the thing.

View attachment 313871

Tree roots cleared, the pile of waste soil just gets bigger.

View attachment 313872

Once the trench was dug and concrete foundations poured and leveled, the sleepers started to go in for the main tank of the pond. I'm using oak sleepers as apparently they're less prone to rotting underground. The line of sleepers at the back turned into a bit of a pain as they were consistently higher than the others, and a bit wonky too. Another half day of digging out and around them seemed to fix it. Bit of a faff though, especially as oak sleepers are incredibly heavy.

View attachment 313873

I've put some large coach bolts down vertically to join some of the sleepers, but most of the supporting work is being done by oak sleepers as upright posts. These went in, then more concrete was poured in to bring it level with the ground, effectively concreting in both the support posts and the bottom two rows of sleepers on the main tank too.

View attachment 313874

After that it moved more quickly, the faff of having got everything level to start with meant the upper sleepers just dropped in like jigsaw pieces and could be screwed straight into the support posts. One does not simply screw into oak sleepers though, otherwise the screws get very stuck and have to be snapped off. All sorts of pilot holes are essential.

View attachment 313875

With two of the sides now built, I started putting the dug out soil around the outside wall. Partly to support it, but also partly so the pond will be hidden until you walk up to it, which should be a nice effect. We're calling this part of the garden the 'secret garden' for that sort of reason.

View attachment 313876

After getting that done, I pressed on with building the other walls and digging out the main tank for the pond.

View attachment 313877

Digging out took less time than I thought, as as long as you cut the soil into cubes, it moved pretty easily, like cutting peat. The rest of the soil got mounded up around the frame for the pond and bog garden.

View attachment 313878

Here's everything all dug out. The pond is going to have a deep bit in the tank, a 40cm shelf on the left of the tank, and then a shallower shelf (to be filled in with gravel once the liner is in) which should be 20cm deep, and allow our kids to go pond dipping and so forth.

View attachment 313879

Still more work to do, but making progress so far.
Click to expand...
Top work fella!

I've built a bog garden next to mine so the pond can overflow into it. Bog garden plants are really beautiful. Mine are just starting to resurface now.

My next project is some Gunnera which I was gifted last year as a baby crown from a swanky mansion garden. I'm burying half a 45 gallon drum to plant it in.

That's this weekends project if the rain stays off.
I've always wanted to grow Gunnera.
 
friedaweed said:
Top work fella!

I've built a bog garden next to mine so the pond can overflow into it. Bog garden plants are really beautiful. Mine are just starting to resurface now.

My next project is some Gunnera which I was gifted last year as a baby crown from a swanky mansion garden. I'm burying half a 45 gallon drum to plant it in.

That's this weekends project if the rain stays off.
I've always wanted to grow Gunnera.
Click to expand...

Nice. I’ve been fascinated with Gunnera since I was a kid and first saw it in Devon, but it’s sadly way too big for this thing. Am planning plants for my bog garden at the moment though, what would you recommend out of interest?
 
Gerry1time said:
Nice. I’ve been fascinated with Gunnera since I was a kid and first saw it in Devon, but it’s sadly way too big for this thing. Am planning plants for my bog garden at the moment though, what would you recommend out of interest?
Click to expand...
Hostas do fine on the edge of a bog garden. I've got quite a few of them in. I've also got some Primula, Ligularia, Calla lilies, rodgersia, variegated Iris, ragged robin, loosestrife and a couple of collocasia bulbs which did really well last year.

Then in the Belfast sinks I've got stuff like Kaffir lilies, some miniature rushes and some corkscrew rushes mixed in with water mint and peninsular bog-wort .

They can all get out of hand though especially loosestrife and Ligularia so don't go overboard on them. There's loads of really nice Schizostylis that don't take up a lot of room but will give you some lovely flowers. I've got a few of them on the pond edges.

Dogwood is a good bit of winter colour when everything else has dies back at the end of the season.
 
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