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@Bunnyhop - do you have any designs for a bug hotel?
All the ones I've seen in garden centres are quite flimsy. We live in an exposed location with an almost ever-present westerly
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Elshalimo - we too live in an exposed garden, thus the big slab on the top.
I suggest using bricks (sideways on) where the holes themselves provide housing for bugs. Then fill the brick structure in with anything that is natural and will give a bee, insect or bug a home. Moss, fir cones, bits of old bamboo, twigs, dried seed heads all good.
Ours is a sturdy wooden casing and I just filled it. Good fun for children to make.
Important where it's positioned. Ours is North westerly facing and out of the sun, you don't want to cook or fry the new residents ;0)
Bit of pond pottering today. Managed to drill/smash up the big lump of concrete and get a level for the spillway, mocked up with a 5.5mm sheet of ply we had lying around. Have ordered a sheet of 18mm ply and the right size bit of timber to go between it and the bottom sleeper. This will bring the level up to 25mm under the overhang/lining with leaving room for tiles. Hopefully that's the fiddly measuring done. Started shifting the soil/rocks to create a deep(er) end, and, having built this primarily to grow some waterlilies, have learned they prefer still water... hmmm. going to have to think carefully about where the inflow goes - hoping that half way down will give us enough still water for the roots at the end furthest from the waterfall.
Looking good!
Here it's skip Monday, hired help arriving Tuesday to break up garage base and noticed on (sorry) Facebook that someone a few hundred yards away was giving away free soil, so I've been bagging up all afternoon to backfill the garage base for the lawn. Chucked him a few beers as this is saving me a fortune. Back tomorrow for twice as much again, as my arms and back were giving up. (it was full after this photo)
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Still haven't decided on pond location / size, and have been tracking the sun in intricate detail throughout the day to get best position. Frog houses, wildflowers and sheltering shrubs are on the cards though, although the design gets quirkier by the day.
Crikey, here's a pond project... Note to self... don't get too attached to the pond. Which is fine at the moment as the liner still hasn't landed.
so we started ours about 4 weeks ago
lined it
got some rock on a roll stuff for the edges & a few rocks
a few plants from my brother-in-laws pond
but we have ordered some more
and a 15 quid solar mini fountain, that I need to set up properly, it only works in direct sunlight, so gonna fix the panel to the fence i think
we have a problem with the sycamores dumping helicopters in
lots of mosquito nymphs so far & a lot of birds coming down to eat them!
Put some water in today. And some liner. And a rug I found in the loft to prevent a puncture (shh!).
We took the depth down to 600mm in the end to give us the option of some fish, pleased we did for the limited additional effort.
All the levels have worked out ok (phew). Need to pick up 2 600x600 tiles for the spillway, then it's onto the bottom pond (arf) and pump and wotnot.
I've successfully wrecked my garden.
Ironically, whilst watering a raised planter earlier, a frog jumped out from underneath it and had a good sit about and slowly hopped across the patio, took a look at me and then hopped across another patio and disappeared under the shed. Why I'm spending a fortune trying to create a haven for wildlife is beyond me; I clearly just need to lay another patio.
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I’ve successfully wrecked my garden.
Don't worry, always looks worse initially!
@willjones intrigued by yours. Will the waterfall be freefall or a cascade over rocks into the pool below?
@bearnecessities YOUR LAWN!!
Nearly there with part 1... painted, tiled and sealed the waterfall bit, the little verticals at each side have been a pain, and still need to trim the left hand one as it's a smidge too high:
Had a trial run, just overfilling the thing with hose to see what would happen...
And as I thought would happen (but was quietly hoping wouldn't), we've a couple of leaks - both seem to be from under the tiles, in the corners which were hiding under folds in the liner. Bit more fiddling then I can fix the copings, put some gravel or similar down and move onto water plants and the pond at the bottom.
@Jamze - hoping for a free flow waterfall into a second much simpler pond at the bottom. Will probably sort that in the winter when the hydrangea is smaller, and live with the Covid infinity pond as is (minus leaks) for a bit. This will also give chance for plants to establish before we start pumping water around.
Love "covid infinity pond" 🙂
Those of you with ponds that attract frogs & pond-life, do any of them only get a 4 or 5 hours of sun a day? Internet tells me needs full sun with a shaded area, but where I really want to position will be partially shaded, but 60% of it will only get 5 hours sun a day at the most.
I’m glad this thread is still going, since between when it began and now, we have managed to finish our pond (relatively speaking):
@Bearneccessities My bond barely gets any sun at all. None in the winter, maybe an hour or two first thing in the morning, and that's about it. Frogs don't seem to mind, they all gather there on a hot day. I built it where I did because it was too shady to grow any interesting plants!
@stwhannah Yay, good to know thank you. Post up a picture 🙂
(Do you ever get any frogspawn in there, or just basking layabout adults?)
Our pond is in full sun for about 6 hrs. I was amazed in this warm spring we've had, how warm the water got. We've also had some ice during the warm spell. None of this seems to affect the wild creatures.
Annoyingly the tadpoles are eating my oxygenating underwater plants, but it's the price you pay.
It's also not properly rained for over weeks, so the water level has been it's lowest since the build. Hoping for some rain tonight to top it up and the water butts.
Tomorrow I will learn how to add a photo of my pond it has newts and dragoginflys and wild things.
I've 500w of solar running the pump and battery for it. On a good day at least. It needs about 50w so it's designed around cloudy days. Nothing beats watching nature move in. Enjoy the project.
Water level is low hence looks a bit like a builder's tip round the edge - but at least the hedgehogs can climb out. Built three years ago, no fish but lots of self-started wildlife. Loads of toad tadpoles this year but as commented above they're chomping through the oxygenators.
Watered the ground for an hour yesterday and after 15 minutes of rotavating just now, it's still rock solid and basically just a machinery-bouncing, noisy, dust cloud of pain. I can't stop my arms shaking and I'm absolutely spent.
Oh, and it's £150 for a 5x4m piece of chuffing liner apparently.
****ing **** nature!
Edit: Nice pond Hamish 🙂
We spent the weekend digging a small pond (2 x 3 m x 60 cm deep at its deepest).
After an afternoon of taking off the turf, I had to crack open the SDS Drill with the chisel attachment to break up the stony/clay/rubble debris.
Still very much a work in progress, but the first damsel fly was spotted today.
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oldtennisshoes - very nice indeed.
I wouldn't call 2m x 3m small.
Here is one angle. I've some of old photos somewhere of its construction and wild life.
Edit that didn't work. Back to school...
jef_uk could you post details of your solar set up please?
It's all kind of getting level now for new lawn in the dust-fest, pond starting to get dug out, and I have a foreman overseeing proceedings.
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(A mere £20 from a good friend's new venture if you're interested https://www.homesatheart.co.uk/ )
Our newt making a rare appearance a couple of days ago
Visible progress! Pretty much prepared for seeding now, although that's going to be the very last job.
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No sign of a pond yet though and it's too hot to dig, so I'm *cough* planning it.
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Hi Newt! Love their hands. It's been really helpful/motivating seeing the progress and established ponds/pools/lakes/puddles on here. Cheers all.
We've fixed the leaks (only needed one pass with the sealant thankfully), bolted down the coping and added a lily and some mare's tail to ours since last post. Looks diminutive at the moment, but I know these will spread. I've just been reading about Iris and looks as though we can plant this in the margins/shallow end which will be good as we've a glut in other parts of the garden that could be separated. The only wildlife we've seen so far are giants pigeons having their morning bath, and a bunch of flies.
Next job for a quieter period is tidying up the stone work, then it's on to the lower pond. I'd really like to keep the hydrangea, but it's going to be a bit tight.
Did anyone watch the macro filming of pond life on Spring watch last night?
It was great watching how (in close up) you can see how the tadpoles develope (they have several lips).
The water contained many creatures that I had no idea were there. Fascinating stuff.
A wildlife photographer friend came round recently to have a go at our pond. Who would have thought pictures of a snail could look like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Well this is taking an incredible amount of time.
Part of the lawn has been seeded today at least. 12th house-skip arrives tomorrow for the rest of work and pond partially dug.
This in't really an update, but just to say it's not forgotten.
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It's a Zen garden!
Slowly, very slowly, it's coming together.
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Looking good though. Better weather next week too 👍🏻
Pleased our toads are back. The dog made the mistake of picking one up the other day, spent the evening with an irritated mouth. They secrete toxin, don't they?
If you are digging a hole and using liner how are you setting your pond edge level?
By eye, king post horizontal board and spirit-level, laser level or clear plastic tube with water?
Am I overthinking this?
Went to look at a neighbours pond and there was six inches of liner showing on one side.
It was a big pond about four times the size of the one I am thinking of.
We're moving into a new place tomorrow and it comes with a series of natural ponds / lakes... the fields drain into a stream which fills the top lake. Once that's full apparently you open the sluice gate into the lower one.
Looking forward to seeing what critters we get in them...
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meesterbond - that is fabulous. I'm slightly envious to say the least.
Please keep us updated as to the creatures and wildlife you see in and around your waters.
If you are digging a hole and using liner how are you setting your pond edge level?
By eye, king post horizontal board and spirit-level, laser level or clear plastic tube with water?
Am I overthinking this?
Went to look at a neighbours pond and there was six inches of liner showing on one side.
It was a big pond about four times the size of the one I am thinking of.
We did ours mostly by eye with a bit of half-hearted level work but it's better if you do put some effort into the levels. When I get round to it I'm going to adjust the liner/paving levels in a couple of places on ours as it varies by 2-3 inches and, as you say, the liner becomes more prominent in the higher bits when the water level drops.
Meesterbond, that is not a pond! Very, very nice, although looks like you may need a bit of maintenance on the jetty...
Bunnyhop
Member
meesterbond – that is fabulous. I’m slightly envious to say the least.
Please keep us updated as to the creatures and wildlife you see in and around your waters.Posted 23 minutes ago
Wouldn't catch me moving there, have you seen the state of that landing jetty. 😉
The jetty needs a little work.
I got an email saying that the current owners are leaving the rowing boat... I'm rather hoping he has another one I haven't seen.
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After a day of driving about trying to find a few extra bags of topsoil and pissing about digging and levelling soil in a few square meters, I'm not sure I can relate to someone having issues with a sodding jetty.
Gonna need a bigger boat!
@meesterbond - chop chop, we're all waiting for pics of wildlife in Coniston Water.
In a thread which has slower progress and equal dullness to that of my house renovations: lawn prepped, top-soiled, all sown and no sign of a jeffin' pond. Liner still not available, so bought a few bee/frog hidey-hole plants to add around the edges instead...when the time comes.
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Frogs also like a bit of a log pile.