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I am not an expert, but you shouldn't need too many plants, they grow, ask friends with ponds, also here, where are you located? Last year I had to remove lots of plant life as the roots had taken over, literally had to cut the roots out thought we had a pond liner leak but just the plants taking water (smallish pond 5x3' very approx) we have frogs, they were happy enough and life came back to pond OK, we also have shade now and lost very little water with our recent drought conditions i.e. hot weather!
I have bought some assorted pond plants through eBay. The pitchers came mostly from a stall at a local flower show but that company also does mail order which is how I got the darlingtonia.
It’s probably a good idea to get a variety as some might not like your environment for some reason (or you might not like them! Eg while the pitcher plants have flourished, I can’t get sundews to survive - even native ones peg out after a season or two.
Note also they all start small but some of the ones that settle in will soon fill the available space!
Where do people go to to get plants for a wildlife pond?
We got a lot of ours from Waterside Nursery when we built our pond - https://www.watersidenursery.co.uk
Pond specialists, Online only, lots of good advice on their site to help. Not the cheapest - good quality and would recommend though.
As others have said - don’t go mad putting in loads of plants - they will fill out quickly.
Thanks very much for your help. While I was contemplating where to get the plants my wife had already gone to dobbies and bought a load! Tbf the discount for the bulk buy meant that prices compared quite favourably with what I've seen online. Here in Suffolk rain isn't that plentiful so I built a fairly large pond with a decent depth in the sump and plenty of shallow area for the main marginal and emersive planting. Hopefully there is still enough time left before autumn for them all to establish and spread a bit. We had the pleasure of seeing a first wildlife since filling the pond, swallows diving down to take a drink. Marvellous!
Our native waterlily isn't doing very well this year, it's spread but not flowered yet. I think the very warm June has affected a lot of plants. Ducks coming into a small garden pond always bring a smile.
If the pond is big enough Daubenton's bats will pick up midges and other insects from the top of the water.
Our waterlilies have done well, I think a warm June here is basically tolerable weather for a change compared to the usual bleak windswept hillside 🙂
Possibly also helped by renovating that pond over winter and making more space.
Can I just second the "don't get too many plants".
I've had my pond three years now and have pulled most of the plants out. I'm no expert so won't comment on specifics but so many spread it was ridiculous. One that was a kind of mint was a particular sod. The 'reed' type thing pictured was tiny when I bought it, and it's still in its basket, but it spreading like a bugger - I'm leaving it though as the frogs love hiding in it, but an example of how something initially about 5" wide and a few fronds can spread.
Forgive the liner/general appearance - I've done some remedial levelling and clearing of wild flowers around the pond, which were a bloody terrible idea in hindsight - I've realised wildlife/wildflower areas are for those with fields or huge gardens they can allow to neglect.
Six weeks ago, we decided against building a greenhouse, but putting in a pond on a spare bit of ground. A busy weekend digging down a metre, then forming some shelves. Liner, water, plants and we left it. No fish, and unless they make their own way in, there won’t be any. Leaving it now to see how it develops.
Ours has generally settled in quite nicely, we've had a couple of visits from (I assume anyway) a heron that has reduced the fish population from 5 to 3, but other than that all ok. Birds love it, insects love it and it generally brings us a lot of pleasure 🙂
Agree about planting too much. We've only got 1 water lily, 2 oxygenaters and 2 flowering pond plants. But ine has gone beserk.
I've had to dismantle the covid infinity pond to make way for a kitchen extension. Not very happy about that. Kept the, plants, liner and pump and we have tons of stone and the wood from the original project so hoping to create a new pond somewhere soon. This thread is great - inspiring stuff, and lovely to see the early projects maturing.
Fairly new to this pond lark. We've put two in this year. The one that gets the most sun went a bit "milky" during the May/June heat wave and is starting to clear a bit now. Would this have been caused by excess UV?
Pond is full of life BTW. Frogs, snails, plants, bugs etc. There is a pump too to keep the water moving.
Harry_the_Spider
Full MemberFairly new to this pond lark. We’ve put two in this year. The one that gets the most sun went a bit “milky” during the May/June heat wave and is starting to clear a bit now. Would this have been caused by excess UV?
Pond is full of life BTW. Frogs, snails, plants, bugs etc. There is a pump too to keep the water moving
I posted earlier in the thread about identifying different causes of cloudiness. Depending on the colour it could be bacterial blooms, algae blooms, or even just dust/detritus that's getting stirred up.
Milky white. Seems to have subsided a bit over the last week or so.
Harry_the_Spider
Full MemberMilky white. Seems to have subsided a bit over the last week or so.
Could be bacterial but it would have to be a heck of a bloom for it to be described as "milky". I'd probably ignore it if nothings died and it's started subsiding.
Finally got a water lily! Our water level varies quite a bit with the rain, and it's previously been drowned and rotted shortly after flowering. This year it's bloomed at a high water level, so should be safe.
Bookmarking thread for future reference - just started digging put for my wildlife pond!
Going to be about 3m x 2.5m x600mm deep. Liner and underlay arriving tomorrow.
The tiger mosquitos which are slowly migrating north are going to love all this habitat being provided. My design feature would be the ease of removal when the mosquitos reach you.
Yes same here, night before last, we were commenting on lack of 'spawn and then it arrived, sorry no pic. Temperature just a tad milder, maybe that is the trigger reason?
I was getting worried my little garden guests where not turning up this year but the ponds now full of spawn I'm sure it's getting later each year. Luckily I cleaned all the dead leaves out last week so the pond is now just for frogs.
Oh we pulled out a magpie from it a few weeks ago no idea why it couldn't get out as it's shallow at 3 ends and gravel.
Roll on the Lilly pads and bats in the summertime
Duplicated
That's a super collective effort lol.
They have taken a beating as a species it's nice to see them doing ok. Hopefully we get the Swifts back this year in numbers in the summer they have been returning next doors soffit for as long as we have been here only 2 pairs last year 😣
We had our frogspawn 3 weeks ago up in frigid North Yorkshire. Not sure if that's early or late, I remember sometimes having a really hard freeze after the spawn but that's not happened this year.
Frogspawn in our pond for the first time since we dug it a couple of years ago. Had a few frogs visiting but this is what we've been waiting for!
Don't know if the pic will work:
Edit: Didn't notice the amount of dead leaves until seeing the photo!
Not in my pond or in fact nowhere near one but I found this little fella todaySome frog spawn arrived last week in cold Cumbria. I put the pond in two years ago and it is the first time we have had some naturally produced. We did put some frog spawn in from a neighbours pond last year.
Just a little bit but I am happy
And there is a frog hanging around
Got no frogspawn here in Essex 😕 none in my mum's many ponds either. Very strange, usually we are drowning in it!
I neglected my pond last year a bit so it's sludgy. Has anybody used a sludge removing product recently with success?
Teeming with tadpoles here. I also split and repotted my pitcher plants which are starting to shoot up again. Two of the three are very prolific and some may be donated to a local charity plant sale. As for sludge removing products, a flowerpot or small bucket works for me. Though I haven’t bothered in a while. The frogs like hibernating in it and the ponds are plenty deep enough.
Unexpected visitors to our small pond this morning. I was able to feed them sunflower hearts (bread is bad). The tadpoles would have had a shock.
Love the ducks and sparrowhawk. We've had a visit from the latter a couple of times but no ducks yet.
Seems like the frosts a couple of weeks back killed the frogspawn which is sad. As was finding that the three blackbird chicks had been gotta by some horrible cat. Having watched the blackbirds working so hard on building the nest and then feeding the chicks it was a bit of a gloomy day in the garden last week 😕
We've already had a baby robin (the STW staple of fledglings), sadly a magpie got into one hedge and took the blackbird's eggs, that caused a huge noise and commotion, however the blackbirds are rebuilding.
Good to see other birds collecting moss from the north facing flower borders. Spring is wonderful.
Our local blackbird is mostly decimating our newt population.
It's not nice to watch!
Unfortunately the ducks that visited a few months ago, not only ate all the frogspawn, but they gobbled up all the other wildlife.
We've only had one waterboatman and one pond skater, in previous years there were hundreds of waterboatmen and a few black water beetles and lots of other wriggly creatures. It's been a disappointment. Although there was a common damsel fly on the tiny wild meadow, which I'm pretty sure evolved from the pond.
Still plenty of baby frogs around from last year. I'm sure nature will return.
One year we had a grey wagtail which ate all the newtlings and has not been seen since.
Nature is cruel.
Hurrah, the first frogspawn of the season. Only a tiny blob. Hoping some more will appear in the next few days. Last year the Mallards ate the lot. I'm thinking of a net or cover.
im hoping for a return of some friendly toads this year, last summer we had one come in the porch so I know they are about. We've also made a very small pond in our rough area. I say pond but it's tiny but big enough for wildlife to become squatters so we'll see if a frog might make it up from a nearby old quarry
Its exciting stuff