Show me your pond!

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.

Photos!

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

We made a wildlife puddle pond last weekend

View this post on Instagram

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.

I have plenty of logs ready to pile for a frog home. Will also dig it down a bit, as the internet suggests they like a bit of a shallow, logs and a bit of turf on top.

Still no sodding liner so at the moment, so it's still just a hole for me to keep falling into.

getting started on my wildlife pond this weekend hopefully - have a pre-dug hole that is currently a sandpit for the kids which they are no longer interested in, I have ordered a pre-formed pond and a fountain/filter. Hoping to scrounge some rockery off freecycle/freegle

Mine went completely cloudy yesterday afternoon. It's normally crystal clear. Caused by the heat? Clear again this morning 🤔

All systems go!

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I'm sweating more than I thought was possible, and that EPDM stuff is hotter than a pop-tart.

So, yeah. I've got an expensive muddy puddle. This was totally worth it.

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I'm sure it'll get better. On the plus side it's all fairly level and any low spots I'm packing out underneath the liner with sand. I'm done for today though, will restart operation pond when it's a bit cooler - say 3am or November.

It's pretty exciting times on STW. Not only do we have bear who's been, for the last few months possibly, cogitating/designing/digging/waiting forever on supplies to arrive and now has water in his pond BUT we also have the legendary Poopscoop planning one of his adventures which will inevitably guarantee that Forumites will be going without sleep and worrying about where the heck he is and praying he's in one piece.

Love you guys, don't ever stop being YOU!

Well that didn't take long.

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Bravo!
Keep the progress reports coming!

A new friend ... how exciting!

My wife wanted a little wildlife pond so got a 300 litre preformed liner and over the last few mornings put it in where an old shed had stood. Waiting to get plants and for the wildlife to show up.
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I've always suspected I had two frogs living under my planters.

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God knows how as there are no ponds in the area, according to google maps, but they appear to be happy with their new home.

Flexing:

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Wonderful and a reward for your hard work. Do keep us updated.