Show me your pond!

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…

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I’ve always suspected I had two frogs living under my planters.

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:

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

Brilliant. I hope this thread will run and run and we’ll get to see the fruits of our labour – lots of wildlife, insects, birds, bees and creatures of the pond.

So looking forward to the day I see a dragonfly. It’s the reason we decided to make our mini pond larger.

Good weekend to get your new ponds filled, as there’s plenty of rainwater to be gathered.

I’m excited as a native water lily I bought last year is flowering.

Is there any good way of attracting newts? Lots of frogs round here but never seen a newt, nor in any other gardens round here. Never seen a dragonfly either.

Is there any good way of attracting newts? Lots of frogs round here but never seen a newt, nor in any other gardens round here. Never seen a dragonfly either.

Amphibians like somewhere to hibernate in winter fairly close. A damp pile of wood, or you can make your own den for them. Dragonflies just need water and lots of plants AFAIK.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/give-nature-a-home-in-your-garden/garden-activities/makeafrogandtoadabode/

Talking of dragonflies…

This handsome fella just hopped into the car whilst I was getting more pond plants earlier. I let him go, despite the fleeting temptation to bring him home and force him to take residence in my garden.

I mean, look at his current residence.

This is getting a bit ridiculous now. Just looking out the window and saw a beast of a frog (in comparison to the other two) leg it across the not-yet-a-lawn and launch itself into the pond.

No pictures I’m afraid as he’s at the bottom & it’s too cloudy after putting plants in, but having walked over to introduce myself I spotted a fourth! Different colouring to the larger one of yesterday’s visitors.

Bloody brilliant.

Next thread: Help, my garden is overrun with frogs.

Brilliant!! That’s great. Frog trip advisor must be kicking off!

All we’ve got in the Covid pond so far is fly larvae, it’s gone a bit green and the local pigeons have started a spa.

The wood arrived for the other part of the project though, so on with that soon and hopefully we can get the water moving between the two to clean things up a bit. We had some left over liner, so have built another pond and woodpile at the bottom of the garden in the hope to attract some slimy reptiles and giant flying insects. Fingers crossed.

Is there mileage in getting a bucket of sludge and tadpoles from another pond to move things along a bit?

This is getting a bit ridiculous now.

Bloody, bloody ridiculous! We’ve had our pond about 10 years, and not a sniff of a frog ☹️.
No other gardens around here have ponds. Next door monoblocked their whole front garden, which doesn’t help.

Well done, I’m very envious!

Talking of dragonflies…

I think that’s a damselfly.

Fat lad and the lady (I think, or maybe the other way around) are now posing for photos in the rain.

(and really sorry gauss, I can only guess there’s some sort of frog holding area nearby I’m not aware of. According to the internet this is nowhere near ready for frogs yet – which a) shows what does the internet know sometimes and b) gives me a bit of a headache actually getting about and finishing the pond – I have to lift up every bit of liner as I’m walking about..just in case!)

I think that’s a damselfly

Right you are, thanks, I thought it was a bit small for a dragonfly.

Right you are, thanks, I thought it was a bit small for a dragonfly.

I was trying to identify a similar creature on my pond… apart from size, a key characteristic is that damselfly wings are back in line with their body when they’re not flying. According to Google, anyway.

Great result on the frogs. We get the occasional one but never any frog spawn. Always get toadspawn though and this year was the first year I’ve seen a lot of baby toads – 100s of them and then they left the pond pretty much overnight when we had that heavy rain at the end of the May heatwave. Might have been encouraged by the grass snake I found swimming across the pond…

I’ll upload pictures later but, mines evolved into an urban/wildlife pond with a couple of fish (was loads but years of heron attacks have put paid to them), frogs and newts

Anyway pond weed has taken over, I can pull out a bin bag full every week. Bar draining it and scrubbing it clean does anyone have any tips on removing it/slowing it down

willjones – I believe it’s best to let nature take it’s course in tadpoles (frogspawn) arriving by itself next season. The reasoning being not moving things from other areas, which may cause infection.

Our pond has turned green too. I think not enough rain. A friend said add a barley straw bag.

Anyway pond weed has taken over, I can pull out a bin bag full every week. Bar draining it and scrubbing it clean does anyone have any tips on removing it/slowing it down

I’ve found this stuff excellent…

CLEAR waters Nishikoi Blanketweed Treatment

https://www.nishikoi.com/clearwatersbiologicalsolution

Heres our pond that we made last month. Only 4m x 2m but we hope to attract a decent variety of wildlife. Already had the birds having a bath and a drink and got a few little beasties swimming around.

If that’s 4m long how big’s your cat???

Lol, I thought that about the cat circa 1.5m long!

Great thread and potentially disastrous/spanner in the works/suitably timely as we are looking to renovate our garden this year and I fancied a pond. What’s the view of pre-made liners, presumably a bit more robust and easy to install but of limited styles/designs?

Also loving the wildlife style gardens, they do look very tranquil.

Great thread and potentially disastrous/spanner in the works/suitably timely as we are looking to renovate our garden this year and I fancied a pond. What’s the view of pre-made liners, presumably a bit more robust and easy to install but of limited styles/designs?

Do it 🙂 Ponds are great.

Preformed liners are easier and tougher. I’d still put some old carpet underneath. I think the main issue is cost as they get bigger. So good for smaller ponds. For a 1000 gallon pond you’re looking at a couple of grand for a decent fibreglass one.

We had a tiny plastic pond when we moved here. Neglected, full of black sludge. After a few months, I emptied it and there was one, small goldfish at the bottom I didn’t even know was there. So I set about building a new home for him. Much happier now I assume.