Our pond voyage
- alizajoy2011
- Oct 4
- 4 min read
In March this year, we moved to a house with a pond in the back garden. Whilst our last house did have a pond, two in fact, one was a puddled clay pond which dried up every summer and over-flowed every winter, and the other was a small pond which we built. Since this pond was young and yet to establish, it didn't have many invertebrates or pond life except back-swimmers (water boatmen!), pond skaters and bathing birds.
However, over the course of spring and summer in our new house, I have come to realize that our 'new' pond is teeming with life. From leeches to dragonflies, backswimmers, the occasional newt, the rare flash of the kingfisher, a single visit from a juvenile moorhen, a broody pair of mallards, and our regular garden birds (wren, and a whole bunch of pigeons!).
But, this pond does have its problems.
For one thing, it is obvious that this pond is old and neglected - from the wobbly paving slab border, the broken waterfall feature, the lack of 'proper' planting (and the matt of blanket weed), and the amount of putrid sludge at the bottom. My parents are (very kindly), going to give me a small budget to transform our old, formal pond, to a new, informal wildlife pond.
Filled with enthusiasm, I removed the blanket weed from the pond (at much delight to my chickens, who made short work of the many pond snails lurking in it...!), and started researching what I want from the pond, and how to make it happen. I also completed a pond survey and visited several other local ponds for inspiration.
Our Pond
As part of my pond survey, I tested the water for each pond I could get to the water of.
Our pond looks like so... (and yes, the ducks definitely did like our pond)
To be honest, I do admire the fact that there is a whole underwater kingdom in there, and I can only hope that the future pond will be just as successful or maybe more successful than this one is.
However, I don't like its formal appearance, it's not particularly my style and (through reading my many books and 'chicken gazing' - our chickens love to go fishing for pond snails in the shallow part of our pond) I've come to realize that its not the easiest thing for both mammals and amphibians to get in and out of, thanks to the overhanging slabs.
The survey results
Ammonia - 3mg/ litres
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
pH - 6.4
Carbonate hardness - 6
General hardness - 14
Local Pond Number One I visited a pond in some nearby woodland owned by the Woodland Trust, to find that it was a seasonal pond and had dried up completely!
This pond looked like so... however, I know from previous visits that it doesn't always look like that! I love the natural features of this pond, and that it has native plants in it as well as one of my favorites - waterlily (there were some lilies when we went but they were no longer floating, but rather sitting on what used to be the bottom of the pond.) I really like lilies, they are so perfectly designed as they generate heat to help bees pollinate them without drowning or getting a chill from the cool pond water. They also offer shade and hiding places for the animals in the water, and landing pads for egg-laying dragonfly. What I dislike about it is the fact that it is seasonal; whilst this is beneficial to some animals such as newts which prefer seasonal ponds, where there are no fish to eat their eggs. However, as I rather like fish, I prefer ponds that are full all year round!
Local 'Pond' number Two
As we were unable to access another pond which had recently been dredged (no response from the landowner!), we visited a nearby reservoir instead.
A quick look at the reservoir...
What I like about it is the wide variety of fish species dwelling in its waters. According to the website, it houses rainbow and brown Trout, Carp, Roach, Rudd, Gudgeon, and Chub, and I also like the fact that so many water birds depend upon it.
To be quite honest, I'm not sure if there's anything I don't like about it, it is a really nice place in my opinion.
The survey results
Ammonia - 3 mg/litre
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
pH - 6.4
Carbonate hardness - 10
General hardness - 7
Conclusion
Since I like more curvy ponds (which wildlife tends to prefer) and really love wildlife, I really want to turn our pond from round and formal, into an irregular/kidney shaped wildlife pond with one section housing fish, and the other a wildlife area. I hope to plant a load of native (or at least, non invasive!) plants to oxygenate and complete our pond ecosystem. Since I know that I want fish, I am going to have to make sure I have enough plants to keep the nitrite and nitrate cycle in balance. I am going to document these over the coming months as I research them more and undertake more pond-y projects....!
This is a well written blog post which clearly shows the excitement you have for your project. I really like the first photo - a nice short depth of field / focus on the flower. Ponds are not easy to get “into balance” so it will be interesting to see how you get on and I will be eagerly waiting for future updates. It was great that the duck cooperated with the photo, but was clearly a little embarrassed, so hid its head! I used to unwind after work beside a pond I once had - they have a very calming effect. Bees love them too, by the way, as they need water to dilute honey for food.
I too love ponds , natural looking , with big round pebbles at one edge , for birds , though blackbirds do enjoy a big fat tadpole when they can get them , overhanging rocks/ledges for tadpoles to hide , where the fish cant go , lilys , small enough not to take over , reeds for beasties to climb out onto , its even quite fun twirling blanket weed round a suitable stick , and rather than letting loose the chucks , watching what crawls out and heads pondwards . We used to have little shrimp type things in ours . Then those ditzy shiny beetles I guess they are that dance about aimlessly in circles . Yep ,…