Wildlife pond in garden.

  Wildlife Pond

A year and four months ago my daughter decided she wanted a pond (with frogs and newts of course) for her Christmas present.  Now I have to admit although I am normally saying haven't you got enough playmobil / cuddly toys etc, I was thinking "that sounds like a lot of hard work".  Oh how  wrong I was.  This was easy compared to dog/ cat/ piles of toys clogging up house, and it can be left at the weekends without need for expensive kennels...

Online I discovered that you either pay for a butyl liner or you have to keep re making your pond.  I quickly found a supplier of butyl liners http://www.butylproducts.co.uk  This website allows you to calculate the amount of liner you need and you can buy the underliner and we put in the same  felty stuff inside too and it has been a bonus for wildlife as it creates warmer pockets around the edge.

I ordered a metre cube of sand from Ridgeons and  her grandmothers, overjoyed for something that was not plastic nor computer based paid for the lot (less than £200 in total).

Boxing day  was spent working off the Christmas lunch digging and shifting the sand that had been helpfully left about 20 metres from the pond.  Still it meant everyone in extended family kept busy all day not just valiant one in the bottom of pond.  By the end of the day we were filling it up with water.  By the start February 2012 we were beginning to put in plants given to us by friends and family, but the algae were taking an upper hand and the surrounding black was prominent.  Unhelpful comments from husband were heard like "why do you let her do things like this" etc.

Granny and various pond owning friends of hers to the rescue: tadpoles galore!  they gobbled up all the algae and the warmth meant our oxygenating plants took off and a combination of all of this created a crystal clear pond.  Even the irises I had planted flowered in their first year. (yes they did cost something but I painted them and sold the painting so...)

Skip forward to April 2013

The work has been minimal, additional expenditure 0 (yes compare that to dog or cat)

, but the excitement this year has been unstoppable:

First a smooth male newt was spotted:

Then the king cups came out:

Damselfly nymph - an amazing creature with three tail like gills

 Pond dipping from dawn to dusk

We have our very own disabled frog named HOP

 Frog spawn and more and more.  This year we have been able to give away frog spawn.

 Water boatmen

 Then there were three.. the male newt has two females

 A frog by the kingcups

And loads and loads more but NO FISH! apparently they don't work in small wildlife ponds.

And if you are wondering where all this info came from- the Oxfam book shop in Saffron Walden, simply the most amazing charity book shop I have ever been to.http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops/oxfam-bookshop-saffron-walden

The Pond by Gerald Thompson and Jennifer Coldrey, but I am sure there are many other equally informative books on the subject (oh yes and there is always the internet)