ponds

hi cass, you came to the right place for ideas. what size pond are u thinking of? will you be planting in it and will there be fish ?

hi irish its goning to be about 6x6 possibly roundish as there is a shape of one already when i started digging i found a big rubber liner no holes in it . yes we will plant and yes there will be fish

Hi Cass, my boys and myself made a wildlife pond at the bottom of the garden. Dug a large hole, removed loads of stones. Placed an old piece of carpet in the hole, then the pond linner. Filled it with water. Positioned some old stones/rubble etc over the liner once the water was in and it had settled (making sure to trim off the excess liner). Left it for a while put a few plants in it and that is all there is to do. It's now full of bugs and beasties that have moved in on their own accord.

thanks for that but dont i have to to shallow and deep for plants how do i make ledges with out them caving in

guess the pond can be as dear or as cheap as you wish, i found it was a lot of trial and error. i started off with a wee pond and few fish but 2 yrs ago we made it bigger an now we have 23 fish, mostly comets and one koi. there is a good website called watergarden.com.... go to the foto section to give yourself a few ideas. as for plants well you can get a large variety some do need depth but not all.
lot of book about ponds you could get from the library, these i found very helpful plus without the expense of having to buy them as a lot of the books tell you basically the same things

Sorry, of course when digging your hole make sure you have various depths, this will be great for different types of plants. Either dig to the required depth as you go, or add some to create shelves by basical putting some back in and standing on it. All good nurseries have a selection of literature and a good selection of plants. Shelves at different depths would aid wildlife that shouldnt be in the pond and give it a chance to drink or escape. I'm thinking hedgehog etc.
Pond lilies in the deep bit, grasses and marginals around the edge/shallows. A floating soldier, to just bob around on the surface. Then let nature take care of it.

thanks guys youve been helful with your tips must think im a dumb blond , books library should have thought of that cass

Hi Cass in a similar position to you only on a bigger scale
and thats only because of the rubbish I found when digging. there is alot of info on the net try wildlife pond through search engine. thats how found this site too and the helpful supportive people out there.
If you want wildlife pond fish not recommended as feeding filtering etc affects natural balance plenty of other natural creatures not as fussy as fish sure your daughter would love.But hey if she wants fishies then who am I ? Just trying to give you some options.

Another way of getting plants at various depths is to stand their pots on bricks in the water - more bricks = higher pot. Not rocket science but an easy way round the problem

i tried that last yr andrew, i put upturned plant pots in the pond weighed down and they have worked a treat .