My pond.
6 comments
I have a rather ugly preformed fibreglass pond which was given to me a long time ago. I had 2 willing helpers to dig the hole but unfortunately we came across a large pipe which I had no idea was running there. We were faced with a dilemma: either start again somewhere else or have the pond higher than the surrounding area. I decided on the latter. Digging really heavy clay had not been much fun! So we balanced the pond on the pipe and packed soil under and around it, creating a slope down to the lawn. The problem has always been packing enough soil under the edges and growing something round it to try to hide them as the soil gradually works it way down the slope. i think I’ve managed that to some extent with hardy geraniums, although they disappear in winter.
It was always intended as a wildlife pond and I started it off with a large milk carton full of water from a local pond added to tap water that had been hosed in a few days before. In the spring I obtained a small jar of frogspawn and since then the pond has reared about 15 generations of frogs and there is a good population of pond snails and other creepy crawlies, all of which appeared spontaneously.
I am now feeling discontented with this pond because there is no boggy area to grow lovely things like primulas etc or for baby frogs to hop around in. This year they are leaping out onto hot dry earth and scorched grass. My grandchildren have made some shady hideyholes complete with small dishes of water—great fun and all their own idea, but not as good as a boggy area.
Sadly, so far this year, 3 stag beetles (scarce) have drowned themselves and today there is a drowned hedgehog, which I feel really distressed about.
I’m racking my brains as to how to make escape routes from a pond with slippery sloping sides and no flat area wide enough to make a platform or gangplank which would stay in position. I have some pond plants sitting on the narrow shelves but a struggling hedgehog would just pull them off into the depths. At the moment I feel like filling the darned thing in.
1 Aug, 2018
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I hope you don't fill it in although you must feel like it now. A solution will come to you I'm sure.
1 Aug, 2018
Difficult to imagine exactly what the pond looks like above the ground, but an answer to your dilemma could be to drape a narrow strip of the plastic fencing which looks like a grid of lines each each direction, making small squares each square about 2 inches.. If you don't know what I mean, let me know and I'll add a photo of a piece of the fencing to my latest blog.
You could fix the narrow strip in place from draped over the pond edge, down to the ground, and then grow plants over it... this would allow small creatures to crawl in and out of the pond.
2 Aug, 2018
to make a boggy area dig another shallow hole or 'scrape' and line it with some pond liner refill with soil and this will hold water in that area. clearly with the weather we have been having it would need watering .as for a ramp for wildlife use stones/cobbles to create an ever decreasing slope. a bit like a beach.
whilst it is sad about the hedgehog you have had the pond for some time now [15yrs? assume 1 yr per frog generation] and this has increased the wildlife in your garden.
I have astilbes at one side and don't cut the dead foliage down until the new growth starts and that looks pretty in the winter.
2 Aug, 2018
Thank you everyone. I will try to send a photo and am intrigued by these ideas but I had some very bad news this morning which means I can't concentrate on anything much at the moment. I'll be back in a while. Thanks again.
2 Aug, 2018
Hello again, everyone. I'm sorry to have left the pond saga so long but the bad news in August was the sudden death of my brother, which rather knocked me for six for a while.
Since then I have cleaned out the pond thoroughly, (having recovered a bit from the hedgehog incident), and have taken up some of your useful suggestions,eg terratoonie's rigid plastic netting, now draped in several places but still more to do once it is a little warmer! I think that will not only help any animal that tumbles in but also support plants along the edge and help to hide it.
I have also prepared a boggy area using plastic to line a scooped out space at the end of the pond, as suggested by SBG.
The pond is now pretty empty of plants except for some kingcups in pots. I didn't like the look of the pond plants available at the garden centre at the end of the summer especially as they appeared to have blanket weed amongst them. With this mild weather I think the frogs will be early again so I need to get a move on with pondweed and new plants or the tadpoles will have nothing to eat. I wonder if anyone could suggest a small waterlily that they have grown successfully please?
I will try to put up a picture Drc but am not very clever with this new laptop!
10 Jan, 2019
I am intrigued by this and hope you put a picture up as I think a members may well have solutions that may help. My ideas to do a bit of lateral thinking and build up to the pond rather than down from it but we do need a photo
1 Aug, 2018