well i know a lot about ponds and yes i believe i have done a blog or two on my pond and garden.

thanks nosypotter. Can I site a pond in shade? How deep does it have to be so that it dosent freeze in winter. Oh just tell me everything!! lol /Want a pond for wildlife not for fish. Thanks. Erm What is your Avitar picture?

Great you need at least some direct sunshine on your pond or it isn't going to do well take a look at http://www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/cheshire/documents/advice_ponds.pdf
Explains it far better than I can.

the picture on my avitar is my lovley sharpei`s face sausage whos just about to have pups realy close up.a bit of sun would be better i guess for plants though there are plants that grow in the shade in still ponds including lillies as there are quite a few wild little ponds serounded bye very tall trees round here and know doubt in quite a few forest areas.your pond only needs to be about a foot deep realy with some shallow parts for birds to bathe and plants.personaly i would have some sun on it for the wild life and plants.be carefull what you plant in your pond as some water plants sold at garden centres like yellow iris and bullrushes and a lot of types of liilies will completly take over your pond.most of these plants are stopped from doing this in the wild bye the depth and amount of available light in natural situations.i would definatlynot have your pond in direct sunlight for long .dappled is great and always read the labels on water plants.my pond is clear as a bell and the sun never touches it .i have the sun just hitting my waterfall for the watercress that acts as a great filter.my mums pond barely ever gets the sun on it because of its position and her plants do well as she has shade lovers.the equiverlent of ferns if you like.it doesnt matter if your pond freezes right over in winter as long as its made with a half decent rubber liner.butil being the best but you pay for it .cheaper liners are ok but they suffer at the water line being hit bye sun,wind,coverd in ice etc.the way to get round that is to cover the edges in plants and rocks.creeping jenny does realy well.you can even tuck your liner under your turf and it will find its own level.wild ponds freeze right over and are fine.the worst thing about still water is mosquitos i guess.i hope that helped as my fingers are hurting lol.

Thank uou so much Leigh. I was thinking of using a heavy old white sink or my plastic recycling box. Will that be ok?

Thanks MG

Neither is big enough for a pond if you want wildlife in it.

When I was making my pond, most of the sites I found on the internet said the pond must be no shallower than 60 cms. This is because frogs hibernate in ponds and if it is less than this they will die if the water freezes solid all the way down. For wildlife ponds it is important to have sloping edges so that small critters can enter and leave easily. Frogs like shallow areas for spawning, and in my pond they seem to live mostly in the part of the pond that is two feet deep, not the part that is four feet deep. However the part that is four feet deep keeps the conditions in the pond relatively stable- very small ponds heat up and cool down very quickly which makes it harder for wildlife to adjust to the rapidly changing temperatures. Wildlife like lots of cover, and will benefit from an abundance of planting around the edges, stones with cavity areas, log piles etc. White sinks and recycling boxes would not be big enough for amphibians to breed in and have steep sides which would mean they would drown if they can't get out. Overhanging rocks round the pond can have the same effect of preventing wildlife from getting out and coming to an an unpleasant end. I would recommend to place the pond where there is some sun as the frogs love to bask in it at the water's edge, but try and have two thirds of your pond covered with pond plants to stop too much algae forming.

the chances of your pond freezing down to over a foot thick in this country are very very slim.your talking freezing nights and days for weeks and weeks non stop.ice actualy becomes a bit of an insulater eventualy once it gets an inch thick.my mum gets frogs and spawn often in her rill.admitadley its running water but its only an inch deep and about 6 inches wide.nature has a way of finding a way.your sink would be deep enough but being square and solid ice can crack it when it expands.the way to stop this would be a little pump to keep the water running .plastic is far better as it gives .personaly and it isnt because you wont get wild life including tadpoles if your lucky i would get a piece of reasnable liner.make it below the level of the serounding ground or better still make it so the ground gently slopes up to the edges .it shouldnt cost the earth as you only want a foot deep and if your worried maybe 18" tops and a nice natural shape.you times the longest part of your pond bye the very deepest part ie 18" twice .the depth twice . so if it was 36" long you would get a piece of liner 72" in total .you do the same measuring the width to .liner comes in linear metres normaly ie it could be 8 feet wide and you buy ex amount of feet bye that 8 feet .i think you could get a piece say 72" x 72" for not much more than £30 and it would last ages and look great .your plastic tub also has steep edges which isnt great for climbing out of .with the gentle slope of a liner it would be easyier and look more well wild and natural looking.you could probably buy an ofcut on ebay for a tenner .the other thing is if you have a liner you can utalise nealy all of it.a lot of what weedfingers sais is right .the thing is with dappled light and the fact that amphibians breed realy early in the seasen stops the worry of a lack of oxygen and overheating especialy as your not having fish . all the insects breath from the air we breath rather than with gills like a fish.with plenty of plants and caves rocks and logs round the edge the sun wont realy ever hardly hit the water .you realy do need a bigger pond for most lillies though ive seen them grown in quite small tubs.as for algi it doesnt bother the pond life at all infact it stops air born predetors seeing a potential dinner.people dont like algi as it stops us very visual humans from seeing . once you get higher plants and dappled shade the algi will not grow as it actualy needs a lot of sun and eats the same food as the higher plants .the tadpoles eat it to .my pond gets know sun direct at all and apart from a little natural tannin from the leaves its clear as a bell . much clearer than my tap water .ive kept fish for as long as i could and have been very intersted since i could get my hands in my dads pond . there is nothing better in anything than wisdom and hands on experiance and as im 49 years old thats nearly half a century lol . im showing my age .there is so much misinfermation out there in all walks of life and biast info .fiat or sony or hoselock or any company are all going to tell you there product is the best as there never going to say there pond pumps say are rubbish but please buy one .wisdom however as many of these great gardners on here who have been doing it for a good while and learned bye there mistakes is the best knowladge you can get .i think that is what realy sums up this sight realy . you can get a big leap forward without mistakes bye listerning to the people who have already made them.there is a lot of mis information out there all in the name of the dollor rather than solid learned information.anyway feal free to ask as many questions as you like .i know i do lol .life is a learning curve and there is always room for improvement .strangley enough apart from breeding and the odd vissit most amphibians spend nearly all there life out of the pond in the serounding plant life . this is why the seroundings are at least as importent as the water feacture itself. anyway take care , good luck ill stop running on for now bye for now lol.

a mosquito lava can live quit litteraly in a bottle cap with water in it.i know there not everyones cup of tea excuse the pun but they are at the bottem of the food chain nearly and are great food for young frogs,toads and lots of other water life .

There is a plant called eucalyptus gunni it is meant to be mosquito and gnat repellent would it be an idea to grow this near the pond? I'm begining to think i need someoer to build a pond for me; have atrapped nerve in mt arm and other health problems. Do not want to start something i cant finish. I do worry about electric cables in the garden and the noise, pumps and areorators make.
nosy potter I like this picture of your dog much better!
Weedfingers agree, the sides of the ponds I was thinking of usin, would be too steep

this plant doesnt realy work and i would avoid it in your garden myself as they get very big.if you have a trapped nerve then you should get some help but being as its a wildlife pond and your hopefully going to use a liner its realy not as hard as it mite seam so dont worry to much great .

Drugs, drugs and more drugs noseypotter, Nerve is still trapped! But at least the pins and needles have almost gone. Thanks for advise about the plant. Didn't wanna spend £7.99 only to find it doesnt work.

your more than welcome great