Pond Update
Seeing as it’s now been just over a year since we decided (on somewhat of a whim) to create a pond in the garden, I thought I’d update you on its progress.
It was always intended as a ‘wildlife’ pond. That’s an excuse for letting it go a bit wild, leaving it to do its own thing and not worrying too much about what it looks like! In other words, it’s a lazy pond rather than a formal feature. That’s pretty much what we’ve done. I have fished out clumps of blanket weed now and then, and I did cut back some foliage around it earlier in the year, but otherwise I’ve left it to its own devices. It now looks quite naturalised and sits well in the garden.
It would have been good if we had made it quite a bit larger really as it’s getting swamped by the plant growth already. There was only so much room we had and we were building it on a budget so didn’t want to spend too much on liners etc. As it’s quite small it does tend to drop its level a little in drier spells, but it still looks OK.
The plants are growing well, both in the water and around the edges. The little water lily that we have in there hasn’t flowered yet, but the marginals do.
As far as wildlife is concerned, there are always plenty of little bugs flying around it, mosquitoes and other invertebrates hatch from it in large numbers and there are various beetles and pond skaters seen in and on the water. Our honey bees use it too and can often be seen gathered in large numbers around the edges. I have seen a damselfly around it too but not as many as expected, especially seeing as we used to get them around the water feature when it was there.
We’ve yet to see any amphibians though, not a single frog, toad or newt so far. As far as other vertebrates go then we do get birds bathing in the edges where the little ‘pebble beach’ is. No doubt the abundance of bugs is attracting plenty of other birds too, or at least keeping them fed.
So, I think it’s looking nice and is to some extent providing a little haven for wildlife. It would be nice to get some amphibians but I guess I’ll just have to be more patient.
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Looks lovely .
You could dig another one next to it as a feeder pond to help it from drying out ,May keep you out of mischief for a day or two!