I have been gathering any rocks stones etc that I have
come across while I was removing the old pond so
the first job was to start putting the good ones at one
side of the pond to build a rockery area for frogs and toads
to find shelter
The banks of a wildlife pond should be grassy in places
and the grass is able to grow and overhang. The longer
stems will eventually hang over the pond if I just leave
them to grow. The frogs love the grassy banks as they
provide good cover and can also attract dragon fly larvae
With the pond liner that was left over I dug
back into the grass bank and lifted the grass
and soil up to create an envelope kind of thing
and then tucked the pond liner back underneath
the soil and grass. Ill just leave the sides of the
grass to grow over the edge into the water
I also started to add some water to the pond to fill
it up. Ideally rainwater is best which has been collected
in water butts - i had a few buckets from the waterbath
in the allotment and then started topping it up with
rain water to neutralise the water
If you know of a well established wildlife pond near where there is toads, frogs etc you can fill up two or three washed out water bottles with this pond water. Empty them into your pond in the middle and this will bring a secret ingredient to kick start the first signs of life in your wildlife pond. If the pond is historic and has been established for a long time it should have the micro organisms in the water to get your pond living and encourage pond visitors
And so there we are... the wildlife pond is nearly ready
to let wildlife and the warming spring temperatures bring
the vegetation around it to life....
A good balance of plants for the wildlife pond to start off with could be a water Lilly, a couple of aerating water-weeds and some reeds or rushes kind of thing... i'll be adding them next to try and attract wildlife to the wildlife pond..
I'll be back on soon to show you how the wildlife pond is developing...