The Wildlife Pond Wednesday 19th March 2014

I headed back down to the allotment last night to do a bit more work on the wildlife pond. I think after this evenings session I might just leave nature to do its work and grow up and around the pond. Anyway here's where we got to...

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....

To finish off I'm going to throw a couple of shovels of soil to the bottom of the pond just to make it nice and soggy for any wildlife and also a heap or two to plant some reeds. Try and make sure the soil you throw in is free of chemical fertilizers or weed killers. Chemical pollutants can stay active in the soil for many years.

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...