Do you have a natural stream, spring or pond in your garden ? If so, do you make a feature of it with plants, rocks, fish etc.

[WildRosie]

Just wondering this as my Mum and Dad's old house (and family home) has always had a rather damp area in the back garden. I've always thought it was due to clay-rich soil and lack of sunlight, but it occurred to me yesterday that the water table could be close to the surface. The house is for sale now so too late to exploit the possibilities; how cool to have had a stream or brook bubbling through the lawn.

There are two houses about 100 yards away with the same brook running through both. It's only about two feet wide but it is nevertheless attractive.

The property we bought when we first moved to England had a little waterfall which then puddled into a minor sort of pond. So I bought a couple of ducks, planted out the surrounds - it was lovely!
And then Severn Trent Water came along and repaired the break in the main.
Bye-bye waterfall, bye-bye pond..
We ate the ducks

Like this...yes love it. Feel very lucky.

My parents have a stream that runs through their garden (it’s a river, but most of the year has a slow flow, only occasionally bursts it’s banks, but they have had to do a lot of flood defences building - I’d never buy a house near a water way now, for that reason).
However, it’s beautiful, brings all sorts of wildlife to the garden, voles, frogs, sticklebacks, the odd kingfisher. No way you could put fish in it - they’d all get swept away! My mum has planted around it (not with water plants, I think that’s asking for trouble if they get into waterways), but nearby the banks. It’s beautiful.
I have many happy memories of paddling up and down it, falling in and catching the long suffering sticklebacks 😄

Very nice, nothing.

I suppose having a natural watercourse on your property can be both a blessing and a curse. The sounds of a babbling brook or frogs leaping into a pond must be great but nobody wants flooding.

Severn Trent are spoilsports!

We have a natural pond, we've got plants in it and lots of frogs. It's the oxbow of a brook which presumably got blocked off by previous owners.

I have a natural stream raging deadly flood in winter, and pp is right, you can't really 'plant' around a naturally varying watercourse. Boulders get washed away, never mind plants.

But let it do its own thing and they're glorious - ever changing patterns of pebble bed, foliage, light and wildlife. I had a heron stepping through the garden all this morning.

Probably best to leave your parents' place as it was, working ok - unintended consequences and all that.

We won't be doing a thing Athel. I was simply exploring what might have been, in my head. My own home is close to a couple of old mill ponds with its own populations of mallards, herons, rails and some enormous fish. Carp or black bream, I'm not sure. I do know they breed readily without restocking or other human intervention.

Not that I would want enormous fish in my garden stream or pond. A few minnows and miniature carp plus amphibians and an occasional visiting grass snake or heron would do. Provided they don't eat each other.

No such thing as mini carp and you shouldn’t”t put in non native species to a brook that will go into a river, for example. The heron would eat any fish/frogs. You can get minnows, but if the brook is flowing water, they’d move to where they want to be. Sorry to be boring!

My pond is a really attractive place for birds, there’s a waterfall with several steps and the goldfinches, starlings, crows, robins, sparrows pigeons have a full on wash daily. I have gudgeon, roach and goldfish. The frogs visit annually, deposit tons of spawn then linger for ages. We netted it so the heron can’t get the fish. The bloody thing often tries its luck.

Could you try damming the brook to create a pool/lovely wildlife area?

We did growing up. Is was a bog that turned out to be a little stream.
It was dug down and sides built up with stone, then a little dam built. It bedded in and turned green with plants and It became a babbling brook and was lovely to sit beside in the summer.

I'm just speculating on what might have been, Cherrysoup. Nothing's going to happen. There is no brook, stream or pond. Just rather damp, squelchy lawn at my parents' house which is for sale! However, what planningaheadtoday describes sounds perfect.

For selling it could be a nightmare- we have two ponds but moved when dc were older (though one has already fallen in 🤣😂). It might make it less attractive to a young family but could be offered as a possibility- my dh would love it!