AIBU to have a pond or water feature in a city garden?

[thornyhousewife]

Terraced townhouse, busy small City.

Is it terrible manners to have a pond or water feature which makes a running water noise?

Haven't moved there yet so don't know the neighbours, but have always wanted a pond.

What do you think? Do you live near a water feature and hate it? Do you have a water feature and it's fine?

A timer sounds very sensible.

We have a small pond at the back of the garden. Allotments other side of the fence, and you can’t hear the trickle of water from the house, even at the dead of night so we don’t disturb anyone.

We live in a busy London suburb, even so the pond attracts a range of creatures!

We have pond skaters, water snails, even a dragonfly visited recently. The birds use it for bathing and squirrels drink out of it. I’m keeping my eye out for frogs, none yet. It’s a lovely addition to the garden.

A pond only needs a pump if it has fish, because fish generate a lot of waste. If it’s a pond just for wildlife, it should not stagnate - probably remove any dead leaves though?

Next door has a running water feature. We notice it sometimes but it’s really not a problem. And when our DCs were small they had frogs which was fab. It’s important to have some movement in the water or it will stagnate. You can have a mechanised thing that floats around the water keeping it moving - or you can have a water feature powered by solar - my aunt has one and I think it only works in the day.

I looked into building a wildlife pond not so long ago and I remember finding a good step by step guide on the ZSL website. Bought the pond liner but then stalled! Have a look.

I think it's a lovely idea. It will be great for wildlife.

A gentle trickling noise at night wouldn't bother me, I find it soothing.

My old neighbours had one and I was a bit sad when it wasn't on as I loved sitting in the garden listening to it. They did turn it off at night but I'm not sure I'd have heard it anyway.

A pond only needs a pump if it has fish, because fish generate a lot of waste. If it’s a pond just for wildlife

This. Our "pond" literally consists of a large plastic tub that sits on the patio. It has iris and marsh marigold in it. Not sure what "stagnate" means in this context: plenty of real ponds out in the wild don't have a stream running into them. It doesn't get smelly. I top it up with water in a drought and scoop out the duckweed and algae from time to time.

Pumps are a necessity if you have fish as they cannot cope with the ammonia that results from their body waste and also need the water oxygenated to breathe. Plants do their own oxygenation.

Not buying an otherwise good house if it has a small pond in it seems ott: what could be easier than just getting a load of soil delivered and filling it in?

It's actually a really noisy place already and near a car park and pub, so part of the rationale is that the noise of water would lessen it, but I don't know if it would be actually adding to the noise pollution instead.

I will definitely look into the unfiltered ponds that could be a good solution. Will fish be ok in a pond without a pump? I will Google this in a minute but any experiences would be good.

Ok what I wasn't aware of is that it would attract rats. We currently live rurally and bizarrely have never seen rats, but always see them in the city we're moving too, so I am definitely wary of doing something which would attract them.

Will also Google rat proof bird feeders!

Just seen the previous replies RE fish and pumps, thank you!

We don’t have fish, but found that without a pump the pond weeds just took over and it did start to smell, maybe because it’s in a damp, shady area? Not sure..

We got a small waterfall feature and pump with a filter to keep the water moving, albeit minimally. The water stays clear and alge growth is minimal. We have planted some pond plants which seems to be doing well, plus edge plants which are slowly growing in to the pond.

Definitely worth having a listen to water features before buying one. Some make an awful noise, others are restful.

Here’s the guide I mentioned - Just add water -

www.froglife.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/JAW2014-for-printing-HLF1.pdf

I've got what are optimistically termed 'micro ponds' they fit with the micro garden-- assorted old rice cooker bowls, a solid plant tub and a knackered water butt. Each one is impossible to drown in (too small and they are either covered or have random bits of rubble in them to let animals out), each grows their own little ecosystem of plants and bugs and I get lots of Wrens, Blackbirds and other species that wouldn't go near the bird feeder.

I live in hope of amphibians or hedgehogs, but the way the garden is built (surrounded by a huge brick wall that was here long before the house), they're not very likely.

They're just part of the ecosystem out the back.

Will fish be ok in a pond without a pump

Not really, no. Fish excrete ammonia which can kill them unless filtered through a pump. I do keep fish in a small unfiltered tub in summer but a) they are extremely small fish b) I do very frequent water changes with treated water c) I am an experienced fishkeeper and know what I'm doing. Goldfish definite no-no.

as for the weed, I don't find it's any worse than weeding your borders: you have to hoik out algae and duckweed from time to time, not a big deal

I found the birds use the pond for bathing and drinking a lot more since we put the waterfall and filter in.

Plus it stops our dog dunking his head in and emerging like the creature from the swamp, head covered in green algae!

I live in a very busy area with a small garden. I made my own water feature. It is a small pond liner buried below the ground, with a small pump in. I then covered it with slate and built rocks behind it to create a little waterfall. I like it. I don’t have it switched on at night.

As long as it can be turned off. It would be kind of annoying if it was running all the time,

In a quite suburb you might be unreasonable but honestly I'd think anyone complaining about the noise of a tiny water feature when they've chosen to live in a busy city was completely ridiculous and just being awkward for the sake of it.

If you choose one that’s solar powered it will turn off by itself in the night I think.

We dug the smallest pond a few weeks ago. It had frogs in within 24 hours!

We had to fill in our small pond (turned it into a bog garden) because it was attracting rats. But we've got 3 'barrel ponds', 2 large and one smaller on the patio. I do need to hook out algae quite regularly, a small fish net does the job. Birds (and the dog) like drinking from them and the birds use the small one for bathing - it's almost solid with water plants so they can stand in it.

If it's quite a noisy area already - go for it. It won't be Niagara falls...

If you don't have running water you can buy oxegenating plants.