How much does a pond cost?

[user0512]

Putting this in AIBU for more traffic.

How much does a pond cost realistically?

Impossible to say without knowing the details but we made ours for the cost of a liner and a few plants. Rockery stones free from fb marketplace.

Watching this thread with interest as I am very keen to create a wildlife pond in the garden. I actually went to the library yesterday to borrow books on ponds to help me plan it.

Maybe this has made me overthink it because now I am worrying in case I don't pick a giiod site for it, or don't make it level or whatever. How big were your wildlife ponds and how deep?

I am concerned in case I bite off more than I can chew with the digging, we have very heavy, clay soil that is poorly drained. Also how to get rid of or use up the spoil that comes out.

Also, what about edging. From the book I gather I will have done of the liner overlapping the sides and will have to cover it. But what if I want to plant right up to the edge?

I had been put off preformed ponds because I read they are not as durable. I know I will have to create a ramp at one end as we get hedgehogs in the garden now and if they go for a swim they need to be able to get out.

So many questions

Our pond was in when we bought the house, so this is a note on the cost of maintenance- I’d say it’s about £200+ pa (cleaning, blanket weed treatment, electricity for the filter and pump, fish food) But again, as other say, it depends on the size and purpose… if you have fish it will be that, if it’s just a natural pond, it could be a one-off-ish cost of supply and install.

I wasn’t really wanting a pond (or the 6 geriatric goldfish that subsequently were scoffed by passing herons and ravens), but it has a fountain and the splish splash on a warm summer’s day is very soothing!

We've since restocked the goldfish who had babies - so we currently have lots of fish, tadpoles, newts, dragonflies and other pond life - and we now love our pond!

The end

I have a very small pond that's roughly 4' x 3' x a foot deep. It's lined with a thick layer of non-woven felt padding covered with butyl liner. I can't remember how much that was as it was 15y ago but it was definitely less than £100. I had previously had a bucket pond, with a miniature yellow waterlily in. They are £20-25 each. That got moved over, has been split a few times and is still going... so though they can be expensive they are very long-lived. Within the first few months the frogs moved in and then newts... despite the goldfish I'd got to keep the mozzies down! The most expensive part was all the stones I bought for disguising the butyl round the edge.

I never bought a filter or fountain as waterlilies don't like moving
water. The downside of that is I do have to net to stop leaves falling
in and rotting in autumn (more £), and even with that, I end up having
to scoop netfuls of goop out of the bottom. I've cleaned the whole thing
out and refilled just once because I was a novice and hadn't realised
how stagnant they get if you don't have a filter and keep the leaves
etc. out. Yuk!

I don't have fish any more, though, as my username will attest! I scoop out the mozzie larvae with a kid's fishing net. It's currently full of tadpoles and I've seen 4 newts at the same time so there's at least that number in there. Birds bath in it, drink from it, so do the cats, and squirrels. I've had damselflies, dragonflies and semaphore flies. The lilies are just leafing up. I love my little pond.

Ongoing costs are a few quid a year for anti-algae barley straw extract to stop it going pea green and also the stuff you need to put into tap water to make it safe for pondlife (if you aren't prepared to let buckets of water stand a couple of days for the chlorine to escape). And time.

I wouldn't be aspiring to wildlife, but it would be lovely to have something like your pebble pond as a water feature, @JaceLancs It looks really pretty and would be ideal for the small space I have - just hearing water splashing is so calming.

It looks lovely but come on!! How on earth do 4 goldfish manage to swim freely in that?

@JaceLancs
Don't you find the fountain chucks out all the water in a tub that size?

I have a tub which I think must be a similar size and tried to make a water feature. No gush, just three aquatic plants and a solar powered fountain. But when the sun comes out the fountain works so well it just vsoks all the water out all over the patio.

And the sodding pigeons have killed the plants by landing on them when they come for a drink

That should be no fish. Plenty of gush!

It's many years since I made a pond in my garden but all I actually paid for was the liner, some slabs to edge it and some mortar. The liner was not cheap, I think it's worth paying for a good one.
Other than that it was all hard labour on my part. I think it took me 3 months to dig the hole (and a LOT of swearing!). But it does look lovely now. I could only get it to 2 feet deep so didn't put any fish in there. It is full of life though, we had breeding newts that first year, and the water boatmen had moved in before I'd even finished filling it.
Yes to getting plants from other gardeners - pond plants often need splitting as they grow so huge. I've often got plants to give away and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

We've a lake which was created by previous owners which is full of fish, wild ducks and moorhens. We're digging out another 2 ponds, one to breed fish in (carp, perch, roach) and the other as a koi pond next to the patio.

@JaceLancs as others have mentioned that water feature is cruelty to fish. Not anywhere like deep or big enough. Please rehome them.

I have a mini-pond. bought a 90x30cm trough for £40, dug it into a hole. No fountain or filter so we only have a couple of pond plants but we've had newts and lots of insects.

We built two, one big one small. It didn't cost very much, just good liner and some second hand slabs. Then it's all the maintence and other costs - two pumps for cleaning, buckets and hoses, fish, plants, fountains...

Depends on size, how you want to build it, what you want to keep in it.

We have over 20 koi so ours is pretty big. lol

Wildlife pond is small but cost next to nothing. Just the price of a liner. No pump needed. Edged with mostly old bits of wood and a few rocks, froglets fry on hot stones so don’t need too many of those. It supports a myriad of life, frogs, newts and snails etc. We threw in a bag of supermarket watercress, which thrived. Lots of plants have naturally grown up around it but I did fork out for some Iris last year. We used old carpet as underlay. Cheap as chips.

@JaceLancs if you have fish in there please rehome them, it's really not suitable for them at all

I'm so envious of everyone with a pond teeming with wildlife! We have a koi pond and it has to be netted to prevent the local herons and gulls snacking on my expensive fish ~ downside is wildlife can't access it.

My 6foot by 4 foot cost about £1k including water feature, materials and liner. I got the stones for free from gumtree. I'll see if I can find a photo

I put gravel between rocks on the edge, and soil between those and planted some wildflowers :)

Another one to say that tiny pond is a cruel place to keep fish :( please rehome them.

Fish ponds are not great for some kinds of wildlife, newts and frogs often avoid them as the fish are predators to their offspring. Toads have toxic spawn so are not as bothered where they lay their eggs. We deliberately avoided putting in fish to give other species a chance.