Thinking of putting a pond in

[OhyouBadBadkitten]

At the idle thinking stage. Mentioned it in my border thread but wondering how easy it is to put a pond in and what would be involved? Tis rather a shady area 2.5mx2.5m . Would like it all natural and wildlifey. (I guess I might regret it when Bad Cat brings in the wildlife though)

What do you reckon?

please ignore this - mumblechum has kindly pointed out that it would fill up with leaves. oh well, nice idea.

You could put a net over it to catch leaves, or a metal grill. My pond is underneath my fatsia and it doesn't get bunged up too badly. You can hire pondvacs to give it a clear out, I do mine every other year.

It is great for wildlife, I don't have too many frogs (thank you, cats) but it brings the hedgehogs in and as a result I have very few slugs in my garden. Lot of hedgehog poo though.

oooo, you've put it back into the equation. I shall rethink my rethinking!

Any safety issues can be taken care of by putting a decent gauge of rebar over the pond, and staking it down with croquet hoop-like sprags. It rusts in an aesthetically pleasing manner and reeds, etc. grow through.

Rebar will take an adult's weight, never mind a child.

I'm gagging to put in a pond in my garden here in Australia, for its beauty and for the beasties' sake when it's dry.

Slightly cacking myself that it might attract snakes, though.:o

Would you have to keep it topped up echt?
I guess there is some wildlife you really dont want to attract!

We put a pond in when we first moved into our house. I too thought it would be nice to attract wildlife etc. Built it with a slope so hedgehogs & birds could easily drink out of it. Unfortunately our Springer Spaniel just thought it was a big puddle and used to go and lie in it! In the end her claws ripped the lining and it leaked ... end of wildlife pond. Its now a rockery!

That is a very sad ending!

Yes, a pond would need topping up, though I'm thinking of only a small one, perhaps 6 by 4 max.

The snakes do bother me, as the fence on one side has holes at the bottom - most Australian gardens/yards have fences very tight all round. I should say I've never seen a snake here in the suburbs, but they're definitely around, and they do like ponds in hot weather.

A bit worried about the dog, as I don't think there are any non-lethal snakes in Australia.

A good UK pond story is of a friend who stocked the pond with koi and not only did a heron scoff nearly all of them, but stabbed through the liner with its beak.:o

lol at the heron! when we moved here we looked out of a bedroom window and noted that a)the neighbours had a couple of ponds, one looking very serious and b) The whole garden was strung with fishing line running along at head height. Turned out it was anti-heron tactics.

I can see why the snakes would bother you, I think that would be rather an issue.