Show me your garden ponds large and small please!

[susandelgado]

I'm trying to decide what to do, I bought a fibreglass pond but now I think it's too big, help me make my mind up 😊

Mine is about 3× 5m. I have to net it from autumn to late spring to keep out first the leaves then the ducks from the nearby river who otherwise eat all the frog spawn and churn up the silt. I take the netting off when the waterliliy leaves begin to poke through the mesh. Currently it is like tadpole soup, with water boatman skulling around on top. I love it.

Scarby I have pond envy, that really is beautiful.

Preformed ponds are a PITA as they need to be levelled really carefully and are rarely deep enough to support life through a harsh winter. You're better off digging a hole and buying pond liner.

Situate a pond so it's in shade at least part of a the day to prevent algae taking over

If it's for wildlife it will need at least one gentlest sloping side. Hedgehogs literally come en masse to drink at ours.

If you put goldfish in it will probably need a filter, or very few fish and very vigorous plants - a filter is better goldfish are dirty buggers

If it's for wildlife don't put goldfish in as they'll eat most of it

If you're having fish the pond needs to be at least 2' deep if the fish are going to survive a harsh winter

@belfasteast Thank you! To be fair, I didn't put it in. It was already here when I moved in over 20 years ago, but I have improved the area round it, and added the summer house and seating area. It has taken about a decade for me to work out the need for, and timing of, the netting, but that is critical to the health of the pond. There are mature trees that dump far too many leaves in the water and clog it up, and the ducks - while fun to watch - are absolute vandals! Ponds do need managing, even if they are wildlife ponds.

I'm a terrible gardener. But I'm really proud of my pond. It's in an old stone animal trough

Oh I love that BrassicaBabe!

I used to have a pond in a barrel, it was lovely in my tiny garden at the time.

OOO, some lovely ideas and help on here, thank you. I cuurently have to washing up bowls sunk into the ground as our wildlfie ponds! We have frogs every year, but it the bowls are too small for breeding. So, as a lockdown project I am putting in a new wildlife pond. As long as I keep it safe for our hedgehogs (with ramps) , I think it will be a hit - go big or go home! :-)

Montysmam

we are building a second pond with a waterfall to go into our big pond, and dh ahs said he wants to bank up the earth on one side to make it more naturalistic.

After I saw your previous post I told him we need a slope for hedgehogs!
We have a walled garden with one gate onto a field. Until last year the gate was close fitted to the floor as we had free ranging rabbits. Now the rabbots are gone, we are making a hedghog gap under the gate, and into next door's garden on th eother side. I am really hoping they come in! So, hedgehog slope into the pond has been added!

Some lovely ponds

This thread has just reminded me, I need to go and put some mesh over my mini pond. There's a bird's nest in the hedge right beside it, and I don't want any fledglings to plop in and not be able to get out.

Right, we bought the sand a cement today, so this weekend is pond time!

I'm not sure if we have a leak or not, the water seems to evaporate quickly

Technically it's a water feature supposedly like a bigger pebble pool but we have had frogs take up residence under the water stone

I think when we have a warm spot will have to investigate

I'm not sure if we have a leak or not, the water seems to evaporate quickly rate of evaporation depends only on water surface. So you could stand a bucket of water next to it, and see if the bucket water level decreases as quickly. It would be easier without the pebbles which both obscure what's happening and increase the effective area.

Thanks mere.

We were aware that the surface area was greater than the depth being technically a water feature not a pond and we do have evaporation and have to top up , but it's been going faster than usual.

Bit the bulletin this morning and draining it to see if we can see anything.

Bonus was we found four frogs, three quite big and a baby. We have temporarily put the in a bucket but may have to relocate to a neighbour

Baby froggie was poking his head out the hole in the stone for the water pump pipe

well, our new top pond has been built. Now we have to wait for cement to dry, and then build the soil up round it and line it with fleece and sand.

I am really excited, I've even worked out how we can have adouble waterfall. Dh is doing that ooo, hmm, tricky, can't do that thing that men do sometimes. I am ignoring him. He said yesterday somethign couldn't be done, and this afternoon I did it, much to his surprise, so I'll just go ahead when he isn't looking!

The grandchildren have created a tiny pond at my mothers for her, but it just turns murky, foul and full of weed. We got a solar pump but it doesn’t seem to help. What can we do? the pond is new so doesn’t have much surrounding foliage yet. I have ordered oxygenating weed online as garden centres round here don’t have it.

start with - pump and filter, oxygenating weed and shade. If it is in full sun then it needs shady plants.

They do take a while to settle and establish though

You don't need a pump and filter for a wildlife pond, you need a balance of plants and to just leave it. It can take time for it to balance out, but it will!

I've had this thread saved since it started! Finally moved my belfast/butler sink in position today, have banked the sides up with rocks and sealed a saucer over the hole with aquarium friendly sealant. I've got mop buckets and clean litter trays on the patio to catch the next rainfall. I've got some gravel which I need to rinse/wash off and the perfect length stone to out in as a ramp. I'm almost good to go! Where do you order your plants from though? In Wales so am still limited by 5mile rule and was thinking of putting in three. I know I need N oxygenator and something tall but if also like a bit of pretty if I can! Any suggestions of plants and suppliers?

I had a load from Puddle Plants and was very impressed.

dementedma - are there any fish in it?

No fish in it

Was thinking of getting a water feature rather than pond due to very small garden and need to be child friendly. I’m wondering if the Belfast sink or trough style ones are a bit safer re child drowning risks. Does anyone know? Also can’t be bothered with pumps and filters etc

For me, I have always assumed that the drowning risk is related to a child falling in a pond. They can't fall in a Belfast sink. Especially if it is up on blicks as they often are style wise.

I do fnid the hysteria around ponds interesting though, so I might not be the best person to ask!
Dh is Dutch. In The Netherlands there is open, steep sided water EVERYWHERE. I mean in front of every building, in every street, in the park next to the swings, just sections of open water. (I am not talking about canals, just like ponds, but everywhere.
None of them are netted.
None of them are fenced
They are all steep sided with no entry or exit points.
Children don't drown in them.

When we moved to UK, our garden had a lovely pond with a wooden frame and grid over it. (The previous owner was a child minder) Dh was desperate to remove the wooden grid. I insisted he didn't. Our kids were 3, 6, 8.
He did some research, and found that the statistics are ridiculously low, something like 1 child under 5 in the last 5 years have drowned in garden ponds. Most cases of drowning are not in 'normal' ponds. eg a veyr sad case of twins drowning in a Koi pond. Koi ponds are deep and straight sided, so if a toddler falls in, the water is over their head, no foot holds and no way to get out. The other cases were huge ponds, more like lakes, which obviously are dangerous.

So, when our youngest was 5, the grid came off the pond.

Bumping this up as I was following it and need advice! My plants arrived today so I planted them up in the baskets with soil and a gravel dressing - with hindsight maybe I didn't soak the soil enough? I washed all the gravel to go in the base of my Belfast sink, I'd already collected the rainwater so added the washed gravel and the ants only to have the water immediately turn muddy. Will this all sink down and clear or do I need to be starting again now that the plant baskets are thoroughly soaked through? I can't face emptying it out etc.....

Don't worry, it will settle.