Mini pond in a pot

[MummaPI]

Has anyone done this and can offer advice please? I'd love a mini pond in a pot, tub or anything else that is suggested. Would love to know how others have done it please. Thinking of one of those solar water features that float in it.

At the allotment, I have a buried washing up tub. It has a large rock and a bit of tile in it, the frogs love it. It is not pretty.

Prettier versions could be made.

There is a small mini pond on Amazon, l am thinking of getting one as l often see the odd frog in my garden. I have noticed in the reviews some have said they already have a sunken bucket, and one reviewer said her frog still prefers the bucket to the mini pond.

I was thinking of doing this too, something no larger than 50cm diameter, with a solar water feature, a few plants and something that comes out that animals could crawl out of the water onto if they fell in. I love the idea of dragonflies coming to visit or frogs.

We installed a mini pond last summer. 90cm x 30cm. It has no pump but has one pond plant and a few rocks. Last week we found a newt there! Very cute and I've e no idea how it found our pond in the dense area of London we are in.

Go for it. Ponds are great

Does it smell @parietal? Dh worries that it'd just become stagnant water.

We have one in a barrel with a little solar powered pump. Works well.

Make sure you get a container that is frost proof, otherwise if the water freezes it can burst the container.

If you add pond fleas (daphnia) they will eat any algae that forms and will keep your water crystal clear. Dragon fly larvae will eat them. You can buy them in pet shops as live fish food. ( No relation to nasty, hopping, bitey fleas).

We have a tiny pond about the size of a large puddle. It brings us such pleasure. Our first home grown frogspawn this year, we have had hedgehogs drinking at it. Being small you need to keep on top of it weeding and becoming green, but that takes a few minutes. Dont use tap water, collect rain water to use.

If you want any kind of wildlife or plants to survive in it, then don't have it in full sun all day long in the summer. The water will get surprisingly hot.

There’s an episode of one of those Garden Rescue programs (the one with the red-haired Irish presenter) where the chap who does the budget gardens makes a ‘pond in a pot’ -it’s worth looking for it on iPlayer.

Ponds in pots can look lovely and be good for wildlife.
Use rainwater to fill and keep it topped up (tap water is high in nutrients and will cause excessive algal growth), don't add soil/compost etc., and if possible collect aquatic and wetland plants from the wild - ponds, streams etc. (with landowner permission, and avoiding protected species and protected areas). Aquatic plants from garden centres are often invasive. You can buy native plants but they may come in compost which you don't want to add to a small pond. Oh and lastly, don't add fish.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000scsb/your-garden-made-perfect-series-1-episode-3

Think it was this one.

Why no soil /compost please ? Does that include aquatic compost? Thanks

@GoWalkabout

Why no soil /compost please ? Does that include aquatic compost? Thanks

I've only ever had naturalistic ponds so I can't comment on ponds with filters and fountains and so on. But the key to a low maintenance, perfectly clear water (for much of the year) pond is good water quality.

Things that reduce water quality- nutrients (in tap water, and in soil/compost (including aquatic compost)), and disturbance (from eg fish).

Aquatic plants don't need substrate generally speaking. You don't need to add any substrate at all but if you do want some, children's play sand (which will have been washed) or stones are fine.

If the pond is in full sun it will get some algae even if it has v good water quality, but it should be manageable. I've got a shallow pond in a pot currently in full sun and the water is still crystal clear. It's about 7 years old, was populated only with native wild plants and has required negligible maintenance aside from topping up with rainwater

Ah thanks that makes sense. I have some in at the moment but will play around with what works best.

I have a small wildlife pond.
It should be lovely.
It’s has purple loosestrife planted all around it in the water, lots of other beautiful flowering plants in the soil surrounding it.
No substrate, only sand.
No fish.

It’s a bit of a ballache to be honest.

It’s situated in full sun (big mistake) and it’s always choked in thick green algae on the surface!
The frequent leaves and spring blossom that fall in it don’t help.
It has a thick layer of mulm at the bottom.
While the planting makes it attractive at a distance, up close it ain’t pretty.
It does have a thriving newt population though.

We created this last year. Not in full sun - bought oxygenator plants plus others from local garden centre, few rocks in for birds to access (I love watching them bathe/ drink).

I don't know if this counts as 'Mini' but I have an old bathtub buried in my garden which home for toads frogs and newts. A few slabs of rock round the edge to let things crawl in and out.

I have a container pond from Waterside Nursery. It looks lovely though is prone to blanket weed which needs to be kept in check.
www.watersidenursery.co.uk/container-ponds

our pond doesn't smell at all. I was worried it would breed mosquitos but I made an effort to put in some jam-jars of water from a bigger local pond to try to populate it with the right kind of micro-organisms. and I haven't seen any mosquito larvae.

I really need tips like that about mosquitoes - OK off to local pond dipping place with a jam jar. Anything else? I heard a table tennis ball floating to break the surface tension? Anything else?