Best option for small garden pond...liner or just a plastic container?

[Startingagainandagain]

I have been watching various YouTube video about DIY ponds and wonder if anyone who has built their own small pond could advise on the best/easiest option between:

• digging hole & using pond lining (then pebbles insides & stones around it)

• digging hole & burying in some kind of existing water tight plastic container (then the pebbles inside and stones around it)

This would be used for aquatic plants & hopefully to attract some wildlife rather than to keep fish.

I've had a pond in my garden for around 18 months now. I bought a rigid plastic pond container, dug a hole and put the container in and filled around the edges. I've filled it with rain water (I had a large water butt full) and put pebbles and bricks in the bottom of it and also bought some pond plants from the local garden centre.

There is shelves in the pond already so the plants stand on them nicely and are also fully submerged to the top of the roots. I put straw bundles in and change every 6 weeks as a natural filter.

It didn't take long for the local wildlife to find the pond. The birds drink out of it, we've had butterfly and damsel fly larvae laid on the plants in the pond, we've had frog spawn and now small frogs. Its an absolute haven and I love it.

@newcatmam

Thank you so much!

I was looking at some of these ready made ponds with shelves online today and that sounds like a good, simple way for me to do this.

Glad yours worked out so well and has attracted the local wildlife!

I used a black washing up bowl! Dug into the ground and put in the bowl. Shaped the dirt around it, added bricks, stones etc. Some small boulders around it. I made it last Summer and once it had time to stagnate and become it's own eco-system we were delighted to welcome frogs. They love it there and we have expanded with more pots around it. Easily dug out if we move (once frogs have departed oc).

I have a tin bath but it's not sunken. I have two frogs! I got a pack of 4 pond plants which just fit in, and some bits of brick to make sure there's steps out and in the water. I let the grass grow around it, too, to offer some protection. It's just lovely!

If you use a pre-formed liner, you need to make sure that your hole absolutely matches the liner, so that it is supported everywhere. You don’t need to worry about that with a liner.

With a liner, you need to make sure the hole is absolutely soft, no stones sticking up. We lined the hole first with sand then with old carpet.

with both types you’ll need stones or similar round the edge to disguise the rim.

Great thread recently about making a small garden pond, @Startingagainandagain , full of ideas and help and enthusiasm and pics of people's ponds.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/gardening/5074246-pond-ideas

I have a half whiskey barrel as a pond - love it!