Am I mad to want a little pond in our garden?

[Tomorrowtodaynever]

Exactly that. i know nothing about ponds but I like the idea of it. Any thoughts, pls

I don’t know anything about ponds either but I want one too.

I popped a little pond In My garden, knew nothing!
got a little preformed pond liner some plants from local garden centre (including oxygenating ones but I did ask staff for advice)
we now have a lovely little pond that frogs frequently visit.

I think I’ll dig one in the spring.

You won,t regret it. The pond is the best thing in our garden. It's a wildlife pond, so no fish to worry about. It virtually takes care of itself. Attracts lots of wildlife, birds bathing and drinking, dragonflies, bats, swallows swooping to get the insects, bees coming to drink and it's so,peaceful to sit by in the summer and watch the whirligigs beetles and pondskaters. Any po d, however small, is so worth it.

Ponds are great! I put one in my old garden, it was only small but it gave us so much enjoyment. It filled up with wildlife so fast - frogs, newts, pond snails, dragonflies, birds. I don't know where they all came from. DH and I loved our daily walks to the bottom of the garden to stare at it. I'd love one again, just waiting for the DC to get past drowning age!

Got rid of it. Hassle with kids (and potentially other animals), and needed a lot of work. Rehomed the fish.
If you've no young kids, it would be nice though.

This!
Got one a few weeks ago in my garden after seeing that a friend had a small one.
Bought pre-formed liner, dug a hole, put it in.
Bought pond weed in Amazon, also some ramshorn water snails.
It’s gorgeous!!!!!
Will get some newt spawn in the spring.

Can highly recommend a blagdon no dig nature pool - can get from garden centres or Amazon. Comes with solar powered fountain to move the water. Ours has a few goldfish, pond plants. Easy to set up and maintain. We love ours.

I’d like one too, but I worry my dog will just use it as a bath! Go for it and let us know how you get on!!

We had quite a big pond two homes ago. Inherited when we bought the house. It took care of itself somehow because we had no idea what to do with it. It had all sorts of things living in there, including fish, we never fed them but somehow everything thrived. Visiting kids would sometimes fall in so you really, really, really need to be unbelievably careful. You cannot ever, ever allow children to be unaccompanied in the garden. Dogs never seemed interested to go in, although they’d always go in rivers during walks, but children were absolutely fascinated, including our own and we spent a lot of time there.
We liked it so much, we actually installed a pond in the garden of our next home and our current home. Someone comes to do some sort of maintenance a couple of times a year. Not sure what they do. I absolutely do not do anything apart from enjoying it and adding a plant now and then.

I want one, with no fish, just in a patch of garden that is notorious for weeds, is heavy clay soil, and generally ends up being work with little results. I’m going to do one in the spring I think

We had a pond. Visiting kids used to fall into it regularly which was a pain. It also made the garden a bit of a midge fest.

we had to get rid of it as part of drainage works and it is so much better without it.

I installed a little pond in my garden two years ago.

I just got one of these preformed ponds from B&Q and then dug up the hole to fit it in. I then added various acquatic plants inside and some regular plants around it.

I have frogs inside now and it also attracts various insects. For some odd reason my neighbour's cat also loves drinking from the pond almost every day.

The only issues I have had with it is that visiting foxes have pulled out plants from the pond to play with them and then left them on the lawn but that only happened a couple of times.

I love my pond!

Do it!!ours is tiny but now has newts, frogs dragonflies and all-sorts! All that in a few years

I have a container pond that's not dug into the ground so I'm not convinced I'll get newts etc but I love it for the snails and insects.

I got given a little aquarium years ago (knee high, 50x30 cm), which I finally set up as a pond this summer the day before the hose pipe ban started.

It's next to my bench on the patio and a lovely soothing place for a cuppa. It has duckweed, flag iris and I think hornwort (from someone else's pond), and a little solar fountain. Turns out it's also great for rooting pothos and monstera.

I also put duckweed in the smaller bowl that the cats like to drink from and they're very unimpressed. So maybe I need a third one just for the cats...

I wouldn’t get one if I had children due to the risk of drowning

Mind are adults now and I did toy with the idea… I fancied a few goldfish too, but the cost of the pump with a filter - £300-400 plus electrician to install it £350 plus liner meant I was looking at nearly £800 before the cost of digging the hole!
Those of you who have fish… Would a solar pump be ok with a few small fish ( not talking koi carp here!!)

I’m not an expert, but we were told to keep the pump on all the time. I don’t know how solar power works, what happens during nighttime?
I would just put some small fish there and see what happens without a pump. You can use various treatments for the water to keep it healthy. That might do it? Apparently fish will grow to the size of the pond.
And don’t underestimate herons and crows!

I really want a pond too. With a water lily. Know nothing about ponds so don’t know how feasible it is, will be doing some research

@Branster my dad's pond has been in for about 30 years. This year he had otters!!!
We had grass snakes in previous years too

Do you have young kids? If so don’t get one, otherwise go for it.

@Branster I also fear that it’ll get all slimy and clogged up

@Tomorrowtodaynever
Ive got two ponds.
One small preformed plastic with a fountain plugged into the mains and an old Belfast sink with a solar power fountain, both have pond plants, decorative stones in the bottom, no fish though.
I love hearing the sound of tinkling water, very soothing.
They're easy to maintain, they go a bit green in the winter but I empty, clean and refill them.
I started my pond journey a few years ago with a big free standing builders bucket, a few decorative stones, a solar fountain and a plastic water lily 😂

Thanks everyone, and apologies for delay in replying - I was offline all yesterday

this is all interesting - I just fancy the idea of new ‘life’ coming to the garden. I don’t want a big and complex pond, something small. My husband is against it - thinks we will have to be clearing it all the time. Kids are late teens, if they fall in, that’s on them!

I have a barrel pond - favourite thing in the garden, especially when loads of frogs hang out there on a hot day, watching the birds pop in for a drink, damsel flies too. Even for a small amount of water it’s still something.