# Wildlife garden and pond info please



## samurai (Sep 9, 2009)

We are planning to turn our front garden into a wildlife garden. Its not that big but i can see room for a small pond  Is there a way to keep a pond clean without a filter or is it ok to algae etc in? I can clear excess plants etc but i can imagine it will get pretty dirty. It will have sloping sides and lots of plants around it for insects etc to hide and there will be other features like native plants, a log pile, bee nest.... It won't be under a tree so leaves shouldn't be too much trouble, any info and ideas would be great. Also the back garden will be planted to suit wildlife and bird feeders etc provided


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## FeralWild (May 9, 2011)

*Details*

Yes I can do this one.

If you have a front garden, first check that the garden is not directly Southfacing, otherwise you will need to take measures to shade the pond from the sun, unless you want a pond of green slime for 9 months of the year. There are ways and means to do this naturally so fear not.

If you are siting the pond in the middle of the garden, and want sloping sides, then only do this on one side or even just a third of the diameter, otherwise when it rains, the soil will slide into the pond, churning it up and preventing any view from an inch below the surface.

My suggestions would be along the lines of a cheap container of some sort. You can use anything from a washing up bowl, to a preformed pond from a garden centre or petshop. Either way from the point of view of a wildlife garden, the pond has got to be placed in the ground with the sides at ground level. If you raise it with a rim, then nothing will be able to get into it.

Dig out a hole to the side and depth of the pond but allow an additional inch or two to the depth. Then line the hole with builders sand to an inch depth or likewise with damp newspaper to provide support for the pond once it is full of water. If there are any pressure points below the pond, such as rocks or pieces of wood, then when the weight of the water pushes it down in the hole, cracks and splits can form. The sand or newspaper prevents this by creating a cussioning effect.

Buy a bag of aquatic compost and line the bottom of the pond with an inch layer. You can also use spare garden soil, although it tends to mix with the water and takes weeks to settle. Fill the pond with a hose on a slight trickle down the side of the pond. Hopefully once full, the pond won't have to much susbended soil in it and will clear after a day or two.

You do not need nor want a filter with a wildlife pond as all the little creatures that start off the food chain will all be sucked in and mashed up in the mechanism. Once you have the balance right, it will keep itself clean.

Leave the pond with just the soil and water in for about a week to allow any chlorine in the water to evaporate before adding anything else. After a week, add either a small species of water lilly, or if you have gone for a larger pond, then a larger lilly, and a bunch or two of canadian pond weed and, or, Cambomba or hornwort, weighted down to the bottom with lead strips to allow them to take root in the soil. After about a month or so, the lilly leaves should take up a third or more of the water surface, protecting that area from direct sunlight. Once half or two thirds of the water surface is covered with Lily leaves, algae and blanket weed can not grow, as there is not enough direct light to allow it to flourish. There will be small amounts below the surface, but none actually on the surface. DO NOT introduce duck weed to the pond. It feeds on natural chemicals in standing water and reproduces as a floating plant by division of the leaf crown, at a rate of one tiny floating leaf, to 15 before the end of the day.

Once the plants have established, take a container and visit a local pond which has been established for a while. Sweep under the surface with a fine net and place any life found, into your container, filled with pond water. Things like snails and pond mussels etc can be picked out by hand. Relocate these to your pond and leave it to establish itself. This time next year your pond will be full of life.


As regards to the area immediately surrounding the pond, plant up two thirds of the diameter and allow a bare patch, or place a dead tree trunk or log in the bare patch. With the trunk or log, allow a third of it to hang over the edge into the water to allow an access way for any creatures wanting to visit or vacate the pond. For planting, practically anything you can buy or grow will do, but suggestions for cover would include Native Geranium, Viola, Primula, Poppy, Campanula and Hart's tongue Ferns.

Those are what grow around my own wildlife pond. They provide a colourful focal point from the point of view of a gardener, but also provide a perfect ground cover, not just for frogs, toads, newts and other small creatures, but also a damp environment, attracting not just the food they all eat, but also flying insects to the flowers above.

For the rest of the garden around the pond, allow an area of lawn. Then once this is in place, mow one half near the pond every three weeks allowing about two inch of height and then leave the other half to grow thick and high. If this bothers you, when you lay it, instead of using turf, use a lawn seed mixed with native perrenial meadow seeds which will have poppies and other pretty wild flowers mixed into it. Somewhere about a metre from the pond, stack five or six old rotting logs, but make sure they have bark on them as this provides crevices for newly emerged common froglets to hide during the day. You will also find a range of beetles under them with time and if you are lucky, some smooth newts.

For the rest of the garden, plant up some insect attracting plants like Buddlia which produces long purple flowers attracting Butterflies and bees, and also roses and sunflowers.

You can have a bird table if you like but sany birds you attract will eat alot of the beneficial insects attracted to the rest of the garden.

Hope I helped


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## samurai (Sep 9, 2009)

Wow thanks thats all great info :2thumb: The garden is not south facing its either north or west. I'm planning the bird feeders and nesting boxes in the back garden and can provide mealworms and things to keep them away from some of the insects hopefully. I like leaving the grass to grow long, so will be doing that, but i was also planning to remove some of the lawn as its a pain to get the lawn mower round the front of the house to mow, would it be a problem if we decide to do this. I was thinking of burying some sleepers so theres a different texture to the path (concrete at the moment), then there would be a solid area for the bins to go also. Then i can add more flowers in pots to attract insects. Does that make sense?


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## samurai (Sep 9, 2009)

Like this


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## FeralWild (May 9, 2011)

Yes that all seems fine, though with the sleepers, bury them to the point that the wood is level with the ground and also buy untreated timbers so the coating does not run off into the soil with rain. Also as they rot over the years, let them and don't replace them as this allows more habitat for beetles and other little animals to live in.

As to the lawn, if you don't want to mow it, then do what I do and strimm it every month or so allowing a thick root to grow through the lawn. This means that in future the lawn can not be strimmed to within more than four inch off the ground. The longer lawn around the sides can then be simply left to its own devices though mow that down to gorund level once a year in April, to loosen the ground a bit and also allow new heathier growth.

Plant wise for any borders, you can get meadow flower mixes or what is known as green manure from seed catalogues. Green manures are a specific type of plant which is grown thickly from seed in late summer, and then mowed down and dug into the soil in autumn to provide extra nitrogen and better soil structure for the following years' crops. However the types available, Borage, Red clover, mustard and field beans, all have attractive coloured flowers and are grown by the field load on Honey farms where hives of bees are producing tonnes of honey each year. Sowing them now and leaving them to flower will attract Bees, Butterflies, Hoverflies and other interesting and useful species. Word of caution regarding wasps. If they nest nearby, then have someone remove the nest as they are aggressive when defending it. However if you see a few on the flowers, or even on the sleepers, ignore them and leave them to it as in these circumstances, they are even less likely to sting than a bee would. Wasps are voracious carnivores and feed on caterpillars and other pest grubs and do a lot for the ecosystem.

If you want to provide hidey holes for other animals, then consider the following. A house for wildlife does not need to be bought from a specialist company for lots of money. You can make do with several different household items and recycled stuff. An old wooden wine crate or fruit box, filled with dry straw and a four inch diameter hole drilled in one end makes an ideal Hedgehog box for them to hibernate in. Just make sure its turned upside down and placed in a quiet place, with leaves and twigs piled on top of it.

For frogs and toads, they will use the log pile to some extent, but two alternatives are, an old borken paving slap laid over soil, propped up by an inch at one end with one or two smaller stones. The frogs and toads will hide under this. The other alternative is an old terracotta plant pot, depth is not important, turned the wrong way up and a small hole broken into the side for an entrance. Fill the pot with damp spagnum moss and leave it beside the pond or in a sheltered spot in the garden.

Until your flowers and plants have established, you can still attract bees and butterflies. Fix a saucer to a bamboo cane stuck in the ground about four feet high. In the saucer place a solution of one part sugar to two parts water. Then place a cube of sponge in the saucer and make sure it absorbs all of the fluid but is saturated with it. Bees and butterflies will come and suck the nectar from it.


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## samurai (Sep 9, 2009)

Thanks a lot feralwild, i shall make use of all the info you've given me. Any extra tips still welcome of course


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