Starting a small pond.

[Pip]

Hi all,

We are wanting to have a pond in our garden, only a small pond say 3 foot by
4 foot, if that. It is not for keeping fish in, but it would be nice to
have either toad or frog spawn and to grow some plants in etc etc. There
will be no running water feature - just still water.

I realise that there is alot of advice to give on this subject so any
advice, or any website that you may know of that would help us, would be
much appreciated.

(We are in West Yorkshire just about on the Pennines, in Last of the Summer
Wine area - lovely)

Thank you in advance :)

Mags

[groovy]

Try http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html

Most important is to treat any tap water to remove the chlorine
before putting any plants in. For a quick start, see if a local ponder
will give you a bucket full of bottom gunge, water and weed and
just dump it in your pond.

"Pip" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> We are wanting to have a pond in our garden, only a small pond say 3 foot
by
> 4 foot, if that. It is not for keeping fish in, but it would be nice to
> have either toad or frog spawn and to grow some plants in etc etc. There
> will be no running water feature - just still water.
>
> I realise that there is alot of advice to give on this subject so any
> advice, or any website that you may know of that would help us, would be
> much appreciated.
>
> (We are in West Yorkshire just about on the Pennines, in Last of the
Summer
> Wine area - lovely)
>
> Thank you in advance :)
>
> Mags
>
>

[IAN GARDNER]

"Pip" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> We are wanting to have a pond in our garden, only a small pond say 3 foot
by
> 4 foot, if that. It is not for keeping fish in, but it would be nice to
> have either toad or frog spawn and to grow some plants in etc etc. There
> will be no running water feature - just still water.
>
> I realise that there is alot of advice to give on this subject so any
> advice, or any website that you may know of that would help us, would be
> much appreciated.

You have two choises..
First you could have a conventional pond with the right ballence of surface
area and plants.
Second you could have loads of plants in it and it would become more like a
bog which is also totally acceptable.
Eather way, if they want to frogs and toads may come to it.
If you choose the bogversion then you may also encourage newts to come as
well.
Again, eather way, do one or the other but please do have this pond!
The wildlife needs it. Also encourage butterflys etc and birds. Get a good
book on encourageing local wildlife.

--
IAN. P. GARDNER
ISLE OF WIGHT
www.gardner44.freeserve.co.uk

[MegaDaisy]

Hi

We are in west london (not quite as lovely) but in spring this year we built
this exact pond! 3' x 4' from a pre formed pond from the local garden
centre.... so here is my wisdom :)

Well for a start I wouldnt use a pre formed pond... use a liner off a roll.
Getting the hole the right shape and size for the preformed thing was very
hard. Plus it could do with a slopey edge which we dont have, but we
provided the frogs with a concrete slab that looks like wood on an upturned
flower pot for them to laze on in the sunshine.

After that we filled it with water straight from the tap - didnt seem a
problem. The frogs where in within about a day and we had frog spawn within
about a week, although it all died - my guess was from the chlorine/flouride
in the water.

Anyhow after a week or two we put a few plants in and bought a small 24 volt
punp and off it all went.

The water initially went quite murky (although the frogs didnt seem to
mind) - the plants grew like billyo and then the rest of the inhabitants
arrived. First it was the daphnia, then some snails, then a pond skater
arrived, which had a lot of babies so we now have millions of them (well
maybe 30-40 or so) and during the summer we have had mayflies, dragonflies,
and so on.

I really wouldnt worry too much about the water as it will sort itself out
fairly quickly, and personally I wouldnt put a bucket of sludge in from
another pond as it could introduce unknown diseases and problems.

good luck anyhow.

heres some pics i took while doing ours - in fact I will update it now!

http://www.nige.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pond.html


Nige




"Pip" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all,
>
> We are wanting to have a pond in our garden, only a small pond say 3 foot
by
> 4 foot, if that. It is not for keeping fish in, but it would be nice to
> have either toad or frog spawn and to grow some plants in etc etc. There
> will be no running water feature - just still water.
>
> I realise that there is alot of advice to give on this subject so any
> advice, or any website that you may know of that would help us, would be
> much appreciated.
>
> (We are in West Yorkshire just about on the Pennines, in Last of the
Summer
> Wine area - lovely)
>
> Thank you in advance :)
>
> Mags
>
>


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[Pip]

Thanks to all replies - it has certainly given us some good starters to go
from.

Nige & Co - what lovely pictures - The hole looked mighty deep (hard work!),
but it all seems to be working and looks good in the 6 months you have
achieved it..... gives us something to go off. Good for you (& the frogs)!

Okay - Next question.... when would be the best me to start it (fill it)?.
Is there any particular time of year that would be best to start a pond.
Nige seemed to have got good results starting in March.

I have a friend (on groovey 's advice) who has a pond who will give me a
bucket full of water plus whatever is in it, and I just wondered when would
be best for the pond life to do this ?

(Ian - I love your mouse trailer thingy !)

Best regards and thanks for replying
Mags

[groovy]

"Pip" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks to all replies - it has certainly given us some good starters to
go
> from.
>
> Nige & Co - what lovely pictures - The hole looked mighty deep (hard
work!),
> but it all seems to be working and looks good in the 6 months you have
> achieved it..... gives us something to go off. Good for you (& the
frogs)!
>
> Okay - Next question.... when would be the best me to start it (fill it)?.
> Is there any particular time of year that would be best to start a pond.
> Nige seemed to have got good results starting in March.
>
> I have a friend (on groovey 's advice) who has a pond who will give me a
> bucket full of water plus whatever is in it, and I just wondered when
would
> be best for the pond life to do this ?
>

When the ice and snow arrives, everything is going to shutdown in your pond
making it difficult to establish a balance between good and bad bacteria.
Plus digging is going to be fun when the ground is hard or really wet like
in
spring. Starting the pond in autumn/fall may be difficult as leaves in the
pond
may poison an immature environment (and a mature one if there are too many).
I started mine in summer and wished I had done it when it was cooler and I
didn't have so much evaporation.

Making the hole when the ground is wet means that when the ground dries
out you will have gaps around a preformed or concrete pond which is not
good.

Looking back on the above I see that it's not very helpful? Just try to
choose
a time when your local weather isn't too wet/cold/dry. Expect the project to
take 5 times longer than you budgeted and don't try to stock your pond too
soon.

[IAN GARDNER]

"Pip" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks to all replies - it has certainly given us some good starters to
go
> from.
> Okay - Next question.... when would be the best me to start it (fill it)?.
> Is there any particular time of year that would be best to start a pond.
> Nige seemed to have got good results starting in March.

I would agree with him but if the weather is warm then you could try
febuary. It would give the pond another 4 weeks to mature and to make those
final adjustments like adding a bigger pond to it!

> I have a friend (on groovey 's advice) who has a pond who will give me a
> bucket full of water plus whatever is in it, and I just wondered when
would
> be best for the pond life to do this ?

March to April! There`s not much doing in the water when it`s cold.

> (Ian - I love your mouse trailer thingy !)

Thanks. You can add it to your website if you have one. Just view my
homepage in html and cut and paste it to your own page.
If you do have a website then if you email me asking for it then I will
send it to you in a zip file. I think it`s only about 2K in size!

--
IAN. P. GARDNER
ISLE OF WIGHT
www.gardner44.freeserve.co.uk

[Pip]

"IAN GARDNER" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Pip" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Thanks to all replies - it has certainly given us some good starters to
> go
> > from.
> > Okay - Next question.... when would be the best me to start it (fill
it)?.
> > Is there any particular time of year that would be best to start a pond.
> > Nige seemed to have got good results starting in March.
>
> I would agree with him but if the weather is warm then you could try
> febuary. It would give the pond another 4 weeks to mature and to make
those
> final adjustments like adding a bigger pond to it!
>
> > I have a friend (on groovey 's advice) who has a pond who will give me
a
> > bucket full of water plus whatever is in it, and I just wondered when
> would
> > be best for the pond life to do this ?
>
> March to April! There`s not much doing in the water when it`s cold.
>
> > (Ian - I love your mouse trailer thingy !)
>
> Thanks. You can add it to your website if you have one. Just view my
> homepage in html and cut and paste it to your own page.
> If you do have a website then if you email me asking for it then I will
> send it to you in a zip file. I think it`s only about 2K in size!
>
> --
> IAN. P. GARDNER
> ISLE OF WIGHT
> www.gardner44.freeserve.co.uk
>

Thanks for the advice. re pond . I don't have a web site as yet but your
trailer mouse thing is good! May take you up on the zip file :)

Cheers

[DrGroove]

Forgive me, but everything I've been told says you should never have still
water - down here at least (Australia) that equals MOZZIES; also eventually
no oxygen left in the water, everything dies. Have I been led astray?

Cheers
Matt


"MegaDaisy" > wrote in message
...
> Hi
>
> We are in west london (not quite as lovely) but in spring this year we
built
> this exact pond! 3' x 4' from a pre formed pond from the local garden
> centre.... so here is my wisdom :)
>
> Well for a start I wouldnt use a pre formed pond... use a liner off a
roll.
> Getting the hole the right shape and size for the preformed thing was very
> hard. Plus it could do with a slopey edge which we dont have, but we
> provided the frogs with a concrete slab that looks like wood on an
upturned
> flower pot for them to laze on in the sunshine.
>
> After that we filled it with water straight from the tap - didnt seem a
> problem. The frogs where in within about a day and we had frog spawn
within
> about a week, although it all died - my guess was from the
chlorine/flouride
> in the water.
>
> Anyhow after a week or two we put a few plants in and bought a small 24
volt
> punp and off it all went.
>
> The water initially went quite murky (although the frogs didnt seem to
> mind) - the plants grew like billyo and then the rest of the inhabitants
> arrived. First it was the daphnia, then some snails, then a pond skater
> arrived, which had a lot of babies so we now have millions of them (well
> maybe 30-40 or so) and during the summer we have had mayflies,
dragonflies,
> and so on.
>
> I really wouldnt worry too much about the water as it will sort itself out
> fairly quickly, and personally I wouldnt put a bucket of sludge in from
> another pond as it could introduce unknown diseases and problems.
>
> good luck anyhow.
>
> heres some pics i took while doing ours - in fact I will update it now!
>
> http://www.nige.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pond.html
>
>
> Nige
>
>
>
>
> "Pip" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > We are wanting to have a pond in our garden, only a small pond say 3
foot
> by
> > 4 foot, if that. It is not for keeping fish in, but it would be nice to
> > have either toad or frog spawn and to grow some plants in etc etc.
There
> > will be no running water feature - just still water.
> >
> > I realise that there is alot of advice to give on this subject so any
> > advice, or any website that you may know of that would help us, would be
> > much appreciated.
> >
> > (We are in West Yorkshire just about on the Pennines, in Last of the
> Summer
> > Wine area - lovely)
> >
> > Thank you in advance :)
> >
> > Mags
> >
> >
>
>
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.518 / Virus Database: 316 - Release Date: 11/09/2003
>
>