Wildlife pond - maybe?
hartleyhare
Posts: 81
I have a ' water feature ' raised pond on the patio. Its not a wildlife pond as such due to its size, although it has snails, mussels and some crawly things ( I have no idea what they are ).
Last summer we found some tiny baby frogs on the coir mat outside the back door - unbelievably cute! .Which of course got me to thinking about a willife pond. The problem is I don't have many places I can site it. The garden, like the house, is a project and much of it is still a complete jungle. The back garden has been tamed but it gets a lot of sunlight during the summer months and the only place I could site a pond is gravelled, so it would have to be a raised pond. Its also surrounded by deciduous trees and hedges, but I guess I could put netting over it.
A stone sink would probably look ok. Is there anything else I could use that wouldn't look out of place sitting in the garden? Also, what would be the best oxygenators to put in it ?
Posts
When you say raised pond - what exactly do you mean? How raised? Is it a formal steep sided affair? Do you have any plants in it at the moment?
And sorry but mussels? Really?
Its about 2 - 3 ft high,made from wooden planks and a liner. Its planted with a small lily ( that doesn't seem to be growing ), oxygenators, water soldiers, fairy moss and a flowering plant that spreads across the surface ( can't remember the name ).
The mussels are swan mussels.
Well I'm impressed - never heard of swan mussels and from what I've just googled supposed to keep your water clean!
Ok, back to your pond. Raised one to raised to adapt so the sunny spot in the garden sounds fine - better than being too close to deciduous trees. You can create shade using plants on the water eg lilies
Main thing with a wildlife pond is to have a gently sloping entry/exit point for your wildlife and to make it at least 3ft deep in part for hibernating creatures.
Swan mussels were common in our local rivers when I was a child, but I've not seen any for ages - think they became quite scarce due to pollution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_mussel
Dove, you probably haven't seen any Swan Mussels because like me you no longer walk in the river bare footed on a summers day.