Pond fashioned from...

BobFlannigon

Hi,

I'd like to put a small water feature/pond in my garden but I'm a bit devoid of ideas, please help inspire me!  I quite liked the idea of getting an old Belfast sink and using that.  It's essential that it be safe for children but I can't even seem to find wrought iron grates to cover ponds (not on any kind of limited budget anyway).  I thought I could put a rock/plantation in the middle so there's no gap for them to fall in but still enough water for children to see a few beetles swimming around and perhaps provide a drinks for bees and so forth.  I'm worried that it might just fill with leaves and be, well, rubbish!  If it's not obvious by now, I've no idea what I'm doing!

What unusual objects or ideas have people used for small ponds?  

Fishy65

In theory Bob even a dustbin lid sunk into the ground can become a little oasis. I dug a pond out nearly two years ago now and have used a pond liner. The beauty of liners is that you can choose your shape/size/depth of pond rather than be governed by the dimensions of a rigid structure.

With young children present you could make your pond very shallow with very gradual sloping sides rather than steps. Wildlife prefer that shape anyway because water temperature is higher than in deeper water.

Islands in ponds can be difficult but if you dug your pond shallow enough then a large rock could be included. Leaves can be a problem if you have mature trees nearby but a nylon net stretched across usually addresses this. Also try to aim for a location that gets about 6 hours or so of sunlight. Too much shade is not so good. Oh and choose a natural low point or hollow in your garden. Hope this helps