Wildlife Pond
AngieR
Posts: 347
I thought I'd share with you how my pond looks today. Got the last of the stones round the edges this afternoon and I have to admit I am quite pleased with the result thus far. The birds are loving it! There are a couple of pond skaters and some beetles already. Sadly, I've had to fish out 3 dead bumble bees. Might it be something I've done wrong?
There is still lots to do yet but am encouraged by all your useful comments on my previous posts. Next on the agenda is to order the waterlillies and a few more plants as and when they become available. Sort out encouraging the grass up to the beach end of the pond. Will adding some topsoil sprinkled with grass seed do the trick? I've never seeded such a small area before. The yellowing grass should recover, it was under liner for a week or two and already showing signs of recovery. I am holding off trimming the lawn up here for a while.
How little depth of soil will the grass need to grow if I bring it right up to the edge of the small pebbles to hide the liner at this end of the pond?
Posts
What a beautiful pond! I'm filled with envy. I have small children, so won't have a pond for some years yet.. but I do dream of one of my own some day.
Rather than grass right up to the edge, maybe consider some sort of plantings? Some perennial flowers that have foliage that cover the edge? Just mulch around with some wood chips or pea gravel to cover the last of the liner. I have grass growing right up to some large rocks in my yard next to the patio, and it's a real pain to cut the grass there.. the lawn mower doesn't get it.. and I'd worry about using a strimmer near the pond liner (grass clippings in your pond!).
Some big leaves from some rudbeckia to cover the soil and liner, and give small critters some hiding places.
Thank you Blue Onion. My young grandson uses the garden but since he will be under constant supervision the pond won't be an issue.
I had intended leaving a strip of grass by the gravel uncut for most of the year trimming over roughly with hand shears as and when. There will be some plants, I appreciate that the big leaves will be useful for the critters.
Congrats. You have a beautiful natural looking pond! Well worth the effort of hiding the liner with big stones.
Last edited: 02 May 2017 21:28:29
We had grass right up to the edges of the ponds at our last house. It wasn't really an issue having the odd bit of grass clippings going in, but the more planting you have round it, or a simple path, or similar, the easier it is to prevent that. Grass will naturally spread into the gaps you have, so I wouldn't worry too much Angie. I'd get a few foliage plants in initially - some evergreens and things like ferns, grasses and hostas which have the type of foliage which falls naturally and will cover edges. A couple of biggish, flatter rocks in your shallow area will help create better places for insects, as well as some little bits which are really shallow - a mere covering of water over gravel.
My girls both grew up with a pond, and they were constantly fascinated by the comings and goings.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I think your idea of leaving the grass to grow long around the edge is good, it will only need a trim later in the year and is a good place for insects. It doesn't need a huge depth of soil, (think of weeds in a gravel path) or you could cut the liner back and have the small stones covering the soil and put some suitable plants in.
As Fairygirl suggests a couple of stones for the bees to land on would be great, people often don't realise that they do drink water. Water lillies will also provide good areas for them to land on and drink safely. We sometimes find some of our honeybees in the field pond, so I now put water in a large shallow flowerpot saucer filled with stones close to the hives for them.
Wildlife ponds are fascinating for kids of all ages - I can waste far too much time just watching pond-skaters, tadpoles, newts, damsels, dragonflies.............
We were gazing into our pond the other day ... as we often do ... when we saw a group of Smooth newts in the water, getting amorous
Nothing in the world's more interesting than a good pond
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks everyone. I was very pleased to find some hedgehog poo by the pond this morning.
WillDB - thank you very much. I am pleased with how it's turned out a bit of tweaking here and there I think but nothing major.
Fairygirl, I know it doesn't look like it but there are various depths stones etc in the beach end and a few pockets here and there around the rest of the stone work. It wouldn't be difficult to add more though. Plenty of cobbles and stones left. My grandson will be educated about the pond, start him young! Everyone is aware of the dangers and he can grow with it.
MerryWeather, I hope to get a nice balance between the grass and plants but like everything it will take time. Thanks for your advice re the grass growing on little soil. I kind of thought that but wanted a bit of reassurance.
That's exactly what I'm looking foward to Dove.