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Small wildlife pond

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  • Joey 2Joey 2 Posts: 7

    Water Forget Me Not looks exactly like the woodland type, but it's too early for it to flowering yet. The same with Brooklime. Any good aquatic store will stock both. Maidenhead Acquatics are good and well priced. I put a smallish tree branch in my pond and wildlife likes that too as the frogs use it as a sun bathing platform. I had loads of frogspawn and a good number of tadpoles until recently, but none now and as the pond is teeming with newts, I think the tadpoles got eaten. Oh well. Still lots of mature frogs there.

    If the baskets on the ledge fall off into the deeper centre, it may be worth thinking about transferring the plants to soft mesh holders weighed down by gravel on top as these will sit more comfortably on a rigid ledge. If I were you I'd try and make sure you have entry and exit points at both ends of your pond, as frogs need to get in and out easily.

    A lovely ornamental pond plant is the white arum lily - really looks good and shines out in the dusk in summer. To attract dragonfly, you need some plants with taller spikes that they can lay their eggs on. Water mint is a good one for this and smells lovely too when brushed. 

     

     

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142

    Phillippa - I think your slow worm may have been about to shed it's skin - they shed the covering of the eye with the skin and it goes milky before that happens.  Great observation.  image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142

    OK - if you're squeamish look away now .........

     

     

     

     

    image

     Going down head first .............


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Joey 2Joey 2 Posts: 7

    Dove from above - that looks like a really well designed wildlife pond. Well done! 

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142

    image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • darren636darren636 Posts: 666
    Well I'm jealous.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142
    darren636 wrote (see)
    Well I'm jealous.

    .... of the snake's lunch? image

    image

     

    If you spend long enough laying on your tummy on the lawn looking into a pond, you're bound to see something interesting sooner or later .... I snuck indoors to get the camera walking soooooooooo carefully so I didn't make any vibrations, then crawled low on my tummy with the camera - I couldn't believe my luck image

    An old school friend of my son's is one of the cameramen on Springwatch - he was dead impressed image 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142

    Duh!  I misread ... sorry image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,142

    I know Phillippa - over 21C in the shade today - the under gardener wore his sunhat while digging the new bed!!! image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Oh you guys yours ponds are awesome I'm soooo jealous,I don't really want to put fish in my pond as I don't think they will last long,and it is suppose to be a wildlife pond,so really want frogs and stuff.I ve fillled it up with tap water earlier,hate having to use it but not got any rain water so only option,would have to be heavy showers every day to fill it up other wise and not forecast for any thing that bad lol,so any way my 2 plants that I saved from cleaning my pond earlier are in buckets waiting till the tap water as matured!

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