The message
from zippo4 contains these words:

Maybe a daft question but here goes anyway.

Would I be stupid to put a pond in a garden that can get quite
saturated with water? I ask because I remember reading somewhere that
the reason Milton Keynes has so many lakes/ponds is too help balance
the watertable that was disrupted by so much development.

I don't see how a lot of ponds and lakes will alter the water table in
the long term. This is a function of how much water enters the system
against how quickly it leaves it - by whatever means.

Or would adding a pond just make a piece of wet ground wetter? Which
seems logical to me but .. hey, whadda I know!

No. The water's there if it's there, and a natural pond with (say)
puddled clay liner will not make the surrounding soil any wetter unless
the water table drops, and then the water dissipates very slowly, and
far from being a problem in that way, will mean that it has to be
topped-up.

In your position, I'd go for it. My garden's like a rasher of bacon, and
planning a pond is fraught with - roots and pipes to the septic tank,
and old concrete paths.

Dammit.

A pond with an impervious liner like polythene or butyl rubber will
(effectively) have no influence at all.

Ponds are great for wildlife, and the amphibians which will be attracted
will help you to keep down slugs and a lot of pesky insects. To see a
toad making a meal of a daddy-long-legs makes you realise the value of
table-manners.

And to see patrolling dragonflies is reward enough, without considering
the benefits of their noshing your airborne enemies too.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/