Well I have dug my (UK) pond and will start putting the protective
matting above and below on Monday. As I will be putting soil and
pebbles (large, no stones here) in it, any advice on whether it is put
in before or after the water? Also we live in a hard water area so is
it worth filling it with rainwater (that will take quite a while even
though I will divert it from the roof house) or will tap water left for
a couple of weeks be as good?
Also any suggestions for British plants, both for the deep part and the
foot deep edges?
TIA
John

Hello John!

Without knowing all the measurements of your
proposed pond but with some experience in
making a wildlife pond, I will give you some hints! ;-)

I built the Frog Bog. It is 10 feet by 10 feet
and 10 inches deep and 800 US gallons.
I filled it with a layer of rocks,
about 2 inches by 2 inches. If I was to do it again
I would not put in the stones.

The reason is that the plants that I put in have grown
all the way across the pond and boy is it hard to pull
them out to keep the pond from filling in!

Mother Nature likes to fill in ponds. Plants will grow in
water that is less than 6 feet deep (sorry for all the US
measurements, hopefully you are better at converting
these than I am!).

So in order to keep my pond from filling in and turning
it selve into a wetland meadow I have to yank out the
plants every fall. A lot of work.

If I was to do it over again... I'd probably make it deeper
in the middle, not down to six feet but at least deep enough
that it would take a lot of time for plants to take hold.
I'd be more careful about what kind of plants I put in.
Cattails are strong and hard to get out of there!

Hope that helps with some of your questions!

kathy :-) www.blogfromthebog.com
this week's entry - water boatman
Pond 101 page for new pond keepers ~
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

My wildlife pond was a bit of guess work & some research - but it works
really well. I'm not sure about adding soil as a couple of months of algae
growth should do the same job.

I dug to 3ft on the centre, 1ft deep ring around the centre & about 8"
margins. Once the liner was in, I finished the edges with turf rolled in
over the liner and to the 8" margin depth. A Lily, some oxygenations, duck
weed and circulation pump (no filter) a couple of goldfish & then left alone

Huge amounts of wildlife visits the pond largely, I believe because it's
left in peace - no chemicals, no wires, no fish food & plenty of shady water
coverage from the lily pads.

I had some probs with blanket weed, but two grass carp sorted that.

800 or so gallons & clear as spring water - may be I'm just lucky but I'd
definitely recommend the fill, stock & leave alone technique - let mother
nature sort the imbalances !!


"Broadback" wrote in message
...
Well I have dug my (UK) pond and will start putting the protective matting
above and below on Monday. As I will be putting soil and pebbles (large,
no stones here) in it, any advice on whether it is put in before or after
the water? Also we live in a hard water area so is it worth filling it
with rainwater (that will take quite a while even though I will divert it
from the roof house) or will tap water left for a couple of weeks be as
good?
Also any suggestions for British plants, both for the deep part and the
foot deep edges?
TIA
John

Re a uk wild life pond.
Mine has a very shallow outer shelf, say 3" to the liner with garden soil on top of the liner, in places this breaks the surface.. The remaining shelves vary between 6 and 9 inches to the liner, again these are covered with loose soil. If possible use a grass verge and as little as possible freeboard liner showing above the waterline, this is to make animal access and ESCAPE as easy as possible
Most of the plants grow potless, with the current exception of bur reed. However it looks like I will have to lift typha latfolia and pot that in a solid container to contain the root system. I have another unknown reed like plant that may also need potting.
If you go with loose soil be prepared for a huge crop of blanket weed in year 1 before the higher plants become established, by the end of year 1 or by year 2 the BW will most likely be gone. Possibly due to nutrients being locked up in the nitrogen cycle. DO NOT feed the fish which should be native, eg stickle backs and or minnow and DO NOT add gold fish.
The deep of my pond is 18", I hit a layer of compacted stone dust which I would have needed a jack hammer to get through so thats as deep as it got.

Plants marsh marigold, Caltha palustris for early colour.
Bog bean a very delicate little flower, marsh pennywort but you may need to control the spread of that, brooklime but plant that where it has to grow upwards rather than allowing it to grow outwards it looks better going upwards
ivy leaved crowfoot nice white flower but that is easily overrun, likewise golden buttons
mints,
water celery or parsely I can never remember which but that spreads like wildfire.
water starworts, water violet, DO NOT get tilea recurva
frog bit, water soldiers, bladderwort,
greater and lesser spearworts, large and small plantains, common rush and the larger types, some of which are variagated,
iris, mainly yellow flag but they may need potting too
water hawthorn and maybe lilies but take care that lilies are not crowed by oxygenators etc as they dont like the competition for light.
Oxygenators, elodea crispa = lagarosiphon, milfoils, water buttercup =ranunculus aquatilis??, hornwort, DO NOT get elodea canadensis.
cotton grass
loosestrife but deadhead that and it may need potting

Azolla has not survived in my wildlife pond since the end of year 1, even if accidentally added, which is a blessing, I suspect it is out competed for nutrients by native plants.
This is my pond, of course so densely planted is not to everyones taste but the wildlife seems to like it, big fish would struggle in my pond. There were some goldfish in there that got in as eggs on plants but even a 3"er had to fight its way through the vegitation in some places. The water goes all the way to the left of the photo and to the edge of the dark along the top, the clearish bit in the foreground is the 18" deep, there is no filter but there is an aquamax 5500 circulating water through an internal stream around a bog in the upper left corner
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a9/...ldlifepond.jpg

What is "grass carp" ??



"David Sim" wrote in message
...
My wildlife pond was a bit of guess work & some research - but it works
really well. I'm not sure about adding soil as a couple of months of algae
growth should do the same job.

I dug to 3ft on the centre, 1ft deep ring around the centre & about 8"
margins. Once the liner was in, I finished the edges with turf rolled in
over the liner and to the 8" margin depth. A Lily, some oxygenations, duck
weed and circulation pump (no filter) a couple of goldfish & then left
alone

Huge amounts of wildlife visits the pond largely, I believe because it's
left in peace - no chemicals, no wires, no fish food & plenty of shady
water coverage from the lily pads.

I had some probs with blanket weed, but two grass carp sorted that.

800 or so gallons & clear as spring water - may be I'm just lucky but I'd
definitely recommend the fill, stock & leave alone technique - let mother
nature sort the imbalances !!


"Broadback" wrote in message
...
Well I have dug my (UK) pond and will start putting the protective
matting above and below on Monday. As I will be putting soil and pebbles
(large, no stones here) in it, any advice on whether it is put in before
or after the water? Also we live in a hard water area so is it worth
filling it with rainwater (that will take quite a while even though I
will divert it from the roof house) or will tap water left for a couple
of weeks be as good?
Also any suggestions for British plants, both for the deep part and the
foot deep edges?
TIA
John

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 18:13:52 +0100, Broadback
wrote:

Also we live in a hard water area so is
it worth filling it with rainwater (that will take quite a while even
though I will divert it from the roof house) or will tap water left for
a couple of weeks be as good?

Hard water meaning lots of calcium? Consider yourself fortunate and
the tap water will be great. I only have to leave my tap water
overnight or add a water conditioner to dissipate the chlorine, but I
add limestone (Some use seashells.) to keep up the GH (General
Hardness) or calcium.

Regards,

Hal

gary smith wrote:

What is "grass carp" ??

It's always hard to be sure when you're using "common" names and the
poster's in the UK and I'm in Canada, but in N. America "Grass carp"
generally refers to a "Triploid carp", referring to the fact that they have
an extra chromosome, rendering them sterile. A good thing in a carp that
can reach 150lbs, iirc.

See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/pl...t/aqua024.html
--
derek

Originally Chinese (I think!) carp - love blanket weed - in fact, love
eating all pond plants

Try a google search on Grass carp

Fairly easy to get in the UK - but a) be careful, they grow big & b) be
responsible, don't put them in the river when they're too big for your pond

"gary smith" wrote in message
...
What is "grass carp" ??



"David Sim" wrote in message
...
My wildlife pond was a bit of guess work & some research - but it works
really well. I'm not sure about adding soil as a couple of months of
algae growth should do the same job.

I dug to 3ft on the centre, 1ft deep ring around the centre & about 8"
margins. Once the liner was in, I finished the edges with turf rolled in
over the liner and to the 8" margin depth. A Lily, some oxygenations,
duck weed and circulation pump (no filter) a couple of goldfish & then
left alone

Huge amounts of wildlife visits the pond largely, I believe because it's
left in peace - no chemicals, no wires, no fish food & plenty of shady
water coverage from the lily pads.

I had some probs with blanket weed, but two grass carp sorted that.

800 or so gallons & clear as spring water - may be I'm just lucky but I'd
definitely recommend the fill, stock & leave alone technique - let mother
nature sort the imbalances !!


"Broadback" wrote in message
...
Well I have dug my (UK) pond and will start putting the protective
matting above and below on Monday. As I will be putting soil and
pebbles (large, no stones here) in it, any advice on whether it is put
in before or after the water? Also we live in a hard water area so is
it worth filling it with rainwater (that will take quite a while even
though I will divert it from the roof house) or will tap water left for
a couple of weeks be as good?
Also any suggestions for British plants, both for the deep part and the
foot deep edges?
TIA
John