HOW TO MAKE A WILDLIFE POND

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Building a wildlife pond, or even converting over from an existing one, is one of the best ways to encourage birds, insects, mammals and amphibians back into your garden. Over the past 100 years, the British countryside – along with its wildlife has been severely impacted with the lost of almost 70% of its ponds. The majority of these have either been drained by encroaching developments, or filled in by parents with young children. With such a huge loss in natural habitat the creation of new ponds has never been more important.

Of course any pond can be beneficial to the garden, but one made especially for wildlife will tempt birds and small mammals back in to drink, and dragonflies and damselflies to procreate. There is good news for organic gardeners too as the proliferation of frogs and toads will do a fantastic job in keeping down the dreaded slug - without the need for slug pellets. The one sacrifice you will need to make is the need for fish. This may seem to be a strange request at first but as soon as they are introduced the will begin feeding on your precious invertebrate and tadpole population undermining all of the good work you’ve done.

The most important aspect to creating a wildlife pond is its position within the garden. Choose a sunny site as this will help it to attract the greatest variety of wildlife. If you can, try to position it away from deciduous trees as this will not only help you to avoid extra maintenance from removing fallen and rotting leaves, it will keep the water in better condition. Also, building your pond near a flower border will allow visiting animals a little extra cover from predators. Alternately, if placed in the lawn, you could always leave an area around the perimeter un-cut. For winter protection of hibernating newts, amphibians, hedgehogs etc, you may also wish to consider creating a nearby wood pile or large rockery.

The size of your pond will of course depend on the size of your garden, but with wildlife ponds bigger is better if you want to attract the widest range of species possible. However anything is preferable to nothing, but the minimum size for an effective wildlife pond would be about 2.5 metres by 2 metres.

While the overall shape of the pond is not important, its profile is. Try to incorporate different depths and shallow areas to the pond including at least one gently sloping slide to enable animals to come and drink without the risk of drowning. Should they fall in, and many hedgehogs have drowned in garden ponds as a result of slipping whilst drinking, create a gently sloping edge as this gives them a fighting chance to get back out safely. It will also give you the opportunity to grow a wide selection of marginal plants, these will happily live in depths from just a few inches to about 9 inches. For water lilies and other deep water plants you need to have at least one area of the pond down to about three feet deep. This will also help to provide a safe place for aquatic animals to overwinter.

Once you have designed and dug out your shape perhaps the easiest way to line it with a pre-cut sheet of PVC or reinforced PVC lining. Both should be fine for up to 15 years, but always check the guarantee. Butyl rubber is still one of the best liners for strength and durability with a massive 25 year guarantee. However it’s reasonable to expect butyl to last nearer 50 years! Again, check your guarantees before buying.

Before your liner goes in you'll need to protect it from any sharp edges that may protrude from the soil once it’s under pressure from the water. You can either buy a pond underlay from a suitable retail outlet or you could choose to make your own from sand and old carpet. Once in place, lay your chosen lining on top of the carpet. To work out the size of liner required all you need is the length, plus twice the depth, added to your necessary overlap. Use the same equation for the width.

Fill the pond with water and then leave for at least a week before adding plants. To help speed up its establishment take some mud and water from an existing healthy and established wildlife pond.

Once the pond is complete, the very best way to attract native wildlife to your newly built habitat is to add as many different native species of aquatic plant as possible. Such plants are the cornerstone of a successful wildlife pond and critical in encouraging a diverse range of creatures. Try to include submerged plants to help oxygenate the water; floating plants for shade and shelter; and tall upright plants for dragonflies.