Wildlife pond

by Jane
(Devon)

A long time ago we were given a rigid pond liner that someone was going to throw away. My son likes to dig, so he dug a suitable size hole in the back lawn. We turned the pile of earth from the hole into a sort of rockery garden.

We had some old carpet that we lined the hole with and the put soft sand over the top of that. We made the hole the approximate shape of the liner so it didn't take too much effort to level everything out and get the liner set into the ground nice and level.

We filled the liner with water and then waited for a couple of days for everything to settle down. The exciting part was to add plants.

My dad had a couple of water lilies that he had taken out of his pond (water lilies will take over a pond if you don't keep them in check). One was pink and one was white. He also let me have some cuttings of some other water plants. Sadly these didn't survive because my daughter's dog thought that my pond was his own personal dog bath and he ate everything apart from the lilies.

The dog is long gone and the pond is now really well established. The pink lily didn't survive but the pond is a haven for all kinds of wildlife. We have loads of tadpoles at the moment and we get frogs, dragonflies and other water creatures. The birds use the pond to drink and bathe in. They stand on the lily leaves and sort of bounce up and down to get just enough water on the leaf to have a bath.

We have hours of enjoyment from this pond and it takes very little maintenance. Just the occasional clear out when the lily gets too vigorous.