New pond...

We finished building our pond last weekend and it's looking good, but rather bare!
It's a sort of kidney-bean shape, about 6 foot long and 4 foot wide maybe, with one part about 2 feet deep, sloping back to a "beach" at one end (plan to put some gravel around there), and with an 8" deep shelf around the deep part. There's a solar pump (apart from any other consideration it would be impractical to get mains power to the pond) which gives a gentle trickle of water from about a foot above the surface.
Just wondered if anyone had any special recommendations for planting, or for encouraging wildlife into the pond (i'd love to see frogs, specially after the posts on frogspawn!) - or any other suggestions etc. really.
I'm planning to put some stones on the shelves to make hiding places and I'd love a waterlily. All I have so far is a water hawthorn as there wasn't a huge selection at the garden centre yet...
Any tips would be welcome!

 

Sounds good claire the wildlife will find you, if you want to speed things up a bit beg borrow or steal a clump of frogspawn and watch the life cycle unfold any tadpoles that make it to adult frogs will probably return back to your pond they have this homing instinct,here's a link to a good aquatic supplier for all your needs,
http://www.bromfieldaquatics.co.uk/store/erol.html#1174x0&&

 

Great news Claire!

As walnut has said, no need to introduce wildlife to your pond. Providing they have good water quality, plenty of oxygen and plants to hide amongst and feed on the smaller creatures such as gnat nymphs and larvae will find their own way in and where there is water and food for taddies the frogs will follow. You should be just in time to get some natives arrive but if not you can always introduce a jam jar full of spawn from a neigbouring pond. To help kick start a new pond you can also introduce some clean (unfiltered) local pond or river water from a known disease and contaminant free source. This provides the bacterial building blocks on which all your pond life ultimately depends. A couple of bucketfulls from different sources is ideal and all you need. Try not to get a bucket full of blanket weed though. :D

Your new pond will probably green up after a few weeks and become murky. Don't worry too much or get into expensive filters or treatments. Just let it get on with it and it should settle down. Algae will often over-reach itself and collapse as all the available nutrients are exhausted. Sometimes this can be dramatic and happen overnight and you can be left with amazing crystal clear water. Water plants and lillies also help to provide shelter for fish and taddies and also help in keeping the green murk at bay by shading the pond. Idealy you should aim for about 30% - 50% cover.

Your new pond will give you great pleasure and it is delightfull to hear occasional froggy 'plops' and the tinkle of water from a small feature.

 

Thank you both very much, it's good to hear i'm on the right tracks so far anyway. I'll try to find somewhere to get some "natural" water from - do I know it's contaminant and disease free just by the fact that it has life in it, or by local knowledge, or is there some other way? Also looking forward to browsing some more on the bromfield site - I sneaked a quick look earlier and it looks fantastic!
Thanks for the advice on algae too, that could have caused some alarm but now I'm forewarned.
Oh - and I forgot to mention that only a few days after filling the pond, we spotted a couple of beetles in there! It really is amazing how quickly the life finds the water.

 

Just got some plants from Bromfield, really impressed with service and the plants look really healthy and a good size. They're not really "arranged" quite right yet, but here's a few pics...

 

Nice, but may i suggest you remove the "rocks" from the beech end.
The idea for a beech is so small animals can walk / crawl / swim out. Which they can't readily do with rocks in the way.

 

Hi Claire75,

Some good tips have been given in the previous posts but I can advise not to "import" frogspawn as it can spread disease.
Wildlife will find it's own way to your pond>

TO

 

Thanks Watergarden - shall give your comments some thought. The trouble is the "rocks" are hiding/securing the liner, so I'll have to work out an alternative way of doing that - maybe just cover with earth if I can think of a way to keep it out of the water...

 

Thanks TO too! Too late on the frogspawn I'm afraid, I've already been given some from a friend of a friend's pond, but this was quite a few weeks ago and everything seems fine so far, so hopefully I've been lucky.

 

Hi Claire75, welcome to the world of water, pond looks great and should be wonderful as it develops, just a cheap tip I tried, buy a bag of watercress from your local supermarket and throw in, it roots quite quickly.Also if you time it right you can pick-up waterlillies cheaply from B&Q for about a fiver.

 

My pond is now two years old this is what it looked like last year

and this is what it looks like now. pic taken a few days ago

 

Claire 75, you could cover the liner with more gravel, reducing it the further away from the pond you get, so it does not have a "cut off" line

 

thanks watergarden, that's a good idea... I'll have a go at the weekend. The rocks would be handy too, as I want to make a rock garden for some alpines at the back of the other end of the pond.
Fancy yours looks great! Nice to see how everything soon gets established.
And, thanks exlondoner! I'm really pleased with it actually (apart from schoolboy error with beach!) and I love going up there to check up on the plants and tadpoles and to see whether any other visitors have turned up. The watercress idea is a good one, it's a nice plant and would help to green things up a bit. I've just got a water lily which cost a bit more than �£5, would never've guessed B&Q sold them!

 

I picked up a water Lilie from Morrisons store, �£2 a couple of weeks ago. I am always on the look out in there, often there are good bargains.

Potted it up and I see new leaves, I just hope it's not the rampant kind. :(

 

Fancy,Love your pond Photo's It has certainly come on well in such a short time

Claire75,Brilliant start to the world of ponds.Hope you have many happy years of pleasure watching it grow and mature and watching the wildlife settle in...