Novice newbie small garden pond project advise

Hi all
Im a novice and a newbie (what a combination!) who's more at home hanging around car forums!
Ive a large garden with a large lawn. Its basically a blank canvas.
Im thinking of making a very small pond as a starter project.
I have my daughters old baby bath which im thinking of using.
I want the pond to be raised but it will be few inches below the ground securely.
It will be placed near a wall and will surround it with white rocks which will taper down like a step towards the ground.
I am going to place a small solar powered fountain feature (3 bowls of decreasing size one above each other with water trickling down.. i think you all might know what I mean!)

I may put a few gold fish in there and I definitely want a couple of water lilies floating around but what I want to know is which aquautic plants are adviseable to put to keep the water clean and which ones are available in the UK?

I have browsed the site but I got a bit over whelmed with all the information!
Many thanks in advance

 

Hi and welcome.

First of all. Water turns green because of sunlight making micro organisms grow and multiply. These organisms happen to be green. (They are called algae) As well as needing sunshine they feed on neutriants in the water.
By adding aquatic plants, the idea is they take the neutriants so the algae don't get any, so that means you can have any aquatic plants you like the look of. Water lilies also stop the sunshine getting into the water because they have big leaves. Water lilies do not like moving / splashing water.

I would not recommend putting a pond near a wall even one that small because you can't get behind it when you need to.

If you haven't brought a solar water feature yet, save your money, as they don't work too well in the UK.

As for goldfish, did you know a well looked after goldfish can live for 30 years and grow to well over a foot in length, a baby bath is not an ideal home for them.

I would "plant" your baby bath, fill it with water, put a couple of bricks in it at one end and leave it and see what comes calls it home. Later on in the year add a lilly but not now.

Oh, the bricks, that's for the wildlife to use as a step to get out. (When you are in a swimming pool do you always climb out or use the steps?)

Good luck