Helping Wildlife to Flourish by Creating a Small Pond

One of the best things we can do to enhance biodiversity in our garden is to create a pond for wildlife. By doing this we create a new habitat into which life can migrate or we can introduce life to an environment where it can flourish.

Earlier this spring, my wife and I saw a flyer for a ‘Gardening for Biodiversity’ talk by local nature enthusiast Paul Ritchie. We were inspired by the idea of contributing to an area in which humans and nature thrive together. We attended the talk in Brockham village hall in early May, and learned how to increase biodiversity in our own garden. We signed up to receive a ‘gardening for biodiversity encouragement pack’ of essential items for building a wildlife pond, provided by the 4B’s Community Biodiversity Park initiative. We also visited Paul Ritchie's well established wildlife garden, in Brockham for more inspiration and came away with a huge tub to house our pond, bricks to produce levels within it and advice including a video link demonstrating how to build a barrel pond.
 
Back in our garden we moved a potted tree and replaced it with our tub –  we had taken the first step in making our pond!

We were informed by email that a pond liner and starter pack of pond plants were on the way and they arrived soon after. We weren’t sure if the pond liner needed protecting inside the tub and decided it was better to be safe than sorry, laying an old sheet inside the tub before the liner. We used a bungee cord to hold the liner in place while we filled it with rain water from our water butt.

The plants arrived with instructions including what to do with the oxygenator; “throw it into your pond”. It wasn’t difficult. The collection of plants in the British Pond Plants starter pack required potting immediately with aquatic compost. A friend provided the compost and we bought a bag of 14mm gravel to hold the compost inside the pots. We grabbed empty pots from the shed, drilled loads of holes in them and potted our 10 plants.

We cut away surplus liner and handed the pond over to nature to do the rest. Within a day or two, we were visited by a damselfly and acquired a resident diving beetle. We were keen to give nature a helping hand so we collected water from an established pond, along with two snails caught in the process, and added them to our pond. Our final act will be to place new plants around the outside of the tub to improve aesthetics.

Making our pond gave us a lot of pleasure and we are now watching eagerly to see how the new habitat we created becomes home to whatever wildlife wants to move in! The slideshow below gives a flavour of the journey we took to making our pond.

Simon and Anne Fellows