Duchy's Wildlife Pond

[The witch]

Split from: Sean%27s+ponds

dutchy said:

I just bookmarked this thread,
I love your ponds Sean.
They make my little pond look like ... well a very small pond.



I have no fish because they will eat the egs of the newts.
What sort of wild life do you get?

[The witch]

I do like your little wildlife pond Duchy

Do you have common newts or crested newts?
I have only seen one newt in our garden since we have lived here

[seanmckinney]

Dont knock your own efforts duchy, if it does the job then it serves its purpose and if you enjoy it that is all that matters.

[dutchy]

I do enjoy it. There are lots of common water newts in there.
They have started their breeding season.
Sometimes when the day is warm the water literally wriggles with them falling over each other.
The males have a spotted and blue tail which they wag in front of the female. Sometimes the girl get mad with all those eager men around them.
They do not have sex but he deposits his sperm somewhere and she decides to swim over and take them up. Some time after she lays her eggs and by June the pond is quiet. You then get the white youngsters with gills still visible. Once they are big enough they too leave the pond and hibernate somewhere in the garden.
We have found them in the woodpile, under upturned old pots, in the rough compost heap, anywhere snug and warmish.

Today I saw at least 3 females with attending males, which for March is quite a large number. They normally get this active in April and go into a frenzy around May.

I also have frogs, toads and all sorts of insects.
Oh and 5 cats(neigbour owned) that use my pond as a water bowl and hunting ground.

I have a miniature white water lily ( a circular pond only 2 meters in diameter should not have a bigger one)
Several oxygenating plants the most visible one being the spiky
Stratiotes aloides.
I had Typha minima but it escaped into the garden and has left the pond. There is Japanese Hippuris, Caltha Palustris, Iris pseudacorus, Menyanthes trifoliata and for the exotic a pitcher plant

which seems to have survived the winter.

[sweetleaf]

Your pond has a lot more going on in it than mine! Do you think some of the wildlife originates from the drainage ditch and comes to the honeymoon hotel you have created? ;D
In any case your pond is very successful for wildlife I wish mine were as interesting to the local fauna.

The pitcher plant reminds me of "The day of the Triffids" ;D

[seanmckinney]

How did you make the rasied edge between the pond and the paved area?

[dutchy]

The raised edge was level at first but out here frost pushes the wooden edging up. It does so with the raised bed in the back as well.
First the pond was dug. Then the wood was put in place ( 2 meter long treated planks going in length down ) by the bloke who did the paving. The paving was layed up against the wood. When all that was done the protective and the liner went in. I used a thick plastic rope the kind sailors use and folded the liner over that. Then I screwed the liner through the liner rope construction onto the wood using a waterlevel to keep things straight and of course allowing space for the liner to settle once the pond was filled.
The other side of the pond has no hard shoulder.

[dutchy]

sweetleaf said:

Your pond has a lot more going on in it than mine! Do you think some of the wildlife originates from the drainage ditch and comes to the honeymoon hotel you have created? ;D
In any case your pond is very successful for wildlife I wish mine were as interesting to the local fauna.

The pitcher plant reminds me of "The day of the Triffids" ;D

Honeymoon hotel is safer than the ditch. That might indeed be the reason I get so many visitors. Plus I catch waterfleas or whatever they are called and let them into the pond to secure a constant food supply for the youngsters.

I do not live in the middle of a town but on the edge of a large green area with ditches and open connections to an ever bigger nature preserve. The latter the municipalty is even thinking of stretching to our backgarden. They plan woods and grasslands and whatever else. I will miss the black-tailed godwits, skylarks and redshanks but new animals will move in.
It is a wait and see situation.

[Sleepy]

The pitcher plant reminds me of "The day of the Triffids"

The Day of the Triffids reminds me of my Mother-in-Law. Funny old world, innit?

[dutchy]

;D she did not get you yet then or is it just your spirit sending us some messages?

[Sleepy]

She's working on it. But I wear a crusifix, which seems to help.

[dutchy]

Here is the close up I promised.



Dandelion and all ;D

[seanmckinney]

ahh not what I thought then, the liner looks to be folded over something, what is it? Oh frog tadpoles seem to like decaying slugs as food. Dont add poisoned slugs of course!

[dutchy]

see reply number 6

[seanmckinney]

whoops

[madonplants]

Thought I had replied to this thread before, must have forgotten the send button! Done that once before!!
Looks good, Dutchy. When you see small ponds like this, full of life, it just proves that you don't need a huge pond for frogs and newts to come in. Makes you wonder why more people don't do it. The wildlife that comes in, helps with pest control in the garden, so less work for the gardener! What are the dimensions of it, Dutchy? Excuse me if you have put this elsewhere. It blends well into the rest of the garden and is a credit to you.

Keith

[dutchy]

Hi Keith thank you.
It is 2 meter in diameter, 80 cm deep and has a little ( 75 cm by 1 foot ) tail which functions as a swamp area.

So I am not the only one posting without posting