Eleanor Whitcombe
A small pond, a large life
There is a particular kind of quiet that arrives in a British garden around nine o'clock on a June evening. The birds have thinned out, the light has gone soft and gold, and if you have water nearby, something else takes over. A dragonfly hawks low over the surface. A bat flickers past the hedge. Somewhere in the damp shade, a frog shifts and settles. Few things you can do to a garden repay you as generously as a pond — and it need not be grand. Even a modest one, the size of a coffee table, will pull in wildlife from across the neighbourhood.
Slow living is often described as doing less, more attentively. A pond suits that perfectly. You dig it once, plant it, and then spend years simply sitting beside it, noticing what turns up.
Choosing a spot that works for you and the wildlife
Position matters more than size. Aim for a spot that gets sun for at least half the day, because warmth is what gets frogspawn hatching and dragonfly larvae growing. Avoid sitting it directly beneath a big deciduous tree — you will spend every October fishing out leaves — and avoid the lowest point of the garden if it floods.
Think about where you will actually sit. A pond you can see from the kitchen window, or from a bench you already love, will hold your attention through the seasons. If there are small children about, plan a shallow edge and keep the deepest section well inside the outline.
Digging, lining and filling
Aim for a deepest point of at least 60cm — 75cm is better if you have room, because that is where frogs and newts will retreat to survive a hard frost. Include one shallow shelf about 20cm deep, roughly 30cm wide, for marginal plants and for creatures to haul themselves out.
- Mark the shape with a length of rope or a hose, then cut the turf and keep it to one side.
- Dig the shelves first, then the centre, removing sharp stones and thick roots as you go.
- Line the hole with a layer of soft sand or old carpet to protect the liner from punctures.
- Use butyl or EPDM liner, allowing at least 30cm of overhang all the way round to tuck under the edging.
- Fill with rainwater from a butt where you can. Tap water is fine in an emergency, but rainwater settles a pond far faster.
Then leave it. A fortnight of standing before you plant gives the water time to settle and the temperature to stabilise.
Planting for cover, colour and clean water
Plants do the heavy lifting in a wildlife pond: they shelter tadpoles, oxygenate the water and shade out algae. Choose native species where possible, and plant in baskets of hessian or mesh so they do not take over.
- Oxygenators such as hornwort or water starwort, which keep the water clear and give dragonfly larvae somewhere to hunt.
- Marginals such as water forget-me-not, marsh marigold and water mint, planted on the shallow shelf.
- Floating leaves such as native water lily, which shade the surface and reduce blanketweed.
Please avoid the thugs. Floating pennywort, parrot's feather and water fern are invasive non-natives and it is illegal to sell or plant them in the UK — they can smother a pond within a season and escape into local waterways.
Making it safe for frogs, dragonflies and hedgehogs
The single most important feature is an easy way out. Frogs can climb, but hedgehogs, which visit ponds at night to drink, cannot — and a steep-sided pond is a drowning trap for them. Build a gentle ramp of stones, or a shallow pebbled beach at one end, so anything that falls in can walk out.
Resist the urge to add fish. Goldfish and koi will clear a pond of tadpoles and larvae in weeks, and the pond becomes a display tank rather than a habitat. If a heron visits, take it as a compliment and leave the fish out of it.
Add a small log pile or a stack of stones nearby, and leave a patch of longer grass at the edge. Damp, untidy corners are where frogs spend the day.
Gentle upkeep through the year
Wildlife ponds want less attention than ornamental ones, not more. Rake off fallen leaves in autumn before they sink, but never empty or deep-clean the pond between October and March — frogs and newts will be hibernating in the silt at the bottom, and disturbing it can kill them.
In summer, twirl blanketweed out with a stick rather than reaching for chemicals. Top up in dry spells with rainwater. Leave the margins a little ragged over winter, and the seed heads standing.
Then stop working and go and sit down. Take a mug of tea out at dusk, and give it twenty minutes. The pond will do the rest, and after a while you will find that the slowest hour of your day has become the one you look forward to most.
