Monday, 4 August 2008

Everyone has room for a pond.

Having been inspired by Spring Watch, my sons favourite programme of last month, we have invested in a small 'water feature'.

It's a small wooden half barrel. It's only 50cm in diameter, and only 40cm deep, so not much to look at. We have lined it with a butyl liner (quite a process to make this fit), and have tacked this to the barrel around the rim. We pretty much followed the instructions inside the RHS Water in a small garden book.

I have made a shelf using two quite large rocks from the garden centre (about £2.50 each) to enable creature access in and out. We didn't have much room for plants, but have planted one oxygenator, one tall(ish) reed, and a large leaved plant for cover (a bog bean: what a great name).

I have also attempted to build some steps up to the edge, as my intention is that frogs will populate my pond, and so help me in my slug control programme. I need to rethink the access steps, as they're a bit precarious at the moment.

The steps are essentially some breeze blocks cut into small pieces, and mounted on top of each other. I have also cut a drain-pipe into three tubes, as I hope to provide a place of shelter also. I have built these into the steps.

But as it's all very loose, and a bit ugly to look at, I'm thinking of building something out of wood. If I can get hold of some fairly decent sized planks, I can turn the steps into a wildlife habitat, by drilling holes into the wood for insects to live in?

If anyone has any suggestions as to how I should go about this, I'd appreciate any tips?

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