Why a Pond Belongs in a Rural Garden

Very few things you can add to a garden will repay you as generously as a pond. Even a modest one — the sort you could fit into a corner of a vegetable patch — becomes a magnet for life within weeks of filling. In a rural setting, where hedgerows, ditches and old field ponds already exist nearby, your new pond is quickly found by everything that needs water: frogs, newts, dragonflies, bees and a long list of birds that want somewhere to bathe and drink.

The joy of it is that a wildlife pond asks so little of you. No filtration, no pumps, no feeding. Once it is planted and settled, it largely runs itself, and the daily small dramas — a moorhen picking its way along the edge, tadpoles clouding the shallows, a dragonfly emerging from its nymph case on a June morning — become part of the rhythm of the place.

Choosing the Site

Pick a spot that gets sun for at least half the day. Warmth encourages the algae and microscopic life that everything else feeds on, and dragonflies will not linger over a shaded pool. Some dappled afternoon shade is welcome, though, as it keeps the water from overheating in a hot spell.

• Away from trees: fallen leaves rot and strip oxygen, and roots can puncture a liner. Leave a good 3m from the nearest mature tree.
• Low ground: a natural dip means less digging and a pond that looks as though it has always been there.
• Visible from the house: you will watch it far more often than you expect, especially in spring when spawning happens.
• Rainwater top-ups: site it where a water butt or shed gutter can reach it, and avoid tap water where you can — the nutrients in it feed blanketweed.

Digging and Lining

Aim for a pond around 2m by 3m, with a maximum depth of 60–75cm in the middle. That sounds shallow, but it is entirely deliberate: the crucial feature of a wildlife pond is its graduated margins. Frogs spawn in the warm shallows, hedgehogs and fledglings need to drink at the edge, and most pond plants want only 10–20cm of water over their roots.

Dig out a series of shelves — one at about 10cm deep around the rim, another at 30cm, then the deeper central basin. Keep the sides gentle enough that a small creature can walk out. Line the hole with old carpet, sand or a purpose-made underlay, then lay a butyl or flexible rubber liner, working out the creases as you go. Leave a generous overlap all round; you will fold this into a shallow trench and cover it with turf or gravel to hide it.

Fill from a water butt or hose left to stand, and let the pond settle for a fortnight before planting. It will look like a muddy hole at first. Ignore it and carry on.

Planting for Native Wildlife

Use native species and steer well clear of invasive non-natives such as New Zealand pygmyweed, floating pennywort and water fern, all of which can escape into nearby ditches and wreak havoc. A few pots of each of the following will be plenty.

• Oxygenators: hornwort and water starwort, planted in baskets in the deeper water.
• Marginals: water forget-me-not, marsh marigold, ragged robin and lesser spearwort along the shallow shelf.
• Structure: a clump of yellow flag iris or purple loosestrife, both excellent for emerging dragonfly larvae, though keep them in a basket to control their spread.
• Surface cover: a small native water lily, or simply let some of the oxygenators float free.

Leave one side of the bank bare — a little exposed mud and gravel is exactly what ground beetles, frogs and drinking birds want.

What Will Arrive

Common frogs are usually the first colonists, sometimes within a season, and their spawn is a wonderful thing to watch with children. Smooth newts follow, along with water boatmen, pond skaters, whirligig beetles and the great diving beetle. Dragonflies and damselflies will patrol from midsummer, and their larvae — fierce little predators — will overwinter in the silt.

Birds treat a pond as a washroom and a larder. Blackbirds, song thrushes and robins will bathe in the shallows, swallows and house martins will hawk for the insects rising off the surface, and herons will almost certainly visit. Accept that a heron will take the occasional frog; it is part of the bargain, and a pond with a little cover of plants will always hold more than a bare one.

Keeping It Going

Resist the urge to tidy. In autumn, leave some fallen leaves to drift into the water and clear only what would smother the pond completely. In late winter, cut back dead stems and lift out excess weed with a rake, leaving it on the bank for a day so that any creatures can crawl back in.

Top up from rainwater in dry spells, and never introduce fish — they will clear out the tadpoles and insect larvae in a single season. Add a small ramp of stones or rough timber at one corner so hedgehogs and other wandering animals can climb out. Beyond that, the best thing you can do is pull up a chair and let it get on with it.