Build a wildlife pond and lots of early season pollinators...

Hello All,

Well what a difference a little dry weather makes and even more of a difference when you add mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine into the mix!!

As you will have read from the last post, I have been planning the construction of a decent sized wildlife pond over the winter months as the weather and garden have been too wet to get much done.

The weather over the last week has been good enough to get this long awaited project started and this weekend it's been positively 'summer like'! This warm weather has also brought out lots of early pollinators that I will show you later on in the post along with some of the plants that they are visiting.

Without further ado here is a quick rundown of the construction of my wildlife pond so far....

Firstly last weekend I cleared the area by cutting back the old wild flower stems and grass from last year. So as to cause as little disturbance as possible to hibernating invertebrates all the cut stems were put carefully under the hedge to ensure that any insects were kept safe.

Once vegetation was cleared and material that might harbour hibernating insects had been moved to a safe place the rough size and outline of the pond was marked out with a spade...

The top six inches of soil was then dug out so that it was easier to visualise and make any adjustments that may be required as below...

 Some of the soil dug out including the top soil that had wild flowers growing in it was used to landscape this area and create banks that will provide better draining than the the rest of the garden. This gives a different situation and will allow for the planting of wild flowers that prefer better drainage nad that I might not have been able to grow normally... 

 The bank of the dry river bed was then dug back and concrete footings put in for the old stone wall to be built on. 

 Using old stones that have all been reclaimed from adverts put on the wanted board at work, I built the below retaining wall. This wall will act as a 'dam' to the pond and give a reason and connection for the new pond sitting above the dry gravel river bed. You will see that I have left a gap in this wall to allow for the pond liner when laid to sit in this gap with another thinner capping stone cemented on top. This will then act as the overflow for the pond and again give a relationship to the riverbed.

Once built I then needed to take my level where I wanted the water to sit from the gap in the wall using a spirit level. This level was then transferred around the whole pond by hammering in short stakes that were all aligned to the same height using the long spirit level. By taking time to get the levels right now will ensure that the water will sit evenly in the pond with no liner showing.

I am now just at the point where I have started to dig out the pond and as time goes on I will gradually shape it by digging deep channels and adding shelves for planting pots to sit on...

So that is about as far as I have got with the pond so far and as suggested above I will now dig it out and add internal features such as planting shelves and deeper areas where wildlife can safely overwinter. If you want to continue to see this project develop then keep watching this space as the weather forecast is good this week and I intend to get as much done as I can whilst it's dry!

With little else to report from a work point of view in the garden here is a little run down of a few recent visitors including some very early pollinators that have enjoyed my knew Spring planting for pollinators...

Our native 7-spot Ladybird is a real success story for us and the garden is literally covered in them! It is now with a bit of sun that you find them just warming themselves up in all sorts of sunny spots...

 It's been a superb couple of weeks for early pollinators and this weekend has been especially good for butterflies like this Comma warming up in the sun...

 As in my last post on here the Bumblebees are increasing in number all the time and feed on a lot of the new Spring plants that I've planted for them. 

 Lesser Celandine has proved a must have plant for butterflies and this weekend it has been covered in Peacock (above) and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies (below) I can't believe that so many people pull this out as a weed! I find the shiny yellow flowers really cheery and the pollinators love them. They also find their own way into the garden so they are absolutely free, what's not to like!!?...

 Another early Small Tortoiseshell...

We have also had a good number of birds using the feeders in the garden when so many people are saying that they've had very few visiting their feeders this winter. Here are a couple of our current visitors...

 Blackcaps have become regular visitors to the feeders again recently and have put in appearances all throughout the winter with both female (above) and male (below) coming in...

As  the three pictures below show we have had a really got number of Long-tailed Tits in the garden and recently they have been collecting bedding materials. They are not taking this material very far so I'm hoping that they may decide to nest close by later in the Spring...

Well that's about it for another post, I do hope that you are finding my madcap gardening projects interesting still and will continue to follow my blog. 

As always I'm always keen to hear your thoughts and opinions about the blog or a particular project that I am working on so please do continue to send me emails as I will reply to everyone and always enjoy interactions with like minded people.

If you are interested in the new wildlife pond or fancy having a go yourself do keep reading as I will be posting further updates as the project progresses.

Best

Higgy