Converting fish pond to garden pond - lots of help needed!

[Doddsey]

Hello

My wife and I recently bought our first house together, and we inherited a fish pond in the garden. I will measure it and update this post, but it seems to be approx. 1.5 x 3 metres.

The fish have been adopted by my uncle, who is something of an enthusiast.

It has a pump, which is now switched off but still connected.

It is built within a raised level brick surface, and has only lily pads (I think) currently.

I have read some news articles about a reduction in ponds contributing to a fall in certain species, and I think it would be nice to have a pond that attracts a wide range of wildlife.

I would like to keep the pump off, as this is a drain on the electricity bill, and quite noisy.

I've never owned a pond, and never owned a garden... so I really am starting from scratch - please forgive my ignorance and naivety on the subject.

I've started reading about my options, but felt here would be a good place to get some consistent advice, as I have found it a difficult subject to research. Most sites focus on people who don't already have a pond in place!

I have read about slopes being necessary for amphibians, and that I can use plants to keep the water clean.

I am committed to making this work, but think it'll be a steep learning curve.

Please can any recommend some first steps to get things moving, and please let me know if you need more information in order to offer advice?

Thanks!

 

[tbendl]

Welcome Doddsey. I inherited an old pond when I bought my house and decided to strictly go fishless for some of the same reasons. I bought a very quiet small pump just to circulate water up to my bog area where I hope that plants will function as my filter. There are a few nature ponds on here that have no pumps or filters, I think Figgy and Francois43 both have them.
If you have pictures, we'd love to see them. Show us what you've got and we will help as much as we can without actually showing up and doing any digging for you.

 

[j.w]

Doddsey
Some here have wildlife ponds and can give you lots of good info on how to do it. They will see your post and chime in soon I bet. We would love to see your pix.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Do you have any pictures yet? And where do you live?

 

[addy1]

to our group!

 

[Doddsey]

Hello everyone, and thanks for your kind messages!

Here are some pictures of the pond. Apologies if I have made it sound bigger and better than it is, but I hope that with a bit of love and care, we can turn it into a nice spot.

We live in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. The pond is at the bottom of the garden, and the garden is quite secluded, with tall fences and tall trees growing on most sides, so it's quite quiet.

From my initial reading, I have started to think that I need to look at introducing a slope / step into the pond, to encourage amphibians? I also found a site that shows me to put potted plants in at varying heights, and then use floating plants for the deepest areas. I'm not sure how I would go about introducing a slope or step? The idea of introducing different size plants seems simple enough though (famous last words).

Any advice on some first steps would be great.

Also, am I doing this at totally the wrong time, given that it's September?

Thanks

(If these images need to be displayed as a full image, let me know!)

 

[Doddsey]

I've just noticed the America locations... I should explain - Cheshunt is in the UK... hope that's okay!

 

[Nepen]

Welcome to our group doddsey!

We have our resident UK member here who has a wildlife pond, her name is figgy and she has such a very cute pond

I also have a small wild life pond, about a bit smaller than yours. I use rocks to build up the steps. You don't really need a slope but steps would be nice. But if you are going to have potted plants, then you shouldn't need a step as the pot will act as a step already.

Put a lot of submerged water plant in there such as hornworts will help with water quality. You should search for figgy to see what plants she has since you share the location. She has a slope on one side of her pond I think.


In the first year I ended up having to use a tiny pump for a few weeks to help establish the pond. Then after that I didn't use anything. This is the second year and I didn't use the pump or anything since the first year and the water is clear and actually has 3 small fish in it to control mosquitoes population which I'll bring in during colder months.

Hope this helps.

 

[JohnHuff]

The fish have been adopted by my uncle, who is something of an enthusiast.

I'll say.

 

[Doddsey]

Welcome to our group doddsey!

We have our resident UK member here who has a wildlife pond, her name is figgy and she has such a very cute pond

I also have a small wild life pond, about a bit smaller than yours. I use rocks to build up the steps. You don't really need a slope but steps would be nice. But if you are going to have potted plants, then you shouldn't need a step as the pot will act as a step already.

Put a lot of submerged water plant in there such as hornworts will help with water quality. You should search for figgy to see what plants she has since you share the location. She has a slope on one side of her pond I think.


In the first year I ended up having to use a tiny pump for a few weeks to help establish the pond. Then after that I didn't use anything. This is the second year and I didn't use the pump or anything since the first year and the water is clear and actually has 3 small fish in it to control mosquitoes population which I'll bring in during colder months.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot - rocks is an interesting idea.

Sorry for my stupidness, but why would having pots mean that you don't need steps? Is that because they use the pots as steps?

If I opted for rocks, presumably I can't put plants there?

Thanks!

 

[addy1]

Your not stupid just learning! You can have rocks and plants, or just rocks or just plants. The main thing I notice is the water is down pretty low from the top edge of the pond. You do need to make an exit and entrance for the critters, most would not be able to crawl up that rock wall.

Potted plants would give them a way to work up and out of the water and live among, rocks could be stacked to help the critters crawl out of the water.

 

[Doddsey]

Your not stupid just learning! You can have rocks and plants, or just rocks or just plants. The main thing I notice is the water is down pretty low from the top edge of the pond. You do need to make an exit and entrance for the critters, most would not be able to crawl up that rock wall.

Potted plants would give them a way to work up and out of the water and live among, rocks could be stacked to help the critters crawl out of the water.

Great, thanks - so if we have rocks on one side, I assume you leave it like that, bare i.e. put no plants on top of the rocks?

With regards to plants, the web site that showed me different plants for different heights made out that you would have different height steps, so you can then put different types of plants on each level - suitable for different heights. Is that a sensible thing to do, because mine is currently flat at the bottom, so I'd need to create steps somehow?

Appreciate what you're saying about having things for them to be able to get into the water with... or should I just top the water up?

Thanks for your help!

 

[tbendl]

There are some plants that you can grow in the cracks of the rock, I know creeping jenny is a favorite. As long as the roots can reach water they will grow. Jw has a bunch growing on her rocks if you look at her showcase. I have also seen impatiens planted bare root but I'm not sure what grows well there. I also have a flat bottom on my pond so I have used bricks, concrete blocks and mini milk crates to provide ledges of varying heights for my plants.
It looks like a pretty deep rock wall, I would consider putting in a liner in which would allow you to raise the water level up. If you went that way, you could put your ledges in and then put the liner over the top.

 

[Doddsey]

There are some plants that you can grow in the cracks of the rock, I know creeping jenny is a favorite. As long as the roots can reach water they will grow. Jw has a bunch growing on her rocks if you look at her showcase. I have also seen impatiens planted bare root but I'm not sure what grows well there. I also have a flat bottom on my pond so I have used bricks, concrete blocks and mini milk crates to provide ledges of varying heights for my plants.
It looks like a pretty deep rock wall, I would consider putting in a liner in which would allow you to raise the water level up. If you went that way, you could put your ledges in and then put the liner over the top.

Thank you.

The liner... is that what is currently below the water level - the black stuff? Where would I go about learning how to do that?

And sorry, but when you say put ledges in, what do you mean? Or would that be the rocks/bricks that are forming the steps?

 

[tbendl]

It looks like you have a preformed pond in the bottom, basically a hard plastic shell which then has bricks stacked on top of it. At least that's what it looks like anyway. I would consider draining it, putting in your ledges if you want them using concrete block or sand bags or brick, (basically contouring the bottom to the way you want it with ledges or a shallow entrance and then putting a liner in over the top. It would give you the ability have raise your water level up and have your ledges covered.
Does that make sense?

 

[tbendl]

Here's a shot of when I installed my liner and then putting pavers over the edge.

 

[Doddsey]

That's really helpful, thank you!

And what you've done with yours looks brilliant. Really great.

Do you think this is something I can consider doing over the course of a few weeks during autumn, or should it be done during spring?

 

[tbendl]

With the size you can probably do it whenever. I would get it done in the Autumn so you can be ready for planting come spring. The biggest thing is have the liner ready to install after you get it drained and ready to go in case it rains. And thank you Doddsey I started out with a mud pit and have worked like a crazy person all summer to get it where it is. Hopefully you'll fall in love with it. I now have frogs and dragonflies and birds and butterflies all over the yard. I am looking forward to spring so I can plant a lot more stuff.
Depending on how much muck is on the bottom and if you choose to remove that top layer/layers of brick around the top I wouldn't think it would take long at all to empty. clean, build your ledges and put the liner in over the top of it all.
Take lots of pictures so we can admire your progress.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Doddsey, Welcome. It looks like you are getting great advice. If you are thinking of a pump Laguna makes some very quiet energy efficient pumps. You could create a waterfall with a few rocks on one side and the splashing will make a nice sound in your garden. You can use the same liner for the pond as for under your waterfall so you don't lose any water. Basically we have all learned here by doing. Every pond is different. Part of the fun of having a pond is trying different things and see how they work and hopefully not killing too many fish in the process!. Good luck!

 

[Big Lou]

Welcome Doddsey. We too have a fishless nature pond. About 16 years old, < > 2200 gallons. Provides water to all types of wildlife, especially birds. Provides us with a very tranquil retreat.

Link to our pond showcase containing multiple versions of our pond. The 2013 version is basically what it looks like today.

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/showcase/lou-cathys-nature-pond.13/#timages