Pond location - seeking advice

[grantjames]

Hi,

I am totally new to pond building. I want to create a wildlife pond to attract wildlife to my garden.

The first thing I'm thinking about is size and location. The idea is that I'll be separating my garden into two halves. One neat and tidy half for the humans, and one "natural" part for the wildlife. So naturally I'm thinking the pond needs to be in the lower half of the garden.

Firstly here's an overview of my garden:

Each of the 3 locations is along the left hand side, just after the patch of dirt in the middle.

Location 1:

This one is where the dirt patch is. The pond would be next to an apple tree.

Location 2:

This is just a little further down. It moves the pond away from the tree a little, but would mean the pond is further away from the house.

Location 3:
This again is just a little further down.

So my question is, can anyone give me any pros and cons on each of the 3 locations? Each spot should get a decent amount of sunlight. The garden is north facing, and so the left hand side of the garden has sun in the morning, then shade in the afternoon.

Also, is there a minimum size that a pond should be?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Forgot to ask. Obviously all 3 locations are next to a fence. Is this ok or will I need to make the pond more central so it's away from things like that?

 

[KennethO]

What about utility lines? Power, water, cable etc? Any issues with them passing threw?

Right under the tree would make the work pretty hard with all of the roots. Plus without a skimmer or constant netting you will get a decent amount of leaves and fruit in it. No problem next to the fence. But you want room to walk around it for maintenance and to plant any border plants if you choose to. I'm favoring the far back area away from the tree. Any possibility of putting it where the bench is? Its flat, clear and way from the trees.

 

[fishin4cars]

Bigger is better, The bigger you go the more stable the water. But that being said we have ponders here that have ponds as small as 30 gallons,(I think that is the smallest one that I know of that has fish and plants, all the way into the tens of thousands of gallons. Some key factors, for your area, I would go at least 36" deep in part of the pond for protection during the extreme heat and winter months. Doesn't have to be the whole pond but one area large enough so that when it gets really hot the fish have a cooler place to go, and in the winter they have a warm place to go. The further you can get away from the tree the better, Root's can play a major role in how hard the pond is to gig and can actually damage the liner once installed, also the leaves falling in the pond can be a problem. You need to keep in mind, You'll need a water source to fill and do some cleaning and maintance so you do want to be close enough to a water souce to be able to use it, You also will need elctricity. EXTENSION CORDS ARE A BIG NO-NO! you want a GFI circuit as close to the pond as possible for your pumps, lights, areator, etc. I recommend at minimal a 4 plug outlet run to the the area the pond will be in. I also HIGHLY suggest taking some time and looking deep into the site and doing some research as to what style pond (Formal/informal) you want, do you want a steam or water fall, predator protection, raised or sunkin completely in the ground. KNow first hand what kind of fish, If your going Koi plan big, plan deeper than 36" for Koi I recommend 4' or deeper. Goldfish don't need the deepness as much and they don't eat plants as bad. There are quite a few very nice ponds here on the site to view. To many to list them all.

 

[DrDave]

Locate near water and electricity and make sure the rain does not run into the ponds during a downfall.

 

[sissy]

That poor apple tree looks like someone butchered it .So make sure it stable and is not rotted out in the middle .Apple trees that are not taken care of can get infested by ants .I would make sure of it's health first as you would not want it falling into your pond after you put a lot of work into it.Apple trees have a tendency to drop a lot of sap if they are not pruned properly and that will cause problems with your water quality .

 

[stroppy]

i think grant is going to build a wildlife pond ... am i right ? if so he wont be putting fish in it, if it were me i would put it right down the bottom, it needs to be shallow round the edge, and sloping with deeper in the middle for frogs and the like for winter, i would build it as big as space allows

 

[grantjames]

Thank you for all the info!

Correct, it will be a wildlife pond, so no fish. I also want to make it as natural as possible, so wont be having any pumps or filters.

I'll do some more research and will then run my plans by everyone here!

 

[j.w]

I'm not sure you can have a pond like that and attract wildlife w/o keeping it from turning stagnant. I think you are gonna have to have some kind of pump running through a bog filter. Otherwise it will just be a hole in the ground w/ liner and foul water eventually. Maybe there is something I'm not getting right?

 

[grantjames]

I'm not sure you can have a pond like that and attract wildlife w/o keeping it from turning stagnant. I think you are gonna have to have some kind of pump running through a bog filter. Otherwise it will just be a hole in the ground w/ liner and foul water eventually. Maybe there is something I'm not getting right?

I'm not sure. I'm sure I've ready somewhere that if you have enough oxygenating plants in there, it'll naturally balance itself out and wont become stagnant.

 

[j.w]

Well we will find out together then when somebody w/ experience in this subject pops up w/ a post or two about it hopefully. Plants definitely would help I'm thinking.

 

[Steve knight]

I would think at least minnows would be needed to keep the bugs down.
Idid a little plant pond with no moving water and lots of plants and had one little goldfish and a few minnows in it. I changed a little water each week and added liquid fertizler and the water never became stagnent. but the plants never grew as well as they do in the fish pond.

 

[addy1]

Even for a wildlife pond, I would suggest some water movement. There are natural ponds here that are just gross when the heat hits, bubbling algae, scum on the top etc. Like jw suggests run your water through a plant filter or a bog, a simple pump set up will do that for you.