wildlife pond dug...

[Nepen]

After reading about the wildlife pond, wanted one but really couldn't figure how to have one, and yesterday read a topic that sparked my idea.... I went home and dug the smallish wildlife pond and filled it in 2 hours, with the help of my son collecting the worms while I dug... I know I'm crazy :blueflower:

I had to move several of my garden plants to be able to find the big enough spot to make this pond happened. The dirt is pure clay (they sold us the wrong kind of topsoil!! grrr) so not many kind of plant will be able to grow there anyway (any idea how to fix the clay problem other than take all the dirt out?)

I put the rocks from the big pond and some plants in it. I used tap water (ran out of the dechlorinator) and I think all the good bacteria probably all die because of the chlorine, right? oh well, that doesn't really matter here anyway. I'm going to wait a while then start to put the tadpoles in there. My friend has a pond that I can get some dragon fly nymphs to help with mosquito control. Is there other way to do mosquito control other than put in the mosquito dunk?

Next step will cover the edge, then put more plants in. The pond is not deep, probably around 8-12 inches (cant go deeper, the clay is like concrete) what will be a good plant that will not be so tall? I don't want to crowd the area.

 

[addy1]

Cute little pond! Most of my plants get big. You might need to just add some plants then purge them if they start to take over.

 

[Nepen]

Thanks addy. I might be able to do one big plant, cattail will be too big though.. do you have any medium size to recommend?

 

[addy1]

Dwarf cattails, water willow are two that come to mind, upright skinny plants with some nice roots.

 

[Nepen]

Thanks addy, I was looking at eBay and they don't have those at the moment so I got the corkscew plant, parrot roots, four leaf water Lilly, yellow floating heart mini water lily and some other water plants.... Went a bit over board as usual...but one each should be ok, I'll just need to prune corkscrew quite often.

I also have very nice pot of pitcher plants so I went to seperate them and put some in the pond I have them in small round fish bowl and its super over grown in there (have like 5 varieties in that one tiny pot) there are some grass in the pot too so I took them out and also put them in the pond ( put them in the seed starter bag thing that made out of peat moss) hope fulling the root will start growing out from the bag. Tomorrow ill try to get other type of pitcher plant in there for more variety and also to thin out the pot too.


Was going to get iris but decide will wait till next year, or else I won't have anything to buy next year!

 

[gardengimp]

The dirt is pure clay (they sold us the wrong kind of topsoil!! grrr) so not many kind of plant will be able to grow there anyway (any idea how to fix the clay problem other than take all the dirt out?)

A compost bin is a girls best friend. :blueflower: And the gal will jump for joy when the black soldier flies move in. And her soil and plants will name her George and love her for ever and ever. Or until the compost bin goes empty. And a compost bin is a great place for all the over grown pond plants and fish poo to go.

 

[addy1]

The pitcher plants like to have their crown dry. I had one in the bog for years, it did not come back this summer though. I do have them in a land bog, ie a wet area in peat moss.

 

[Nepen]

Will try to compose bi, thanks


Addy, Ahh, I didn't think about that, will have to raise them a bit. Right now they are not just below the surface, will add more rocks to keep them higher.