Why You Need A WILDLIFE POND In Your GARDEN
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- Опубликовано: 11 май 2024
- In this video I revisit a wildlife pond I made 3 years ago and look at how it has developed and what's turned up.
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Joel Ashton
#Pond #GardenPond #WildlifePond #JoelAshton #BackYardPond #GardeningForWildlife #Wildlife 
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Because of your enthusiasm, I made a small pond last year (150 liter) and a hibernaculum. Our garden is 49 m2. Today I spotted a salamander in the pond. And yesterday my husband saw a hedgehog in our small compostpile. We are over the moon. And we have got you to thank for. Thanks 🌺 from the Netherlands.
I did the same a couple of years ago. I’ve been watching a pair of courting newts today chasing each other about, whilst simultaneously periodically harassing a caddis fly larvae that was close by at the same time. It was both hilarious and fascinating!
@@LouciferFlump that"s awesome!
@@lck2433 ☺️
I built a pond using Joel’s videos at the back end of 2022 with wild flowers surrounding it. The best thing I ever done and wished I put one in years ago. So much time just watching all the wildlife that it brings in, like Joel says less work and more enjoyment.
Hi Marilyn, so good to read this and so glad that there's yet another vital habitat for wildlife out there and I really appreciate you sharing your experiences and the rewards they can bring. Very best wishes, Joel
Very interesting. I can imagine the excitement when the kingfisher visited
Yes! We dug a pond two years ago. It’s 12 meters long, 1,5 broad, about 1,20 deep. Within 3 days it was full of life, we didn’t do anything. Today was the first warm May Day, frogs all night and this afternoon all sorts of dragon flies were flying around the garden. I never had thought about a pond but our Dutch garden designer (Loek Gorris) always includes them in his designs, I think it’s the part of the garden I absolutely enjoy the most now!
The first pond I ever dug, finished putting the liner in, switched on the hose pipe - and a frog leapt straight out of the grass and into the flow of water.
A couple of days later, and I found Pond skaters, and not long after - Whirligigs.
There wasn't a pond anywhere else in the street. Indeed, the nearest water was a stream about half a mile away. But wildlife seems to be able to sniff out water very quickly.
Loek Gorris volg ik ook. Dan heb je echt een fantastische vijver 🌺
First year, our pond was a plastic kiddie pool. It was so nice, we hand dug a small pond with a shovel. 3 feet by six feet. Small solar pump. It is amazing! The toads, frogs, newts, birds, butterflies.... So, we just want to say, the pond does not have to be huge or expensive or dug by machine. Any pond will bring joy to your space. (This year a big excavator dug two new and big ponds. We didn't even turn off the machine before frogs moved in.)
That is just great! Hope you get to enjoy it with many others and the younger generations too. Keep enjoying it and hope you get a big garden and or vernaculum and wood pile and insect hotel and hedge row and summer grasses and all !!
Awesome to hear to hear the story from Steve, a pond brings not only wildlife but also enthousiasm to the owners and a renewed appreciation of nature. Thanks for showing this Joel!
At 08:09, that's a pic of a male common or smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris)
Wow! I can’t imagine an Egret in my garden. Lovely to see how much having a pond means to the owner, I do love all the wicker animals in the garden too.
WTAF - how amazing getting a few kingfishers!
What a great pond and such a success. Young Grace and her parents from over the road are now regular visitors (Grace demands access) to my back garden pond and yesterday when looking for tadpoles she spotted a young froglet - cue delight all round. All thanks to Joel and my somewhat lazy man's version of his pond design. It's the best thing I have done while making my garden more wildlife friendly.
Nice to see how the pond has matured. My pond is in its third year, and although I had a blanket weed issue to begin with, once the pond plants establish they take up the nutrients so blanket weed is naturally controlled. I have frogs, the occasional toad but no newts so definitely a frog pond.
I’ve got the newts, no frogs! I deffo think you tend to get one or the other in a small pond. I do occasionally get a frog visitor but he doesn’t stay or breed, only the newts do that.
It is so surprising what a little body of water can attract. Small, yet so completely functional..
Thats a beautiful pond Joel, and to have a kingfisher visit really is the holy grail of bird visits. Amazing 🙂👍
Another Amazing Wildlife pond joel
🐸💚🐸
❤️ watching this.
What a lovely, natural looking pond. I wish I could get mine to clear that much 🤔
A pond is great, so much to watch. Really seeing so much life in ours now and still very bare of plants. I even had a grass snake visit today and swim across it.
Wonderful creation . Thankyou for pointing out the palnts and naming them . Beautiful pond and so divese.
Beautiful wildlife pond. Good for the wildlife and good for your soul. I fell in love with ponds when I was a toddler, that was the beginning of my obsession. I could spend forever gazing into a pond and watching the wildlife. Its such an amazing and heart warming thing to do. A pond of any size is of huge benefit. Even for those with a small garden, there is always something you can have. Its definitely a life changing experience to do so.
Steve has had some amazing visitors to his pond. And the beautiful kingfisher. Such a wonderful bird to see🌻
My main pond is just a year old
It had frogspawn this spring and now thousands of tadpoles are milling around in the shallows
Also a few newts pop up for air Yesterday saw a great diving beetle and today a stunning broad bodied chaser posed for some photos
Its literally the best thing in my garden and so glad i made it bigger 12ft x 8ft takes up about quarter of the garden !!!!!
Maybe you can help me. What is the best ratio of pond to garden? Thanks in advance or do you have a link to a site that is accurate and explains it well.
I don't think it needs to be technical just make it as big as your imagination or pocket will allow
Hi Kingfisher, thanks for your reply and advice, it is great to get feedback from someone who has made a pond. Many thanks and keep up the good work.
When I dug my first pond It was a pre formed plastic moulded one
I tucked away in a flower border had to move it 3 times kept finding drains
Its still there now but used as a bog garden
I learned from my mistakes so dug the next one in the centre where it will receive lots of sun
@@kingfisher3011 I wasn't sure about the position either, shade or sun or a bit of both, thanks for the tip. 🙂
this is going to be me in 3 years Joel!!!!!!
agree, I made a pond last summer, yesterday I saw for the first time 3 newts (two males and a female), a frog, a snail, I have enjoyed the birds, and I am looking forward to seeing what experiences the summer brings.
You will soon have a million snails🤗
@@LouciferFlump fantastic
@@louiselund2419 ☺️
What an amazing amount of wildlife! My pond is only a few months old, but did see the first red damselfly on it today. My smooth newt is sadly alone in there at present apart from his toad friends but I'm hopeful for next year.
Brilliant..... I concur I just love gazing into my pond, and watching badgers and foxes using it, along with all other creatures.... even have a rubbish video of a Sparrow Hawk spending 10 mins in the pond having a bath.... all this in Urban Bristol central.
I've got your book arriving today! I've also got a lot to do in my garden so I hope it's good 😊
Hey Joel. I can't think of a better way to promote garden ponds than hearing from someone you made one for! I must admit I spend more time pond dipping and staring into mine than the grandkids. So lovely to have one , even one not as grand as Steve's. The wildlife they attract is unbelievable. Had a Hen Harrier in the garden, took a black bird, sad to see but amazing at the same time. Don't think it had anything to do with the pond but probably a mixture of the habitats in the garden. A kingfisher in Steve's, just wow! I used to see them by the river Severn when fishing as a kid. Amazing birds! Hope you had a better week and all's well. Best wishes.
Love seeing the wildlife pond today, it must be great to have newts in your garden😀🌼 thank you for sharing Joel.
Put in my first wildlife pond 3 mths ago (New Zealand) its al planted out waiting for our Spring to arrive in 3 more months, cant wait. Thx Joel for your videos.
Its awesome Joel. Thanks for the update it is great to see how the ponds develop over such a short time.
Any chance of international shipping any time soon? Thanks for all the help and inspiration
All the best,
Jimmy and tony
Hi Joel and thanks again for another encouraging video - the pond looks great! One little thing that you may wish to change: the first picture shown while discussing palmate newts is actually a male smooth newt. The female in the following picture is less clear as the diagnostic throat isn't clearly visible. It's notoriously pesky distinguishing the females of these species!
I had a Kingfisher visit my garden before I built a pond. It was a juvenile dispersing to find its own territory and briefly stopped on the wires crossing my garden. I have a river 200m away so it likely came from there.
I’ve had mallard ducks 3 in total that have caused havoc to my pond. No matter how many times they are shoed away they are persistent in returning. They have demolished all of the newts amongst others and damaged many plants and turned a 7mx3m pond into a huge mud puddle. I now believe there is a nest nearby so I am expecting ducklings to suddenly appear. I seem to have a big issue with blanket weed this year which is also not helping the pond look at its best/healthiest
Oh wow! Kingfishers! That is so wonderful.
There are wild kingfishers near to me (about 30 minutes walk away), and they are such a wonderful sight.
I'm in the process of making a new pond (mentioned it before under other video), not building frim scratch, but converting an old, condemned well.
We've put this pond project on hold for a while because we have 2 other important projects that we must get under way first.
However, the facts.
The well is around 5 foot 6 inches deep, several feet wide and about 9 feet long.
I've looked in what native wildlife books I have, but can't work out what sort of plants I can put in a pond of that depth.
Am I restricted to large waterlilies only?
Or are there other plants I can put in it instead?
(This well-pond is in partial shade, a couple of trees overhang the west side, and a shadow from a caravan shadows the south end of the pond).
I'm also planning to convert the gigantic concrete slabs (that capped this well) into a series of descending shallower tanks.
I'm planning to arrange them so that any overflow water from the pond flows down into them, and they can contain shallower plants and maybe some minnows for visiting herons (herons often fly over).
I've got a ton of shallow pond plants, but nothing for deep water. Hoping you have something suitable for when the time comes.
Thank you for these little videos.
Right now, the news and much of RUclips seems to be focusing on nothing but calamities, poliitical unrest and despair. These videos are like little oases of loveliness.
What a fantastic pond. A kingfisher would have been so exciting to see. Thank you for sharing this video.
To have a good balance in the garden. Is there a pond to garden ratio? I want to be sure that I don't make the pond too small. I know it's personal preference but a guide would be most helpful. Thank you, Joel.
Great pond and review. Four-legged pond skaters though? Six, of course, the front pair are small and grasp food, the next two are larger and used for motion and the large back pair are the brakes and steering.
Brakes and steering! Love it. Yes, should have said six, technically, it was a rather whistle-stop tour unfortunately but thank you for this :) Best wishes, Joel
Inspirational 🦋
Thank you Elaine, appreciated - best wishes, Joel
Just found your channel - it is delightful.
Currently helping my son landscape his first garden and we will create a pond and/or bog garden. Also extending my own tiny pond to incorporate a boggy area. So many charming plants 🌱, and so ecologically valuable. This is a very informative video, thank you 🙂
@@elainehallows5160 Thanks Elaine, and great that your son is becoming involved too - we sell everything you could need at www.wildyourgarden.com and all our customers are entitled to free professional and tailored advice. Feel free to drop me a line there if you need any help - thanks ever so much for the encouragement and support, best wishes - Joel
Last year I placed a small butt with a solar sprinkler. Stuck in a few water plants. This has attracted so many damselflies the blue & brown species. I’ve yet to see a dragon fly. I have a small wood behind me which hide Chinese water deer plus muntjac. They have come into the garden via a small hole in the fence. Likewise with foxes. I’m sure there is also family of foxes around. Unfortunately not many birds have flown in to have a sip of water. As this isn’t a natural pond it keeps out many of the newts, frogs & toads. Just a while down the road there is the Wensom River which I suppose they all hide down there.
Thanks
It's very nice. I just wonder why water in any ponds there look clean, but in VN I saw, the water not clean like that 😅
So I made a wildlife pond years ago and it was amazing, so much wildlife. The main argument I hear from people is "oh but children could drown in the pond" and therefore get quite hostile to the idea, does anyone else get this?
These pond videos are so encouraging. The small (3mx2m) pond created here two summers ago has been a great pleasure (newts, pondskaters andmayflies almost immediately, and birds bathing) but I'm unsure what to do about the algae bloom that took hold last year. No damselflies and one sad morning a bloated toad floating head head! I tried in the autumn using the liquid recommended by staff at the local fishkeeper outlet but then didn't know whether to try and clear the resulting silt. The algae is back but, to our surprise, so are the newts and pond skaters. Bees and wasps drink at the pebble beach but I think birds are bathing less. I'll get more oxygenating plants but can anyone advise?
Hi there Anne, sorry to hear about the toad! If the wildlife pond is set up right you shouldn't need to add any clearing liquids at all, fishkeepers will recommend blanket clear but that's because fish add way too much nutrient to a pond, causing algal blooms etc. If you wanted to send a photo of the pond to me I can certainly recommend the best way forward, and if you're in the UK the correct plants too, it's not just the oxygenators that help keep the pond clear. You can reach me at enquiries@wildyourgarden.com - best wishes, Joel
Hi Joel - I emailed a couple of photos but i've just checked and they seem not to have been delivered. I do sometimes have a problem getting attachments through. Do you do WhatsApp?
And I meant to say that, yes, I'm in the UK. On the western edge of Edinburgh in fact.
I am also thinking about making a pond in my garden, but am really worried about the mosquitoes that would propagate there. Where I live, they start appearing in June and are just swarming until September. I worry that with a pond it would be even worse. Any ideas? A pump is not an option as I don't live there full time and cut the power when I leave. I would like a big pond, like the one in the video. Great content!
Hi there Cristi, I am not sure where you are based but we don't have great numbers of mosquitoes in the UK. However, when these wildlife ponds are set up correctly they attract birds, amphibians, bats and larger insects that all feast on mosquitoes and their larvae, so nature finds a balance. None of the wildlife ponds I create need pumps as the planting is key to keeping these clear and combatting algal growth etc. If you're in the UK and need help then do drop me a line at enquiries@wildyourgarden.com and I'm happy to advise. Best wishes, Joel
What's a good size? for a small manageable pond with wildlife benefits
Hi, I just came across this video by chance. We are thinking of putting in a wildlife pond, and tried last year with a little water feature to start off with. But already two days later we had mosquito larvae in it. We have a wildlife pond down the road in a wildlife sanctuary and it’s absolutely covered in mosquito larvae so we really do not want to add to it in our garden. I read through all the comments and nobody seems to talk about mosquitoes. Is this just a think of my area? What can we do against it? We tried to use this bacteria you can add to the water which apparently only goes for mosquito larvae, also a little water pump to keep the water in motion but the larvae was still thriving happily. What would you recommend against it? It really puts us of the idea! Glad to see however that so many others are doing it and have success! Happy gardening!
Hey Joel, I have a question regarding some land I own. It has a wet meadow, a hill with some heather and bilberries on it and also a pond in the middle of the meadow with some sphagnum (not a lot) on it. I want to introduce some devils bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) to the meadow as I think it would enhance it and make it more useful for wildlife. My brother thinks it's a bad idea as he fears it will out compete what is already growing there (cowslips, cuckoo flower, cotton grass and sphagnum moss, bilberry and heathers) can you please give your thoughts on this?
Our 3 week old pond has got a rust coloured algae on all the sub-soil and cobbles. Is this part of normal pond cycling? Should I be worried?
Northern UK, filled with rainwater.
I have a clay lined pond in the north of England that has been over-run by butomus umbellatus. Does anyone have any advice on how to control it as pulling it out seems to make the problem even worse.
How do you maintain the water level?
Do you sell live Daphnia in your shop, or know where I can get some? Would you recommend taking a sample of water from a local wildlife pond to add to my little bucket pond? I'm trying to combat the algae/blanket weed and I really can't afford to buy plants. I've heard watercress works quite well. Is that right?
You can use watercress from supermarkets It may not always survive freezing weather but will provide cover and shade out the blanket weed thru the summer
😻
I built a lovely little pond using your methods about a month ago. Today I noticed thousands of mosquito and gnat larvae wriggling around in the water. I suppose I've got wildlife atleast😅 Should I be concerned or just let nature take its course?
I get bats flying over the pond at night which I presume are hunting the mosquitos so even they attract wildlife.
Did this pond have to be lined by a synthetic liner or a clay lining?
Typically Joel uses a "fleece-liner-fleece" combination, which protects the liner from above and below, and the top layer of fleece gives the sub-soil something to anchor to. I can't say he did this on the pond here, but that's what he normally does.
How large should a pond be relative to the space that you have? 1:10. 1 part pond and 10 parts garden? Is there a magic ratio?
I would say size is personal choice and depends on your garden, but for me, I’d probably go for bigger than a 1 to 10 ratio
@@sallydavies2563 Thanks Sally.
My pond has duck weed which is a real pain , just cannot clear it 😢
Hi Joel I want to send some pics of my pond to you I need some advice please? What’s the best way for me to send my pics to you? Email??
Thank you
Looking your work thanks again for all this great info
Willie