Creating a Wildlife Pond in a Country Garden

Why a small pond is worth every spadeful

Few things you can do in a country garden repay you as quickly as a pond. Within a fortnight of filling it, water beetles and pond skaters will have found it. By the following spring you can reasonably expect frogspawn, and a season or two after that, newts and dragonflies. In the Peak District, where many of the old field ponds and dew ponds have been lost or left to scrub over, a garden pond of even two or three square metres becomes a genuine refuge. Ours sits on a gritstone slope above a shallow valley, and it has never once felt like a wildlife desert.

The principles are straightforward: put it in the right place, give it shallow edges, fill it with rainwater and then leave it largely alone. Here is how we do it.

Choosing the site: sun, slope and trees

Site matters more than size. Aim for a spot that receives direct sun for at least half the day, because warm water teems with insect life, and cool, shaded ponds stay lifeless and green. Keep it well clear of trees and large shrubs. Leaves falling in autumn rot down and feed blanket weed, and vigorous roots — willow, poplar, sycamore — will eventually find their way through a liner. A little dappled shade at one end is fine; deep shade all day is not.

On our sloping ground, the temptation is to take the easy option and dig at the lowest point. Resist it. Water running into the pond carries silt, nutrients and anything else downhill with it, including muck from the yard or field. A spot that sits slightly high, or where you can intercept run-off with a shallow grass swale, will stay far clearer. If you are on peat or thin upland soil, also check that the water table does not leave you with a permanently flooded hole.

• Do put the pond where you can see it from a window or path — you will notice far more.
• Do leave a rough, unkempt corridor of long grass or a gap in the drystone wall linking the pond to a hedgerow.
• Don't ring the pond with paving, gravel boards or closely mown lawn; frogs and hedgehogs need cover right up to the water's edge.

Shape, depth and those all-important shallow edges

An irregular outline looks more natural, but the profile matters most. Dig a pond roughly two to three metres across with a central depth of 60–75cm — deep enough that frogs can overwinter in the mud without the pond freezing solid in a hard Peak District frost. Around the margin, cut one or more shelves about 20–25cm below the finished water level for marginal plants and for wildlife to sit on.

Then create at least one gently sloping beach, taking the liner down to the surface over half a metre or so, and cover it with gravel or turf. This is the single most useful feature you can build. Frogs, toads, newts, hedgehogs and thirsty birds all need somewhere to walk in and out. Vertical sides are a death trap for anything that falls in.

Use a butyl liner over a generous layer of sand and old carpet or purpose-made underlay, and leave plenty of overhang, which you can tuck under turf. Avoid fresh mortar, concrete or limestone chippings around the rim, which raise the pH and look stark; local gritstone set into soil is better.

Filling and planting

Fill from a water butt or off the roof. Rainwater is soft, free and, in this part of the world, abundant. Tap water carries nutrients and chlorine, which simply feeds algae. If you must use it, let it stand for a few days first, then allow a fortnight for the water to settle before planting.

Plant in late spring once the risk of frost has passed — upland gardens can still catch a frost in mid-May. Use native species and be sparing; a third of the surface covered is plenty.

• Marginals: marsh marigold, water forget-me-not, water mint, ragged robin, lesser spearwort.
• Oxygenators: hornwort and spiked water milfoil, both good for spawning frogs.
• Avoid invasive non-natives such as floating pennywort, parrot's feather and New Zealand pygmyweed. Never tip an aquarium into a pond.
• Skip the fish. Goldfish and koi eat tadpoles and insect larvae, and turn clear water cloudy.

What will move in

Everything comes of its own accord, provided there is cover nearby. Common frogs and toads first, then palmate and smooth newts, which suit the cooler, softer water of upland ponds. Dragonflies and damselflies arrive on the wing: broad-bodied chasers and common darters patrol in high summer, and large red and azure damselflies cling to the marginal stems. Add great diving beetles, water boatmen, pond skaters and a whirligig or two. Garden birds will drink and bathe at the shallow beach, and house martins and swallows will collect mud from the edges in spring.

Seasonal care and country habits

Once established, a wildlife pond needs remarkably little. In late summer, thin the plants a little and leave the cuttings on the bank for an hour so anything caught up can crawl back. Leave seed heads and some leaf litter over winter, and keep a log pile and a patch of long grass nearby — that is where frogs and newts spend most of the year.

• Top up in dry spells with rainwater, never tap water if you can help it.
• In spring, twirl blanket weed out with a stick and compost it.
• When the pond ices over, do not break the ice
• — the shock waves can kill overwintering frogs. Rest a pan of hot water on the surface instead.
• Put a shallow bucket or plank at the edge as an escape route for hedgehogs.

Leave it wild, keep your hands off it, and it will reward you for years.