“A pond is key to wildlife gardening”
Ann Newstead’s pond is only 18 months old, but it’s already teeming with life
“A POND IS THE ONE thing a wildlife garden really needs,” says Ann Newstead. “It doesn’t have to be very big – even a small tub can draw frogs in. Ours is only about 10x3ft and is just 18 months old. A company built it using a butyl rubber liner, filter and pump to power the waterfall, then I did the planting around it. I put spring bulbs in first, then added lots of cottage garden plants and sowed an annual wildflower seed mix. The pond teems with frogs, newts, snails and water boatmen – I love to go out first thing in the morning to see what’s happening.
“We were initially plagued by blanket weed, but we’ve since added barley straw and oxygenating plants, with more of the surface covered by waterlilies – all of which has really helped. It’s a delicate balancing act; you just have to be patient.
“There isn’t a lot of maintenance, but we try to make sure the water levels are topped up with rain water and that we scoop out any leaves so they don’t rot on the bottom [where they’ll increase nitrate levels]. Anything we skim out we put in a bucket so we can rescue any creatures that get caught up. Every spring my husband Peter empties the water down to one third to clean it, then tops it up again. Having a filter helps keep the water pure.
“We have lots of hedgehogs in the garden and the pond’s beach area means they can have safe, easy access, with plenty of plant cover too. We have five hedgehog houses [made by Riverside Woodcraft] around the garden; hedgehogs hibernated in two of them last year. They use them intermittently over summer too, perhaps spending a night in there, then wandering off. I don’t disturb the houses but I do place a twig in front of the doorway so we know whether they’re being used. We also leave bundles of hay around so the hedgehogs can build their own nests.
“We don’t use any pesticides or weedkillers in the garden and rely totally on the wildlife to take care of any garden pests. Frogs and hedgehogs eat slugs, and birds peck off any aphids. This doesn’t happen overnight though – you have to wait, but eventually you strike a natural balance.” ➤