Winter Garden Pond by Ben + Sandra
Our creation in it’s first winter. These photos show the changes of the surround foliage and the pond plants.
So these pictures were taken after clearing a lot of leaves from the garden! Luckily we put a wire cover over the pond so it was easier to remove the leaves that had fallen.
With some of the leaves we thought we’d create a shelter for the creatures and frogs to either hide or hibernate through out the cold winter. So we dug a small hole and filled it with leaves and used dead plants from the garden and sticks to cover.
The plants in and around the pond have died back for winter and some weeds like ‘forget me not’ have overtaken. They will bloom very pretty, small light blue flowers in late spring!
Tips on creating a healthy wildlife pond:
There are things that can ruin your pond... Mosquitos larvae, algae, low oxygen, and nitrites in the water. Heres how to prevent them.
With insect larvae, which are an important part of pond habitats, we introduced water snails which eat the mosquito larvae and in no time they were gone.
To stop algae which thrives in sunlight, we learnt that shallow water with cobbles in full sun help microorganisms thrive that eat the algae. The different levels in the pond also act as a ramp for creatures to leave the pond and can be used as shelves for plants to be placed.
And for the water oxygen and overall quality we bought from Ebay a selection of aquatic plants each with different properties. In the pictures you can see the oxygenator ‘parrots feather’ has spread over the pond from one shoot!
So thats the wildlife pond after almost a year and we hope it will thrive along with the garden this year!!
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