Shall I start

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

One problem with mud from a mates pond, the closest my mates get to gardening is buying a bunch of flowers from asda.

I can't think off hand with a pond that could give me some. My mother has a water feature with lillies I guess there would be mud in there. She says it's loaded with snails. Would that do the trick, not sure I want all the snails though, could sieve it.

Snails will be fine, they are the wildlife pond's friend in a way, as they (not always) clean up the rotten material and algae. They are 'sort of' the slugs of the waterworld. ;D
You don't really need the mud, some water will do. Does your Mum's pond have any hibernating frogs in the pond, you don't want to disturb them? They will probably be the males. If you can get some all the better, but time is all you need.

Keith

[blackrose]

How much water is needed?
I'm not sure if there is frogs, she's never mentioned it.
I think she is planning getting rid of hers so I might just pinch some stuff from it.

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

How much water is needed?
I'm not sure if there is frogs, she's never mentioned it.
I think she is planning getting rid of hers so I might just pinch some stuff from it.

Just a bucketful should be enough!
If you can get some 'bits' in it all the better.
As long as you have tall plants for the dragonflies to lay their eggs and somewhere where the nymph can come out onto to dry and turn into an adult, wildlife will come. You will soon get diving beetles and like my mini pond, frogs will be there in the spring. They may not spawn this year so don't worry, it will just mean your pond is not ready yet. The cover, via the lily will make them want to stay, protection from predators, like cats. If you provide, as stated, plants outside the pond then the frogs will feel safe outside the pond too. All you need then is slugs/worms for the frogs to eat!!

Keith

[Deleted]

blackrose said:

School kids have been taking Stickies from there for years with nout being said, the water is crystal clear and they have never had any bother with disease, on the trout anyway.

As for my night time raid, it's to a kinda GC. The plonker that owns it got me to do a homer some years ago (painter and decorator in my past life) but after all the work was finished he part paid me then didn't pay the rest so now I've found my way of getting paid.

While I can understand and appreciate how excited you are CB at creating your pond and how keen you are to have it establish itself, and how you'd like to encourage wildlife, surely, going on a night time raid and ( I assume) helping yourself to shrubbery just because some guy didn't pay you what he owed you years ago is nothing more than stealing (although I am not an expert in Law).

I'd be so angry if somebody just came and 'helped themselves' to something from my garden.

I have a pond in the back garden with a couple of plants that grow around the edges, they are suited to damp conditions and will even grow as a marginal plant. I have plenty of Cyperus Involucratus (the OH says it grows like a weed as it does seed rather easily!!) and I have Juncus Ensifolius ( I think!!).
I'll send you a clump if you want - that way you only have to wait in for the postman and not bother with night time raids!!!

[blackrose]

Slugs, christ last year I had a nightmare of a time with the little Bugg##s so hopefully frogs will come and set up home.
I will soon have the lilly to plant, how long is it from root to surface cover, I believe they grow quite quickly.

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

Slugs, christ last year I had a nightmare of a time with the little Bugg##s so hopefully frogs will come and set up home.
I will soon have the lilly to plant, how long is it from root to surface cover, I believe they grow quite quickly.

Don't worry, they are nowhere near as bad as slugs. ;D When you mean surface cover, what do you mean, leaves come to the top or full cover? Leaves won't take long to come up in the spring, but it may take a few years before you get perfect coverage. This is where floating plants come into play.

Keith

[blackrose]

Yes I was meaning time taken for leaves to reach the top.
Last year I had to use Slug away to get rid of them, I know this is pretty nasty stuff but they were munching all the plants I was putting in and it costs money, they just seemed to laugh at the pellets.
So if it comes to it I WILL kidnap a couple of croakers and put them into my pond and leave a few slugs around to give them reason to stay.

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

Yes I was meaning time taken for leaves to reach the top.
Last year I had to use Slug away to get rid of them, I know this is pretty nasty stuff but they were munching all the plants I was putting in and it costs money, they just seemed to laugh at the pellets.
So if it comes to it I WILL kidnap a couple of croakers and put them into my pond and leave a few slugs around to give them reason to stay.

Don't use slug pellets except for those new ones out, as if a chemical kills the slug and a frog or bird eats the dead body it will die as well, probably.
Here are the new ones, can't comment as I don't use them...
www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_179&products_id=1821
It is surprising how many slugs you can get by going out with a torch, for 3 nights in a row, and catching the b*****ds. Then the wildlife will keep the numbers at bay. Beer traps work as well, but to clean them out is horrible. You will never get all the slugs. Slugs were natures way of dealing with rotting matter, but like us if they see a nice hosta growing next to some rotting matter, what do you think they will chose!!? Oh, and some slugs species are better than others!!

Keith

[Deleted]

Don't kill all of the slugs CB otherwise the frogs won't have anything to eat

[Deleted]

blackrose said:

So if it comes to it I WILL kidnap a couple of croakers and put them into my pond and leave a few slugs around to give them reason to stay.

When are you planning to kidnap the frogs CB?

[blackrose]

Oh that would probably be into the summer, probably after the tadpoles have become small frogs, and after the pond has settled enough to have them with plenty of food to offer.
If there is enough frogs I wont need to kill too many of the slugs but the first place they come to is the beds at the back
as that is where they come in through the fence, loads of the manky things.

[Deleted]

rita said:

This is interesting CB - especially the section headed Amphibians and Reptiles

I'm now not sure if this is a wind up with all this talk of kidnapping frogs, however if you read the link which was posted earlier by Rita, it does tell you how to encourage frogs into your garden.

[blackrose]

That was just a joke after the problems I had last year with slugs, I would easily force them in.

[Susie Snowdrop]

Two rules to obey as soon as you leave your front door.............................................TAKE only photographs and LEAVE only footprints.

NOTHING, no matter how insignificant you think if might be, should be removed from the countryside, or anywhere else for that matter.

[Deleted]

Couldn't agree more SS.

CB - if you read the link posted by Rita you will know that the frogs will come of their own accord if the environment is right, no need to force them.

[blackrose]

Rita, having just read the link you sent me I may just rethink the idea of keeping Sticklebacks, as they will eat through tadpoles, larvae etc. So I think it's best not to bother with them.
Would you agree with that.

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

Rita, having just read the link you sent me I may just rethink the idea of keeping Sticklebacks, as they will eat through tadpoles, larvae etc. So I think it's best not to bother with them.
Would you agree with that.

'Proper' wildlife ponds do best with no fish at all. All the ones I have built have been full up of wildlife within months. You don't need fish to look at, when you have frogs, newts, dragonfly larva, diving beetles, water boatman etc. I could go on, but I won't. You could go a step further and say don't have tadpoles as they eat tadpoles, but it's late and I won't go there!!

Keith

[Deleted]

blackrose said:

Rita, having just read the link you sent me I may just rethink the idea of keeping Sticklebacks, as they will eat through tadpoles, larvae etc. So I think it's best not to bother with them.
Would you agree with that.

Yes CB - I do agree - don't bother.

What you need to remember is that you now have given nature a helping hand - but you now have to wait for mother nature to do the rest.

Frogs will often return to the same pond year after year to breed.
So I would suggest you try to get hold of some frog spawn rather than move an adult frog or frogs to your pond. Tadpoles feed on algae and decaying plant material which a new pond won't have - so it is pointless putting them in there if they are going to starve to death.

Your whole garden needs to be wildlife friendly too, so it is no good introducing frog spawn to your pond if the rest of your garden can't support them as adults - don't forget that frogs don't live in water they only return to it at breeding time.

I would recommend that you read the whole of this link, paying special attention to section 9. How do I maintain my garden to benefit amphibians and reptiles?

HTH

[blackrose]

Thanks Rita, just shows you that you can go into a project totally blind, I think without yourself and Keith this project of mine could have been a disaster. You seem to know a great deal about this subject, is it something you specialise in??

My night time raid took a surprising twist last night. I went along and the guy was out on the driveway and we actually got chatting. On asking what I was doing I told him, and to my surprise he said "Ok I should have paid you, but that was more than 10 years ago, take what you need and we will leave it at that" So I got four bags of shrubs from him and that's that business done.

So will be busy this morning sorting out around the edges. Don't know what I've taken it was a bit dark, though there may be a couple of tags, but there is three types.

[Deleted]

blackrose said:

You seem to know a great deal about this subject, is it something you specialise in??

No CB, I just made it my business to do a bit of research, booking reading/purchasing before and after my pond was built.
It's been a steep learning curve for me.

[blackrose]

I should let that rub off on me and do a bit of learning myself. The last few days have been great seeing a bit of lawn turn into a pond that hopefully sometime soon will be teaming with life.

I was actually a bit apprehensive about starting this but you and Keith have driven me along. Thanks

[madonplants]

blackrose said:

Thanks Rita, just shows you that you can go into a project totally blind, I think without yourself and Keith this project of mine could have been a disaster. You seem to know a great deal about this subject, is it something you specialise in??

My night time raid took a surprising twist last night. I went along and the guy was out on the driveway and we actually got chatting. On asking what I was doing I told him, and to my surprise he said "Ok I should have paid you, but that was more than 10 years ago, take what you need and we will leave it at that" So I got four bags of shrubs from him and that's that business done.

So will be busy this morning sorting out around the edges. Don't know what I've taken it was a bit dark, though there may be a couple of tags, but there is three types.

Do you know what shrubs they are, CB?

Keith

Edit Just re read it and you say you don't, sorry missed that!
Like Rita says do the research, I have just put wildlife ponds in the search engine and this popped up straight away! Worth a read.

web.ukonline.co.uk/conker/pond-dip/pond-making.htm

[blackrose]

No not at the moment unless thres labels, I'm not the best at naming plants. I will take photos later and hopefully I'll be able to identify them before hand. Should've asked the guy that gave them but he just kinda left me to it. I got around about a dozen.
Not quite what he originally owed me but it was a while ago. If I had never got into gardening I would have left it unpaid.
Paul

[blackrose]

Just spoken to my mum and will be going up there soon with bucket for some of her pond water. Hers came with the house when she bought it but really has no time to look after it so thinks she is going to fill it in and turn it into more bedding. There is a water feature and fountain but doesn't work, pump must be gone. Don't know what life is in there apart from the snails.
Paul

[Deleted]

From the link Madonplants posted -

AND HOW DO WE GET THE ANIMALS?
Many will turn up by themselves - beetles will fly in, frogs will hop in and newts crawl. Others will come on the plants or in the mud surrounding the plants. You can try adding a bucket of mud from a wildlife pond to yours to add some bugs and their eggs.

Don't put fish into the pond, if you want frogs and tadpoles. Fish will eat them!

[madonplants]

What sort are they, big, small, deciduous or evergreen, (conifer or shrub). Can't believe you got away with that, I would be sh*****g myself, with the thought I was going to be in trouble. Did you see the link I gave you above, where I edited the post? You can't beat the internet or a good book, like Rita says.

Keith

[madonplants]

rita said:

From the link Madonplants posted -

AND HOW DO WE GET THE ANIMALS?
Many will turn up by themselves - beetles will fly in, frogs will hop in and newts crawl. Others will come on the plants or in the mud surrounding the plants. You can try adding a bucket of mud from a wildlife pond to yours to add some bugs and their eggs.

Don't put fish into the pond, if you want frogs and tadpoles. Fish will eat them!

I liked that one too Rita. ;D

Keith

[blackrose]

Yep Im going that way too, just put the plants in and let time and nature do the rest. My lilly just came in the door, the planting instructions say to introduce in stages, does this mean put it in shallow and gradually lower it to it's depth.

PAUL

[madonplants]

I would pot it up and put on a shelf for a few weeks, then put it straight down. Make sure you water in before it goes in the pond or some of the soil will come out, trust me I did that with my first one many moons ago!! They normally say gently lower as it is to allow the leaves come to the top, but if it is not 'actively' growing, why do it! Do you agree Rita? I always plonk them straight in with no problems. Lillies don't do this in the wild, either! I am saying shelf, just because it is bare rooted, so it gives it a chance to root, before being put down. It should be OK in cold weather as it will be hardy.

Keith

[madonplants]

BTW, CB, don't worry about asking for advise. I came on here asking about pond filters as I have never kept pond fish before here. I only did here because, of Lucky, from the previous pond and we had to bring him/her with us. I have had some good advise, especially from Rita and Andy, and if we are still here in the spring I know what to get. Look below at What Pond Filter. We all need help sometimes. When you get a 'stranger' taking pictures and showing you their setup it goes a long way to feeling like you belong. I say stranger loosely here, having never met!!

Keith