Including a small pool of water to your backyard is likely one of the greatest methods of supporting biodiversity. It offers water, meals, shelter, and breeding websites for thus many alternative animals, from bugs and amphibians to birds and mammals. It doesn’t matter in case your backyard is city or rural, a water supply will entice wildlife and the advantages are quite a few. Right here, professional natural gardener and writer Sally Morgan explains create a micro pond from an upcycled container.

Browse our assortment of pond crops for inspiration.

What are the advantages of a micro pond?

You don’t want to search out house for a big pond in your backyard. A micro pond created from a big container is simply as helpful. Listed here are simply among the causes:

• Supplies an necessary supply of consuming water for birds, mammals, amphibians and bugs.
• Gives a supply of water throughout dry spells when pure water sources are scarce.
• Creates breeding websites for frogs, toads and newts.
• Attracts important pollinators, akin to bees, butterflies and hoverflies.
• Brings in predatory bugs like dragonflies and damselflies.
• Enhances pure pest management, because the frogs, toads and birds that go to then feed on slugs, aphids, midges, mosquitoes and extra.
• Can entice bats which hunt the mosquitoes and moths which are drawn to the pond.

The place ought to a micro pond be positioned?

These tall spikes of rose-pink flowers are particularly enticing to pollinators
Picture: Lythrum salicaria (Marginal Aquatic) from Suttons

Even the smallest of gardens has house for a micro pond, and don’t overlook that the right spot may additionally be in your entrance backyard! One of the best place for a micro pond is a vivid space that isn’t within the solar all day. Ideally it ought to be positioned in a partial shady nook of a patio or buried partially or absolutely within the floor, making it simpler for animals akin to amphibians and hedgehogs to entry.

Nearly any watertight container can be utilized, together with outdated Belfast sinks, galvanised baths or black plastic tubs (like a repurposed livestock water trough). To keep away from the necessity for a liner, test your container is really watertight. Ideally, it ought to have a minimal diameter of 60-70cm and a depth of 40-50cm to offer a steady surroundings.

Don’t overlook to provide your container a very good clear earlier than you fill it with water. Ideally, you must use rain water, however faucet water is ok as long as you permit it for a few days for any chlorine within the water to dissipate.

What are the perfect crops for a micro pond?

This handy pod equipment accommodates three placing pond crops and a planting basket
Picture: Flowering pond equipment from Suttons

Small ponds don’t have a lot house for many crops, so don’t get too carried away. I like to incorporate:

• A miniature water lily (Nymphaea ‘Pygmaea ‘Helvola’) and for this to thrive the water must be 30-40 cm deep.
• A few oxygenators, akin to starwort (Callitriche stagnalis) and hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum). Not solely will they supply oxygen, however they may shade the water and cut back the expansion of algae, plus create hiding locations for bugs and amphibians.
• A couple of marginals across the edge. Bear in mind these crops don’t need to be submerged however have to be planted in shallow water, so you’ll have to create a shelf utilizing bricks or rocks. There’s a large selection out there akin to lesser spearwort (Ranunculus flammula), marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus) and the flag iris (Iris pseudocorus).

How you can plant up your micro pond

Use pond baskets to submerge crops in your container pond
Picture: Oval Contour Aquatic Planting Basket from Suttons

You possibly can’t drop crops like water lilies and marginals straight into the pond. They have to be transferred to an aquatic basket to make sure their roots have good contact with the water. Ideally you must keep away from utilizing backyard compost and go for a particular aquatic compost because it’s denser and fewer more likely to float away, plus it accommodates sluggish launch fertilisers that cut back the danger of algae development.

The basket for the water lily must be round 20cm in diameter, whereas bigger baskets can often accommodate 2 to three marginal crops. Switch the crops into the appropriate-sized baskets and decrease them into the water, utilizing rocks and stones to safe them in place. With the water lily, don’t drop it to the underside of your micro pond in a single go, however decrease it midway and help it in place for a number of days after which decrease to the underside. Anticipate the water to get fairly cloudy at first, however it is going to quickly settle.

These are simply small swimming pools of water, so resist the temptation so as to add fish!

How you can keep your micro pond

Micro ponds are simple to arrange and require little ongoing upkeep. Merely:

• Take away fallen leaves often to forestall them from decaying and affecting the standard of the water.
• Test for duckweed and algae in summer time. Each might be eliminated simply by hand.
• Regulate water ranges, particularly in scorching climate and prime up with rainwater if wanted.

Making a micro pond in a polytunnel

Having a micro pond in your polytunnel might be extremely precious relating to pure pest management. It may be so simple as a bucket, buried in a shady nook the place the water will keep cool and never evaporate too shortly in summer time. Simply add a basket of blended native marginal crops and create shallow edges with bricks or rocks in order that bugs and amphibians have quick access.

How you can encourage drone-flies to your backyard

A Frequent Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax, pollinating an Ivy flower.
Picture: shutterstock

The drone-fly (Eristalis tenax) is a captivating hoverfly that mimics a honeybee. Energetic all year long, it emerges on heat days to feed on nectar, notably from ivy flowers. In contrast to most hoverflies, the feminine drone-fly lays her eggs in stagnant water they usually hatch into larvae generally known as rat-tailed maggots! These exceptional larvae feed on decaying natural matter and are outfitted with an extended, snorkel-like respiration siphon, which is an adaptation to dwelling in stagnant water. These larvae play an important position in decomposing natural matter, whereas the grownup is a crucial pollinator, so you actually need to encourage drone-flies into your backyard.

You possibly can entice helpful hoverflies into your backyard by making a pool of stagnant water. All you want is an outdated tub or bucket which you fill with decaying leaves and water. Place it in a shady, undisturbed space away from the home, and let it get smelly – the smellier the higher. It’ll quickly entice the eye of the feminine drone fly.

We hope this has given you loads of concepts on create a small pond in any sized backyard. Patio pond kits are a straightforward solution to create a mini-water function, however in the event you’re eager to attempt one thing greater and extra everlasting, our greatest professional recommendation on create a wildlife pond is filled with helpful suggestions.

Lead Picture: Bugs pond equipment from Suttons

Extra concerning the writer:

Sally Morgan is the writer of The Resilient Backyard and Allotment Handbook and Co-author of The Local weather Change Backyard. www.climatechangegarden.substack.com