Get creative & bring diverse wildlife to your patch! Ed has enjoyed making a mini pond this year, watching many interesting creatures and pollinators visit. He shares a few tips on how to give it a go at Roots Allotments!
What could make your pond from? Maybe upcycle an old sink or barrel, will it be big or small? Decide where you want your pond to be, maybe think about which plants are eaten or destroyed the most by pests.
An exception to the rule, you can dig for a pond! This would make it more accessible for wildlife, rather than creating a structure for them to climb up. Once you've carefully dug down you can use excess soil as a top-up for your beds, or mound up the edges of your pond to sow wildflowers into!
Place your pond in and tuck it back in with the dug-up earth, and then it's time to start designing and building your mini pond wildlife home. Putting stones in the pond, creating different levels within the pond, deep and shallow sections for frogs & hedgehogs. Pebbles around the edge, act as a platform for bees, insects& small mammals to feed on the water.
Ed highly recommended having pond plants to attract pollinators and provide a hiding spot for frogs to spawn & oxygenate the water! Keep them in a basket or they'll invade the entire pond. The varieties that Ed recommends are Palm Sedge, Creeping Jenny & Dwarf Lily.
More Pond inspiration from Mitch here: https://youtu.be/7LoN7IF64rQ
You'll need:
- A pond container
- Stones or pebbles
- Dead and decaying wood/logs
- Pond plants
- Watering cans to fill up your new mini pond
TOP TIP: A lovely addition to your pond is wooden logs, you can drill holes for solitary bees or innoculate with culinary mushrooms!