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| Wildlife ponds in our gardens |
Introduction
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| The Pond in the Paulownia Garden - dug by hands |
The recent ponds we made required 3 and 4 m depths and were larger in surface area so we opted for machines. For the pond in the new garden (Ataraxia), we used a mini digger and it took us approximately 7 hours to dig 10 m x 6 m x 3.5 m. The soil is sandy silt full of smooth boulders ranging in size from basketballs to tennis balls.
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| The mini-digger at work in our polyculture trial garden (Ataraxia) |
For Catherine's pond, we used a JCB excavator. I was planning to use a JCB backhoe but the excavator turned up and actually I was really pleased with the machine. Perhaps the front bucket on the back hoe would have cleared the topsoil a little faster but the excavator made a great job of...er.... excavating :) It took around 5 hours to dig a 12 m x 6 m x 4 m hole, level the 2 m wide pond walls, and make a 30 m inlet swale and a 15-meter spillway. The soil is heavy clay.
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| The JCB excavator starting the dig at Catherine Zanev's permaculture farm |
So here's an overview of our design and installation process.
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Pond Design and Installation Overview
Check the legalities and regulations of building a pond in your area. For ponds containing over 200 m3 of water and ponds on steep slopes with retaining walls that will bear a lot of weight, it's best to seek professional advice and guidance before you start.
Selecting a Location
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| Google Earth image of Ataraxia with 1 m contour intervals extracted from a Digital Terrain Map (DTM) DTM supplied by Geodetect, data extracted by georgipavlov.net |
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| Pond placement in the northeast corner of the site is the highest point of the site and provides an opportunity to siphon water from the pond for irrigation. We have access to a stream that can be diverted from the N.E. to fill the pond. The beds are placed more or less on contour to ease irrigation. |
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What is the pond for?
Clarifying your objectives for having a pond is important and determines the shape and size of the design.
If you would like to encourage wildlife you will need to provide various depths within the pond to cater for a range of aquatic plants and you'll need a gentle slope for animals to enter and exit. Eventually, adding some features such as tree stumps or hollow rocks to the pond will provide hiding places for fish and other pond life and basking territory for amphibians.
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The four categories of plants that should be present in a wildlife pond are Emergents (Marginal Plants) - Deep Marginals (Rooted Floating Plants) - Oxygenators (submerged plants) - Floaters (free-floating plants)
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Installing a pond is probably the single most effective thing you can do in a garden to enhance biodiversity and wildlife and the majority of the wildlife that will be attracted to the pond will be of great benefit to your garden or farm, i.e pollinators, and pest predators. For a wildlife pond, a maximum depth of 1.3 - 1.5 m is adequate. At this depth, most aquatic organisms including European carp -Cyprinus carpio can survive the winter.
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| Frogs and Toads are excellent predators of slugs and grubs in the vegetable garden |
If you need the pond for irrigation and do not have another source of water available it's best to dig deeper both to store more water and to moderate the water temperature to reduce the evaporation rates. Deep water stays cooler for longer and moderates the temperature of the surface water and water in the shallows will warm much faster and evaporate quickly.
Sketching the Pond Design
I make a few simple drawings showing the boundaries and dimensions including an overhead view and a cross-section of the width and length. This helps clarify how the pond will look and function. If using a hired machine/driver these sketches will also help communicate your vision.
The below sketches are for the pond we installed at Catherine Zanev's farm where the objective was to store rainwater from surface runoff during storm events for irrigation, but also to provide habitat for a range of wildlife and aquatic plants, hence we included shelves and beaches in the design.
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| Overhead sketch |
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| Cross section sketch |
Marking the shape of the pond and where the depth changes occur on the land also really helps. A long rope works well for this as do stakes connected with string or spray paint.
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Installation Day
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| Me and Stoyan Georgiev pegging out the spillway using a transit level. |
Planning Soil Deposits - Select an area where the top soil and excess subsoil can be stored. Most of the subsoil can be used for a wall on the lower section of the pond (if working on a slope) or as a bank around the perimeter of the pond if working on level ground and your potential water source is higher than the wall height. In some cases, you may have excess soil. Have a plan for where to put it and how you will get it there.
It's also worth planning the route for the machine to enter and work in to avoid soil compaction and damage as much as possible and to restrict this to as small a space as possible.
Communicate the plan - When the driver arrives explain exactly what you want to do and why you want to do it as clearly as possible before work begins. An experienced operator will most probably have a good understanding of the fundamentals and may be able to offer some advice so it's a good idea to invite the driver's opinion.
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| 30- 40 cm of topsoil is removed and stored separately for later use |
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| Subsoil used to build a 2m wide retaining wall |
An overflow route that will slowly disperse the water should be implemented. For the above pond design, we lowered a section in the wall to disperse overflow into a 16 m swale that runs just slightly off -contour into the adjacent fields.
Having a transit level on-site you can quickly check levels as you go to make sure the walls are high enough and that the overflow is where it should be.
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| We used the topsoil to build a berm slightly off-contour to disperse any potential overflow water into the fields. |
For any earthworks that we are sure won't be disturbed in the near future we re-apply the topsoil and sow with a cover crop. In this case, we used Trifolium repens - White Clover at a rate of 1.5g /m2 for the inlet and outlet swales.
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| Trifolium repens - White Clover |
Following the dig, the deposited soil will sink and settle over the next few weeks. A few heavy rains will encourage the settling of the soil. After the soil has settled, we check the levels again and make any necessary adjustments before lining the pond.
In the following post, we'll look at liner options, how to install a liner, planting out the pond, landscaping the pond banks/earthworks, and pond maintenance. - Small Pond Installations for Irrigation and Wildlife - Part 2
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
Become a member of the Bloom Room. A $70 annual or $7 per month subscription to our Substack provides you with access to live sessions, design tutorials, a members forum and more, see details here.
Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Nursery or Online Store
Joining us for one of our Practical Courses or Online Courses
Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
