Pond Renovation

One of the things that many of naturalists mentioned as they visited he site was the lack of water. There are two ponds in the garden but nothing other than a ditch/stream and a boggy area on the farm. But, in fact, there was a pond it was just so overgrown and filled up that it would be difficult to call it a pond anymore…

To improve the range of habitats on the farm it was decided to enlarged the pond and clear the foliage. This was a natural pond in an area of clay, so the pond needed no lining, just a bit of digging out (two weeks work!).

Before and After

There is a near by stream/ditch formed from the runoff from the fields. It was initially thought that we would connect the stream to the pond but on reading the information provided by Freshwater Habitats Trust and their Million Ponds Project we realised that this might lead to excessive nutrients and contaminants in the pond and so the two were not connected.

Planting?
Once the pond was expanded it was tempting to introduce native plants. But factsheet 8 from the Million Ponds Project Toolkit suggests:

New ponds are used by a specific range of plant and animal species which either: (a) prefer open bare conditions to live in (b) need inorganic mud and sands to root into, or (c) do not compete well with other species. These ‘new pond’ plants and animals often disappear after a few years as ponds become more mature.

So we resisted…

Progress so far…
The Freshwater Habitats Trust were right, the plants have been quick to colonise below are two plants have found so far:

And the pond already looks more natural

As for animal life, the pond is teaming with little creatures for those that have the time to sit and stare…