On golden pond

Ponds encourage many exciting new visitors to your garden and are a great way to take a peek at even more species! Nick Brown, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Enquiries Officer, tells us more about his own pond and how to build your own

- Nick Brown

There is nothing more exciting than peeking in a pond and seeing what you can spot! From tadpoles and newts to dragonflies and water beetles, there is always something new to discover.

I dug a new pond in my own garden in spring 2017 using a butyl liner. Adding marginal plants from a previous pond, it soon began to look as if it had been there for years. I begged and borrowed more aquatic plants from friends and some ‘sludge’ too, which encourages some of the tiny creatures that wouldn’t otherwise be able to establish in a brand new pond.

Many pond insects, such as water beetles, water boatmen, pond skaters and dragonflies, will find even small ponds, flying in during the night or by day. Frogs and newts will also arrive in time – there’s rarely any need to import any and there are several reasons why that is not necessarily a good thing to do.