Wildlife pond

That looks really good  i'll be making a large one of these through the winter months in our back garden 

I like the little touches like the log pile and the gravel escape route

When I dug up my maincrop spuds, which are next to the pond, I found an enormous toad living right in the middle of them. I thanked him nicely for eating all the slugs so they didn't eat my spuds and left him a bit of undergrowth to hide under.

I once spent an entire afternoon watching a dragonfly larvae slowly crawl up a reed in my garden pond. When he got to the top he rested for a bit, slowly spread his wings, warmed them up for a while, then flew away. It was utterly fascinating

Never really liked ponds before, cant stand water features and that trickling water sound but building this wildlife pond has really got me interested. I,ve been growing veg in my garden for a few years now and try to be as organic as possible; attracting wildlife with plants but the pond should bring in many more creatures. 

I,ve had to fill it with mains water as we have had little rain here and my water butts were empty so I'm wondering how long it will be before it naturalises (if that's the right term').  I've ordered some native plants online and I might change the border planting gradually; just filled up the spaces with plants I already had in the garden but I'd like some irises and for it to look a little more natural.

It's all very exciting

The pond conservation trust say you should let your pond fill, and empty, naturally AND let creatures and plants come of their own accord, not to introduce your own. I dug a pond and left it; one year later and it's teeming with life.

The edge of the pond is the 'busy' area, even when the water temporarily disappears when it's hot and dry. Certain creatures appreciate this as it mirrors what occurs naturally. It's prime real estate for them, so no need to top up your pond.

Apparently we're losing our natural ponds hand over fist.

Ours does get some leaves from the horse chestnut, and I do occasionally fish a few of those out because if you don't they start to smother it. We always have a full carpet of that pond weed over the surface as well. I don't disturb that cos I figure that's the way nature intended it and it doesn't seem to bother the wildlife.

Aerating  plants