[Bodger]

I took these pictures today of the wildlife pond that Karen and I made last year. Its not quite as we want it yet but its getting there.
 


 


 
 

 


 

and here's the butterfly friendly garden that we also started last year.
 


 


 

and finally, just because I can, here's our giant Gunnera. One day I swear it will rule the world   
 

[Calvadnack]

What lovely pictures.  The water in the pond looks really good did you plant into aquatic pots ?  I love the gunnera !

[Bodger]

Yes, in pots

[doganjo]

That's not a boat behind the gunnera is it?  IS you pond bid ##g enough for a boat   

[Bodger]

The boat is actually a pond. Its been propped up and filled with water. I went ou for ten minutes about ten years ago and by the time i got back, my OH had filled it with fish and waterside plants.
 
This is one of my Mrs's post from a few years ago. The moral of the story, is never leave your boat unattended.
 
 
 
 
I'll start.....this is a boat that Bodger left lying around for too long so I converted it to a wildlife pond while he was away one weekend :smile:  It's been planted up for years now and houses goldfish but is also a haven for insects and birds. Our resident bees can be seen coming to drink from it.



This pond was here when we moved here and doesn't get much attention from us :cred:  but we have not stocked it with fish and it is where we get all the frogspawn laid. I have to be careful about cutting the grass around it because there are always frogs in the grass. :smile:

[colliewobbles]

All your ponds look great - love the boat one.  What did you line the new one with?

[Bodger]

Just some pond liner that my OH bought off the internet. We're hoping to eventually get the pond so that you can't see it.
 
We're getting a lot of enjoyment from it, on warm nights we've sat out with a drink or three and watched the bats that we have drinking from it in flight. We're also starting to get the occasional dragon fly too.

[Mammyshaz]

Great piccies. I love the recycling boat idea too 

[HelenVF]

Wow!  I did think the boat might have been a dinasaur head hiding in the gunnera lol!

I mentioned a pond to OH at the weekend and he wasn't overly convinced!  We don't have much spare money and I think he was worried it would cost too much.  How much was the liner?  I have noo idea!  I was thinking of keeping an eye on freecycle for some paving slabs or something to build a little wall around it. 

I am going to show him your pics and hopefully, convince him!  LOVE the boat as well!  Much better use for it lol.

Helen

[sabrina]

there is something so peaceful about having a pond.

[Fleecewife]

there is something so peaceful about having a pond.

There is isn't there  .  We have an ex-duck pond which has been cleaned out and now has clear water, no ducks and loads of tadpoles - probably froglets by now.  Has some yellow flag but not much else, so lots of planting to do.  The other pond is new and I'm just filling it with plants.  Everyone asks when we are going to put fish in but we would rather leave it for the wildlife.  Anyway, the last fish we had here died, and we have nowhere else to keep them safe over the winter.  If the solid ice pond doesn't get them, the heron will 
 
I love to sit with my eyes closed listening to the waterfalls and imagining I am way up in the Highlands beside a stream doing a bit of wild camping.  I feel myself relax deliciously then a big lorry thunders past on our tiny but overused road - ah well, a moment of peace.
Since putting the ornamental ponds in we have had a great increase in birds coming into the garden, as well as insects - including the demon midgie which is about the only downside.  When we first moved here 18 years ago we were visited by a dragonfly but we had no pond then.  I have been hoping to entice it back ever since - hopefully this year or next  .  The swallows love to play over the ponds - they swoop down to get a drink on the wing or sometimes to have a lightening bath in passing, and they skim the surface to catch those midgies.  There are so many new baby birds and it's lovely watching them going down to drink for the first time.  Yesterday there were several sparrow mums showing their babies how to have their first bath in the pond - great to watch.  Nearly as great a thief of time as talking with pigs 
 
Bodger, your boat pond is inspired - brilliant.  The main pond looks very much as if it belongs and you will get so much enjoyment watching it being colonised by critters.