Despite delays due to Covid and the heatwave, the new pond is developing well.
Going back to the beginning, our existing pond had become overgrown with iris and it was not possible to remove it as the rhizomes were firmly attached to the liner. It still had value for wildlife but became seasonally dry (as can be normal with wild ponds – wildlife is adapted to this), and we wanted to retain it like this whilst creating a new pond adjacent to it. The new pond would provide an aquatic environment all year round.
We had a design, together with marginal wildflowers, amphibian habitats, and dry banks for grass snakes and other reptiles to bask. The garden sits within an area of chalk and we also wanted to grow chalk plant species around the wildlife pond area. The profile of the new pond would be mostly shallow as needed for invertebrates and marginal plants.
To go ahead with our plans, we needed to raise funds to carry out further work and we were very fortunate to receive funding from the Waitrose Foundation through SWT to complete the project. The first step was to create a guttering system on the adjacent polytunnel that would collect rainwater and feed into the pond, keeping it topped up in dry periods. We are immensely grateful for help from Galliford Try on their volunteering in the community day who helped carry out the work brilliantly!
Following this we were ready to shape the contours of the pond, creating the shallow drawdown zone, and removing a lot of sharp flints and chalk stones. We carried this out in sessions over a few weeks, enjoying cups of fresh rosemary and mint tea (a staple in the garden) to keep us going. This was followed by a layer of soft builder’s sand, and then a pond-specific underlay. Finally, we could lay the EDPM liner. We had looked at using puddled clay but the transportation and access were prohibitive, and we found out bentonite clay liners weren’t compatible with chalk.
Our next stage will be to create the marginal areas and plant up with damp-loving species, as well as adding lots of oxygenating plants to the water. One future occupant was impatient to move in though, and we found a slow worm curled up in a tray of water forget-me-nots at the pond edge!