# After some advice on pond level



## chinwag (24 Oct 2017)

Thought I'd post this in a new thread. Recently redone our wildlife pond, and one of the things we hated about the last one was the visible liner, so this one has more vertical the sides, with a slope in one bank to make it wildlife friendly.

Dug a ledge for the buried part of the liner to sit on, so that we'd have a good depth of soil/grass up to the pond, and have grass/plants overhanging to further disguise the liner.

My thinking was that in nature, there aren't these distinctions so I made the ledge deep enough for some turf or a decent amount of root bound soil.

It's hard to see in the photo, it's the bit the brick is resting on, so that would essentially be grass or planted soil.

The water level was on that ledge, but we took out a few plants to move things around, but it will clearly get that high in good rainfall.

Not sure if we've made it too deep, so if the water level rises, I'm assuming mud will wash into the water?

Should I raise that a bit nearer ground level or does it seem about right?

Thanks.


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## mort (24 Oct 2017)

How deep is it? Another idea is to flip the turf over roots side up and interplant with marginals. By the time the grass has died off the marginal roots will have grown holding onto the soil. You could use ragged Robin,  forget me nots, creeping jenny etc which will add some nice colour.
you could even use stones with a few plants intermingled as this will provide a great refuge for frogs and insects. Amphibians love stones to bask on in the summer and with mine it's where the birds like to stand when drinking.


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## chinwag (24 Oct 2017)

Thanks @mort - the soil depth will be 2-3 inches deep all the way around, the ledge for the soil to sit on is level, the ground surrounding the pond isn't, hence the fluctuation in depth.

The flipped turf sounds like a good idea, I'm sure a little soil in the water would be natural anyway in most wild ponds.

We have some rocks and pebbles too which we were going to use around the pond, but I might bring them nearer as you suggest.

Looking forward playing with those and getting some plants in. - I saw a wildlife pond recently where the ledge on one end had cut sections of branch at equal height sat vertically on it, which I thought must be great for insects as well as frogs etc. I'l try and find a photo.

Really looking forward to getting this in and planted - we have some bog areas near it too so hopefully it will all come together.


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## chinwag (24 Oct 2017)

Here's the pond I mentioned with the branches/logs. I'd completely forgotten they were capped with stones as well.


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## chinwag (25 Oct 2017)

Made a little progress today, hopefully this looks a little more pond like now - it's not as uniform a shape as it looks in the pictures, the banks are actually quite varied.

The rocks aren't staying where they are either, we just put them out to keep the liner in place overnight!

So the pebbled part will become a kind of pebbled slope into the pond and that should lead out into planted bank and bog plants. hopefully!


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## zozo (29 Oct 2017)

Maybe you like to watch this, for inspiration..


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## Edvet (30 Oct 2017)

I always wonder about cascades and also stone gardens in a completely flat landscape, i never understand that.


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## chinwag (4 Nov 2017)

Cool video @zozo, thanks - not sure I'm ready for such hardcore undertakings!

@Edvet - I know what you mean, we have rocks but no waterfall, and I've also setup a mini stumpery kind of thing. I try and make everything look as natural as I can but I often think it all looks a bit contrived in our garden! I guess everything's somewhere it shouldn't really be though.

The pond it looking better - I'll try and get some photo's up soon, although I'm tempted to wait for everything to grow in a bit first!


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## zozo (4 Nov 2017)

chinwag said:


> Cool video @zozo, thanks - not sure I'm ready for such hardcore undertakings!


It's more meant as example how he leveled the pond with the lawn and cemented the rocks and flat sandstones in place. Also creating nooks and crannies and little caves for wildlife between and under the stones.. Thought it's a very nice and quite easy way to hide any liner from beeing vissible..  That cascade is a matter of taste, also not realy my thing.


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## chinwag (4 Nov 2017)

@zozo - I thought it was a great video, I was more referring to my total lack of experience with cement - that guy makes it look so easy!

Kinda wishing we had more rocks to go on the ledges now, we've used them all up on the bank. On the plus side, all the rocks were free because my GF's parents wanted to get rid of them.

I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.


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## martin-green (9 Nov 2017)

chinwag said:


> I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow.



Pictures?


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## chinwag (11 Nov 2017)

@martin-green - got some today!

Weather is rubbish here and the ground around the pond is pretty much just mud, but hopefully you can imagine it with the helixine established and the bog gardens growing more.

I want to get a lot more plants in the pond too, esp along the back edge.

It looks really square in the photos but that's just the way we cut the mud on the banks, way too wet to sort that out at the moment tho - Pond building is definitely a spring job!



 
I love this sleeper, I'm sure I posted it already but still...


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## martin-green (17 Nov 2017)

Just wondering.........has any of that timber got / coated with any type of preservative?


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## chinwag (18 Nov 2017)

That's a good question - to be honest I hadn't given it much thought! The sleepers have been in the garden since we moved in, about 6 years ago.

The pond's been there about 4 years I think, in it's first incarnation, and the wood was all piled up at one end, sticking down into it - we had frogs in there most of the time so I didn't give it a second thought.

There aren't any fish going into the pond but we have a couple of frogs in there at the moment, and of course birds drink from it too, the occasional hedgehog too.

Definitely a good point - hopefully the age of the wood will mean whatever was in there has leeched out already, and if the pond is as heavily planted as I'd like, the plants will keep the water healthy?


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