Скачать или смотреть Our Nature pond - ideal for wildlife from insects to birds and small mammals

Take a tour through the undergrowth in and around our nature pond.

It is 3 years old now and home to many frogs, toads, snails, dragonfly and all kinds of insects. Bats fly over in the summer and birds wash themselves at the top of the waterfall. We think hedgehogs have been snuffling about and we do have a lovely goldfish and several golden orfe swimming around in there.

A bit about the pond set up. The main pond is a moulded plastic type, it's probably 4ft deep in the middle. A pump sends water up to a filter box above the pond (we disguised it with a passion flower plant), the outflow has a junction that sends water both down a waterfall and through a more gentle 'lagoon'. The waterfall is a plastic moulded affair and the water drops right back into the pond but the lagoon is some pond liner that drops gradually down and into the pond but not before having a shallow stream. Overflow from both the pond and lagoon flows out into the 'bog'. The bog is dryer of course than the lagoon but is seated on a bit scoop of pond liner with just a few small holes. We do this to try and make sure this little pond provides as many different habitats as possible in a small space.

We've been really pleased with how life has thrived here, we provided most of the plants and the running water but most of the rest of the animals showed up on their own (apart from the fish of course!).