Challenge 43: Make a garden water feature to attract wildlife
Points available: 4
About the challenge
Make a garden pond to attract frogs, toads and even dragonflies to your garden.
One of the most enjoyable projects to attract wildlife in your garden is to make a small pond. Most garden soils will need a liner of sorts, this could be a purpose bought pond liner or an old cut down barrel or even an old bath. Dig a hole to fit your liner. Remove any sharp stones. Line the hole with sand to shape and smooth it. Put your liner in then fill up with water from a rainwater butt. Shallow areas are great for tadpoles so don’t make your pond too deep- 30-60 cm is plenty deep enough. Put some logs and stones around the edge of the pond to protect the liner. Sit back and wait for wildlife to find it. Water beetles are very quick to spot a new pond and so are dragonflies like the broad bodied chaser. Don't forget to make one edge of the pond gently sloping so that any wildlife that falls in can climb out again.
Helpful tips
Don’t worry if you’ve not got enough room for a pond in your garden- you can make a hoverfly lagoon in an old bucket, plastic tub or milk bottle. All you need to do is fill your container with old grass cutting and cover with leaf litter. Top up with rainwater and wait. The rotting vegetation makes the perfect habitat. Very soon yellow and black striped hoverflies will discover it and lay their eggs. These hatch into incredible larvae with long snorkel tubes which they use to breathe whilst staying below the water’s surface out of the way of predators. Find out more about making your Hoverfly Lagoon at the Buzz Club
More information
The Freshwater Habitats Trust has some great advice on pond creation
Creating Garden Ponds for Wildlife
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