Mini Pond Life

Tadpoles

What I like to call 'the pond'  in my garden is actually just a large plastic/rubber bucket I bought from a garden centre 15 years ago. I dug a hole to fit the bucket and then buried the thing up to its handles. It was hard work even for so small an object and I couldn't do it now. But it was certainly worth it. I planted ferns and other greenery around but when I cut these back from time to time the handles do become obvious, which is a pity.

Pond with handles and perforated spoon 

The day after,  when I'd filled it with water,  I was sitting nearby admiring my handiwork  when I noticed seven frogs enjoying a jacuzzi. I did wonder how so many frogs could get to know about it in such a short time and in fact it has only truly been large enough to hold one frog at a time on a permanent basis, and sure enough, every year it has just the one frog.

Frog in pond

There has been the odd cluster of frogspawn but never any survivors. Perhaps the pond is just too small or maybe they get eaten - by foxes?

frogspawn

Maturing tadpoles

At one time I did think of having three buckets/ponds in a row -  a sort of necklace of water but couldn't bring myself to give up that much garden. I clear the pond bed of old leaves and sludge from time to time  with an old kitchen perforated serving spoon. Luckily it's a bright orange so I can't lose it amongst the undergrowth.

I placed a brick in the bottom to create an escape for creatures with short legs. Sometimes I find dead
snails who obviously haven't made it but for birds and the frog it seems to be enough.

No matter how tiny this little oasis of water, it has a surprisingly lively effect on the garden. Every change in the weather ( and there are plenty of those in London) the pond takes on a different character, sometimes mysteriously dark and sometimes bright and full of reflections.

pond among ferns

There's a lot more life in it than I am aware of most of the time - even mosquitoes, though I hope I've scotched those.  Last summer I watched a small solitary wasp flying around the pond and then realised it was attacking a spider so, as usual I rushed inside for my insect book and found that this was a wasp that goes for water spiders and then lays its egg on the spider which becomes food for the wasp's offspring. And I always thought of spiders being predators not prey. 

Pond reflections

This year,  for the first time, pond weed has appeared on the surface of the water. I don't think the frog minds but I though I should try and keep it under control so I bought a 'mini-bale' of barley straw, said to be good for clearing much larger stretches of water. At the same time my sister told me about the solar fountain she'd just bought for her bird bath, so I got one of those as well to help oxygenate the water (good for getting rid of mosquitoes perhaps too). It is tiny - easily popped through the letterbox - and when I put it in the water it spouted a foot high straight away.  The moment a shadow crosses the sun it dies down. Fascinating. It's great to sit nearby when I'm reading and how strange that such a tiny squirt should give such a sense of liveliness. I have to say neither the barley nor the fountain have actually reduced the weed so far - but I'm not a patient person so maybe I just have to learn to give it more time.

Solar powered fountain

 

The morning after I'd installed the straw and fountain I found that the foxes had thought them great playthings and had scattered them about on the lawn so I now cover the pond with a short length of stiff plastic matting at night. A gardener's work is never done.