Building a Wildlife Pond.

The list of things to do is always it seems, never ending. No doubt yours is the same? Just when you tick one thing off, another two appear! Isn't it always the way?
A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally do one of the projects that has been on my list for so long,  'build a wild life pond' So I thought I'd share how I did it...
Step 1. Find a good spot. Preferably in sun and slight shade I believe, but the feathered foreman approved of this site.

 Step 2. Dig. I only wanted a small pond, so this didn't take long.

Step 3. Find a home for all the soil that has been dug out. Mine, (3 barrels full) got dispersed between flower beds.

 Step 4. Create the shape you want and make sure it is level.  A deeper bit in the middle with shallow edges. Use a spirit level to check and adjust.

I think that looks okay?

Step 5. Add some sand at the bottom of the hole, to prevent sharp stones puncturing the pond liner. (I also added some garden greenhouse fleece) then put the liner in. Sadly there is no photo of this as I got so carried away I forgot to take any! :-/ You can buy pond liners at garden centres cut off the roll or in packs. The one I used was in a pack and it was the smallest size. Once in, I then filled with water. Preferably rain water as it's got all the good stuff in it. I took mine from the water butt, but if you don't have a supply of rain water, then you can of course just use tap water.  Once the pond was filled up, I cut the edges of the liner and arranged some large stones, around to hide the rubber/plastic and make it look natural.

Step 6. Add gravel/pebbles and decorate.
Once the pond was basically complete I added some more stones inside and some small pebbles/ gravel (not builders) inside and around the edge to make a sloping beach area. This enables small wildlife to easily get out if they happen to fall in. I bought the bag of small stones from a DIY shop.
 Lastly I added some plants. Two oxygenating native plants and a marsh marigold. I may need more plants, but for now will see how these grow as its only a tiny pond?

After only been here two weeks the plants have already spread and the birds are using it to drink from. A damsel fly has been spotted visiting too.
I'm not sure why it took so long to tick this off the list as it didn't take long at all and was straightforward and didn't cost a lot. Most importantly though now I can put my mind at rest. If I'm late topping up the bird bath, there is always a water source nearby for our precious wildlife.

Talking of those precious wildlife...
The birds in the garden have been very active feeding fledglings.
Mr Blackbird has become even tamer and now comes to the table for snacks.

And even this little one is quite brave sometimes. 

 "No this is not too big a piece for me!"

NB: Update on the music player
Since my last post and a lot of pulling of hair out about the music player on here. I seem to have got another player to work. (fingers crossed it keeps working) I will still be limited to songs because of the new EU article 13 stricter policy but I can still find things which are royalty free and use my son's music so all is not lost for those of you that enjoyed the music. For those of you that don't then you can just press 'off' on the button on the player ;)  See you next time x