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We live in Orkney and have created a pond for wildlife. It has a liner not a pre-formed pond and I'd like to know what you've done about putting gravel/sand etc., in the bottom of it......or do you leave it bare. What have you done with yours? Many thanks, Claire and Dave.

Do you mean on the bottom of the pond, for plants and things. When I make my wildlife ponds, I don't bother putting anything in the bottom, it silts up itself over time, the pond had shelves round it for different sorts of pond plants, everything was planted in pond baskets lined with straw and filled with rough soil and topped off with gravel and placed round the pond, the pond was sloped and a sort of beach area was formed and filled with pea shingle so birds could come and drink and have a bath in the shallow bit, and bees could land for a drink and it is helpful in case hedgehogs fall in. Here is a picture of the pond I had in my last house

Yes DND, on the pond floor. It's just that reading around in books and on the net they tell you all kinds of things and it was getting confusing but we'll leave it clear apart from rocks for the froggies to hide in and around. We know about the aquatic soil for in the baskets and we have some friends who are going to give us some pond plants so we should be okay there. We have made sure ther's different shelve hights, shallow and then deeper, to accommodate all creatures needs.......glad the digging bit is mainly over with as we've moved a hell of a lot of soil! Pond is about 8 x 6 m and a kind of butternut squash shape lol! Thanks for your help, very much appreciated

I'm a total beginner on ponds but just had to say

diggernotdreamer

That is beautiful!

seasidegirl wrote:I'm a total beginner on ponds but just had to say

diggernotdreamer

That is beautiful!

Oh thank you so much, what a lovely compliment. I did love that pond, great crested newts moved into it and we registered it so it is now a protected habitat so the new owners aren't allowed to fill it in

DND - what a lovely idea. It's a stunning pond.

Back to the original question, my pond liner is brown on one side and black on the other. I chose to use the brown side. It looks a bit more natural. I then added stones from the garden. The bottom of the pond will silt up very quickly and the wildlife will love it.

Like DND, I have a stoney 'beach' area at one end where wildlife can gently wade into the water. The bottom of the pond then slopes gently down. There is a deeper area for the plants and to give frogs and other critters somewhere to hide. I don't have any fish, they don't really seem to get along with wildlife in a pond.

Zoe