Building a garden pond?

One popular home improvement is the garden pond. Whether you are considering a natural-looking wildlife pond or a formal raised brick-built water feature, a garden pond can provide a visually pleasing haven of tranquility. After the initial spade work is put in, garden ponds can be a relatively low maintenance area of the garden.

If you have children you need to think very carefully about whether it is wise to have a pond, especially if they are toddlers.  It’s safest to wait until they are older before starting a pond project.

The household division of Adrian Flux Insurance Services looks at where to find advice about planning, building and maintaining a garden pond, and highlights some of the common mistakes. It’s easy to spend lots of money stocking the pond with plants and accessories so it is worth checking what is covered in your household insurance policy. Some policies cover garden plants and ornaments up to a certain limit as standard, but you may need to get extra cover for high value items.

1. Building a small garden pond is fairly straightforward, but if you’re thinking of building one with a surface area of over two square metres you might want to consult an expert, such as Ponds UK, which specialises in all size of projects from small water features to large reservoirs, or award winning Paul Dyer ,who has branches nationwide.
2. One factor to consider when locating your pond is that it needs a lot of light and shouldn’t be underneath trees.  Falling leaves in the autumn can be a big problem for the fish in your pond.
3. Allow for expansion. Most people find that once they start a pond project they soon want a bigger one. If you’ve left space around you can have interlinking pools or enlarge the original one.
4. Don’t forget about drainage for any overflow. Heavy rain can easily flood a small garden pond, so make sure it’s not going to flood into your patio, garden shed or, worse still, your home.
5. If you want to keep the water crystal clear then you are going to need a pump and a filter. These can vary considerably in price from a few pounds for a small pond to several hundreds. Companies like Pond Superstores not only have a great selection of pumps but have all sorts of other pond accessories as well, and Swell UK will answer your phone query.
6. If the expense or hassle of fixing up the electrical supply puts you off then you should take a look at the solar powered pumps that are on the market. These are improving in efficiency all the time and the latest models even have integrated lightsEventually you’ll get to the fun part of stocking your pond.If it’s a wildlife pond then it’s a case of ‘if you build it, they will come’. Beautiful Britain has useful advice on wildlife ponds. If your dream is of a well-stocked fish pond then, at the risk of mixing metaphors, the sky’s your limit. Sturgeon Web is the place for sturgeon lovers, and Water Garden apparently hand-picks its decorative Koi carp.But don’t forget that both wildlife ponds and fish ponds will attract herons.  The RSPB says that the least attractive pond to herons is a small one with steep sides and a good covering of lily pads, while the most attractive has gently sloping banks and an open aspect. Some people suggest trying a Suishi Odoshi Japanese deer scarer – if nothing else it will look pretty.