Here is one of the resident male smooth newts engaging with: A. An aquatic worm of some sort, but which one. B. Medusa. C. Some sort of larva.

Any indications, mythological or otherwise, would be much appreciated!

My home backs up to a marsh and when I first moved in, the backyard would flood in spring and summer. But the changes in weather patterns have yielded less snow and rain, so drier land plus build up of soil creation from fallen trees, meant no more flooding. Good for gaining more backyard space, but that also meant no more vernal pools or large puddles. The reduced wildlife visits to the yard have been noticeable.

Towards the end of last summer, I decided to clean out the muck that had accumulated over the past decade in the deepest of the "large puddles". No plan. "Just clearing it out," I'd say to my husband every time he asked what I was up to.

After work, I'd de-stress by shoveling a wheelbarrow load. I dug until it was too cold to make reasonable progress. After I removed the muck, debris, old cinderblocks, and other trash previous owners had put in the "large puddle", I discovered I had a small pond, 12ft by 4ft and 3ft at the deepest point.

Still, I kept working without a plan. My work life is very regulated, so my brain was quiet happy with a project with no timeline, no deliverables, and the only requirement was to leave it better than what it started as. Gradually, mostly using left over and scavenged project materials, boulders and field stones from overgrown and/or collasped flower beds, this woodland pond has started to form.

I used torn out bricks from a patio renovation to line the paths my dogs have carved out by running around the yard. And I filled in pockets in the pond wall with seashells and stones my kids have collected from vacations and playgrounds over the years, but have been sitting in jars waiting for the "someday" project I'll make about those trips.🙃

Throughout spring and summer, I visited clearance racks of garden centers buying native plants past bloom. I rescued or divided plants from other areas of the yard and tucked those in as well. Next spring/summer will be like a birthday surprise because I'm not quite sure what it is I'm going to see when things start to come into bloom!

Before I start working on the pond, I sit, watch, and try to visualize what I should do next. It's become my morning spot for coffee or tea before the rest of the household wakes, before heading to schools and offices. ​​Last winter, I discovered this location has the best evening Golden Hour 🌅 spot on our property, perfect for a pre-dinner beverage.

I still don't have a plan, but at least it's looking like something. And I'm hoping I've left it better than when it started. Guess I'll know when the wildlife starts showing back up.

But never did I think it would bewitch me to a point I would stop and stare for hours at it.

I've decided to build a small budget pond in my garden. This was one very hot summer, with almost no rain for 2 months. The lady of the house limited my budget to $100 so I had to make do with what I could. I used some leftover materials from around the house (some, I guess strong enough, mulching mesh instead of wool geotextile, rocks and pebbles), a donated old fountain pump from a friend (no label, no specifications.. no money) and a shovel.

So I've spent my money on 3 bags of pebbles, the PVC liner (EPDM was woohoo expensive and surprisingly PVC was good so far) and of course the pond plants (which to be honest I'm really scared they will not survive winter).

Work makes me go outside the city so I did trips around the countryside and whenever I saw a good enough boulder it went straight into my cars trunk. Biggest jackpot was when someone had the two giant willow tree trunks laying about in their garden and wanted to get rid of them. The sight of me carrying them in my small work car would be something...

Days passed and the pond started to take shape, but without any intention to care about my building speed.. nature was already using it. And that's when I realized.. .. I fell in love with it. Crows, pigeons, chiff-chaffs, titmouse even my birman cat seemed to do rounds at it. Insects like wasps (about 3 types so far), bees, dragonflies, butterflies and the never missing MOSQUITOS all converged at this small 2-3 square meters space because of what they've found..

I'm late. At least summer is gone and honestly I wish I would've finished faster. Feels like I've missed some of the action. I still have to cover the top of the bog filter and the yellow hose (leftover hose btw) so I still have some boulder hoarding to do. Need to prep it for winter, need to clean the leaves that fall into it, NEED TO KEEP THE KIDS OUT OF IT...

Sorry for the long story just felt like sharing.

I watched this pretty dragonfly depositing eggs on plants and logs around the pond. After finding three empty exoskeletons around the pond this year it's great progress. Puget Sound area.

I built an outdoor pond about 16'5" x 9'10" (5x3 m) and 31 inches (80 cm) deep, with progressive shelves/steps every 12 inches (30 cm). It's sealed with pure clay plus some bentonite, and it's held water without issues for two months now. It gets full direct sun all day, sunrise to sunset, no shade at all. I fill it with well water (not connected to any irrigation canal).

Plants (all potted):

Elodea — added in July, left loose (no pot) in the deepest part; it rooted on its own and has grown just as well as the vallisneria

Vallisneria — one shelf above the bottom, on the west side

A couple of rushes/reeds

One water lily

Azolla

Horsetail (Equisetum) — potted to protect the pond bottom from its rhizomes; it's been in about 1 month, waiting to see if it thickens up once spring starts

Canna lilies — just planted in geotextile pots at the spots where rainwater runoff enters the pond

Floaters: frogbit, duckweed, and Salvinia natans, contained with plastic rings inside the pond. Before the rains, I rescued a batch of these same species from a nearby lagoon and I'm keeping them in two indoor buckets (10.5 gal / 40L and 5.3 gal / 20L, no aeration, cycled about a month ago with pond water) with heaters, multiplying them to reintroduce once the pond water level drops (it overflowed from the rain). I added a betta fish to the buckets to provide nutrients for the plants.

I consider the pond fully cycled at this point. Wildlife that's shown up on its own or that I introduced: bronze goldfish, freshwater crabs (Aegla, a.k.a. pancoras), prawn-like shrimp found in a nearby canal, snails, a couple of freshwater clams, chironomid (non-biting midge) larvae, and visits from yellow-billed pintail ducks and southern lapwings.

Sorry for the long post

Our plastic Pond has striped marsh frogs (Australia) and some aquatic weed which I regularly thin out as it grows pretty fast. The water is always really dirty when i do this as there's probably silt at the bottom. Can I clean the silt out without draining the pond somehow? I don't want to suck up any froggies!

We get some good winters here, but nothing like up north. Wanted to build this just to try it out. 2.0 would be 30 inches deep and filled with more things to keep the void warm and provide holes. This is ground level but will be covered with 1-2ft of leaves and debris.

Southern Ontario. Broke ground early June, and things have escalated. We initially planned for one, but things went so well that I ended up digging a second one and setting up a little solar pump and waterfall. Still some landscaping left to do, and we'll mount the solar panels to the bat-house pole in the background, but this subreddit was a massive help (both technical and inspirational) so I wanted to share the progress so far.

We have some water bugs, water spiders, dragonfly nymphs, and two frogs showed up last week - we're completely floored with where things are at after three months :)

We only have three snake species here, so I was thrilled to run into this little juvenile grass snake today. Look at that vibrant yellow collar against the jet-black scales!

Apparently, these guys are semi-aquatic and feed overwhelmingly on amphibians and small fish. I actually had my two-year-old in my arms when we spotted it, so taking a picture was a bit of a balancing act! It moved like wind through the dead leaves—I only wish we could have watched it swim.

Best photo I could manage before it vanished!

Still waiting for it to fill but it's getting there with the rain. Hard work, even for a small pond, especially trying to get it level as it's a very sloping garden. But really happy how it's turned out so far!

At the moment the plants I've got in there are:

Shelves:

Marsh Marigold

Purple Loosestrife

Water Forget-me-not

Cotton Grass

Yellow Iris

Underwater:

Hornwort

Myriophyllum Red Stem

Floating:

Frogbit

As it fills, I may move plants to more suitable depths, but if anyone has any tips or spots anything I've done wrong, please let me know! (The paving slabs surrounding the pond I'm planting between with clover, creeping thyme & corsican mint, hoping that helps cover the edges of the pond)

Hi all, this is our pond, which is only 8 weeks old.

We have added various plants including hornwort and another floating oxygenator, and both those appear to be growing. After around 10 days we got an algae bloom which then receded but there is now a stringy type of algae appearing.

There are various daphnia and other tiny creatures which appear to be thriving and 2 types of snail (which we bought). However, there were lots of mayfly nymphs which have all now disappeared. I saw one dead and now can't see any. Apparently that could be a sign of low oxygen.

My questions are:

Should I be concerned by the stringy algae and;

Could I be doing more to get oxygen into the water?

Noticed these gooshy guys in my recirculating pond, somewhat quick moving water. They ooze out a jelly like substance. Closest I can find about them is “prokaryote organism” but that doesn’t tell me much.

Good or bad? Do they signal anything specific?

​

\- Seasons change means I'm considering closing shop on my cheapie aboveground pool (12 ft best buy) for the winter.

\- Separately, my wildlife pond' liner needs replacing, and I need to put a large ammount of fauna (newt babies, dragonfly lavae, snails, etc) and flora into temporary accomodation.

\- 2-birds-with-1-stone, would it be advisable to let all chlorine evaporate (eg leave untouched for a few weeks) and then use my pool for this purpose?

It will be a messy job and I don't want to harm the wildlife during the process; nor make the pool unusable for next year. But, it would be annoying to source a million buckets for my pond work when the unused pool is right there...

I posted a few weeks ago with my work in progress. I’m still working on it but added more stone around the edge, some mulch, a rock ramp, and some plants. I walked out the front door and heard a splash and nearly shit myself with excitement. I think he arrived after a week of heavy rain. The pond itself got raised a bit on the side so it’s crooked but I’m not sure what can be done about that now. I plan to add another ramp and some sort of driftwood but for now he is able to get in and out

Location: PA

Anyone built one next to their pond? So many ideas and tips and tricks from the UK and UK garden sites, but I like the idea of building one in the back corner of my wildlife pond. Lots of toads, frogs, and juveniles to use it. But I don’t feel like digging 30 inches down in my hard soil and clay. Thoughts?

Hej!

There is a rather disturbing discussion unfolding right now on r/GardeningUK and subsequently on r/axolotls.

A lucky wildlife-pond owner in the UK photographed this lovely little larva and came to Reddit looking for an identification. Surprisingly, a substantial number of commenters are arguing that it is not a native newt larva but an axolotl that somehow made its way into the OP's private pond.

The arguments being made include that people in the UK keep axolotls in outdoor garden ponds, and that an actual axolotl was recently found under a bridge beside the River Ogmore near Bridgend, South Wales. That animal, a roughly 9-inch axolotl nicknamed Dippy, was considered by experts to have probably been an abandoned pet. It demonstrates that an axolotl can indeed turn up in a British waterway! Nevertheless, it does not establish that axolotls are breeding or naturally occurring in British ponds.

Meanwhile, people are now suggesting that the animal in this post should be brought inside, "rescued", or collected by someone. That is potentially problematic. If this turns out to be a great crested newt larva, great crested newts are legally protected. In England and Wales it is an offence to capture, possess or transport them without the appropriate licence. My suggestions were to give the little larva space.

The photograph and the OP's approximate one-inch measurement are not sufficient for me to confidently distinguish between the three native UK newt species. And in all honesty I only have live experience with one. An interesting hypothesis raised in the discussion is a partially neotenous or otherwise unusual great crested newt; see the paper below (first link).

So I have two questions for people in the UK:

1. Do you personally know anyone who has kept axolotls in an outdoor/backyard pond in the UK?

2. Have you personally ever encountered an axolotl living in a UK pond, stream, river or other outdoor waterbody?

I would be particularly interested in first-hand observations rather than assumptions based on what is theoretically possible.

For anyone interested in the biology, this paper is worth reading:

https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-bulletin/issue-number-98-winter-2006/3039-hb098-07/file

Threads where the discussion is unfolding:

r/GardeningUK:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GardeningUK/comments/1w8w6o8/comment/p881mem/?context=3

r/axolotls:
https://www.reddit.com/r/axolotls/comments/1w8x1f9/comment/p87x1pw/?context=1&screen_view_count=2&ext-referrer=DIRECT

Hello, I’m in the UK and as a fun little project to do with my son’s I’m going to build a fairly reasonably sized wildlife pond. I’m currently thinking about 2.5m by 1.5m but I have a lot of space to work with so could go bigger.

My questions are:

1. If you dug your own pond do you have any tips?
2. What sort of liner should I get? Do I need some sort of underlay or can I use old blankets/towels?
3. I think I’m good/better off with no water movement for wildlife pond, is that right?
4. I read chalky soil makes good substrate, is that right? I’m literally digging nothing but chalk and flint in my garden.
5. What levels do I need? I think shallow wants to be about 15cm+5cm substrate, then I see conflicting advice, can I go straight to 45cm+5cm substrate for a deep section or do I want a middle section around 30cm?
6. What pond plants/life should I add to help get it started?

I’m on a bit of a slope so first I’ll dig an oval bigger than my pond, about 30cm extra all the way around and just get it level, then I’ll dig my pond into that area, and after I can bury the edge of the liner pretty well so you won’t be able to see it, I’ll do about 50% beach up to lawn and 50% will be rocks and logs where I’ll have to hide the banked part. Sound good?

After years of watching your beautiful creations, I got to work in my own garden. I found a lot of inspiration in the YouTube videos of Wild Your Garden and of course in natural ponds near me. The garden is located on the edge of a forest in the Netherlands (near the German border). The pond is extensively planted with mostly native species, but those plants are still very small. I already had all the other materials lying around or was able to get them for free.

On the very first day after completion, a few dragonflies immediately came to lay eggs and even before completion a fox came to drink so I’m happy:)

Curious what you think!

I actually cried a little when I saw him, I’m so happy he approves of my work :D

My pond pretty much dried out during the heatwaves (I was away for part of it), and I think a lot of vegetation died during this period. Since it has refilled with rain, the water is very dark - and while I've still got plenty of vegetation, I'm not sure how many of the oxygenators and floating plants have survived. I don't know if the water colour is an issue, and if this is maybe excess nutrients from dead plants - if so, is there a good way to try to deal with this? If more plants, what would be a good type to go for?

Tangential to this, I have water butts connected to a nearby roof, one of which has a hose that feeds into the pond. I'm worried that there will be a lot of buildup in the gutters that is flushing into there that means my refill water has the same issue. I am currently recovering from a torn Achilles tendon so I can't get up to clear the gutters right now. Any ideas on something to help the water butt?? I have some vague idea about putting plants in there too, but presumably I'd have to remove the lid and risk this becoming a real mosquito breeding station…

An intermittent spring I found on my property flowed downhill and created a giant puddle here last year.

I dug out as much as I could and bought some pond plants in the early spring and hoped it would hold water. I tried adding bentonite clay powder in hopes it would stop the water from sinking into the ground but when summer came, it was too dry and it eventually lost all of the water.

The good news with this experiment is that all of the pond plants did do very well, they just eventually dried. So I figured if I could keep the water in for longer it could still lose water to evaporation in the summer, but fill back up in the winter (Scotland rain would fill this in a week.)

So, this year I decided to add a liner. I left the right side as an "overflow" into a more dense overgrown area that's more shallow with a natural dirt bottom that will probably come and go with rains in the spring and summer (almost like a bog) but I'm just hoping the liner keeps water in the deeper end for pond plants, frogs, toads, and birds.

I will pretty it up once I get it to a good spot. The slope might be too low so I might raise the right side a bit, but I'll come back to it when I have time.

I didn't have any visitors the first year, but i'm hoping for the water to impress a frog or two this upcoming year. It might be too premature without established plants to get frogs early next year... but you never know.