Fridays on this blog are going to be when I showcase RSPB nature reserve gardens around the country, have guest entries from RSPB staff gardeners such as Mark, and I’m very eager to start showcasing some of your gardens too.
But every now and then there’s a date in the RSPB calendar that demands attention, and Feed the Birds Day this weekend is jumping up and down and saying ‘cover me, cover me’.
John's last blog dealt with No.1 on the RSPB’s Feed the Birds Day 5-point Plan, so I thought I’d be perverse and do No.5, Create a Water Feature.
And this is where you get a little sneak preview of an experiment I’m doing: a sink pond. Yes, I know it’s been done before, but I haven’t. I’ve got this bit of a scientist in me that likes to try things first hand, so here it is, newly made, on top of a hollow hibernaculum made of bricks and logs. I got the sink for £50 from a scrapyard (if only I had haggling skills – I’m sure I could have got him down to £30!). And in it is the immaculate Hornwort (I love it as an oxygenator), pebbles, and a pot with Water Mint and Rough Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale) - I thought I'd try the minimalist approach first!
So far so good. The Great Pond Snails are doing fine and it has had a fine flush of Daphnia, but let’s see how it fares over its first winter and whether we get a flush of algae in the spring.
Have a good time Feeding the Birds, and we'll compare notes on Monday :-)
Hey Adrian - cool - can I knick your idea :o) ?
There's two things I want to do in my garden for the same reason as you - play at doing it yourself.
One is build a wildlife stack - not done so yet because I have plenty of natural suitable habitat anyway. Also I want to build a small water feature and here you've done both. A great space saving idea.
The additional beauty doing it this way lends to my idea of trying to incorporate water at two levels. A bog in one or the other - possibly the top which overflows down a waterfall into the feature below. I could possibly add a solar pump to circulate the water round?
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Natures_Voice: Top tip - how to create an inexpensive, wildlife-friendly water feature in your back garden http://tinyurl.com/ykwfb45
I’m sure you sink pond will amaze you. I’ve got an old plastic barrel which I use as a water butt; there is plenty of mosquito and gnat larva living in there and now there is a Great Diving Beetle. It seems quite at home and has been in there for two or three weeks.
Hi Adrian, love the sink idea! We have an old butler sink that I use to grow herbs in but now that I've seen what it can look like as a pond I may just well copy you. I've been wanting a pond for ages but don't really have a suitable place to put one without affecting my other wildlife ideas.
Hi Kezmo. If you take the plunge (so to speak) with your sink pond, we want photos! All I did was use some sealant to make the plug watertight (which took my DIY skills to the limit) and so far so good. Adrian :-)