Rain-fed wildlife pond

[mgsontour]

Has anyone got/had one of these who can educate me on the pitfalls? Thanks lads

[JDog]

Lots of pitfalls but it will be fun trying.

There will be experts on here who know more than I but one feature I would include would be a silt trap or settlement area of water just upstream of the pond. This will prevent silt entering the pond and should be cleaned out regularly. A small deep standing body of water will do but a concrete settlement tank would be better.

[islandgun]

I drained my bit of land and then dammed it before it empties into the sea, in the summer i have a lush water meadow [increased nutrients?]  In the winter plenty of wildfowl come into the pool and the flooded meadow.  Sticklebacks have appeared as have wild flowers, some areas ive planted willows around the edge.. one thing that surprised me was the build up of gravel into a small bank to the side of the main watercourse. I love it, and would highly recommend it if you can, Picture few years ago, mallard are decoys..🙂 

[Mice!]

5 hours ago, mgsontour said:

Has anyone got/had one of these who can educate me on the pitfalls? Thanks lads

How big are you thinking?

We've put a small wildlife pond in the garden,  kids are loving it. 

[stumfelter]

Would it be fed by rainwater pipes from the house, garage or similar?

[mgsontour]

I only want one for the side garden at home which is boggy in winter and nothing grows well in summer as it doesn't drain well so we never use it and it never has any appeal in summer so thought a wildlife pond as we already get frogs, toads and have an small insect area that the birds love, so any fool proof ideas like a silt trap and welcome

3 minutes ago, stumfelter said:

Would it be fed by rainwater pipes from the house, garage or similar?

Yes

 

[stumfelter]

1 minute ago, mgsontour said:

I only want one for the side garden at home which is boggy in winter and nothing grows well in summer as it doesn't drain well so we never use it and it never has any appeal in summer so thought a wildlife pond as we already get frogs, toads and have an small insect area that the birds love, so any fool proof ideas like a silt trap and welcome

Yes

 

If it's being fed from the guttering there wouldn't be any silt. Have the pond raised enough so you could have a feed from the rwp and a rwp overflow back to the original drain, job done!

[mgsontour]

5 minutes ago, stumfelter said:

If it's being fed from the guttering there wouldn't be any silt. Have the pond raised enough so you could have a feed from the rwp and a rwp overflow back to the original drain, job done!

Your not going to believe this but I emailed a local pond supplier the text below because I wondered about the overflow/excess rw; yet you have explained it simply ( 2 bits of pipe ). . . . . 

# I wonder if you can help me please, I want a pond in my garden that uses the rainwater from my house roof. While I understand filling it is from my downpipe via a pipe, what bit of kit do I need ( and do you stock it ) so when the pond is full the roof water reverts to going back down the drain? Thank you for your help and look forward to hearing from you

The answer I got back was thus. . . 

# This isn’t something that we have encountered before. We have spoken to several pond supply reps and they are in a similar position to us I’m afraid. Its very rare that we draw a blank but in this instance there is nothing that we can think of to solve the problem.

 

[stumfelter]

3 hours ago, mgsontour said:

Your not going to believe this but I emailed a local pond supplier the text below because I wondered about the overflow/excess rw; yet you have explained it simply ( 2 bits of pipe ). . . . . 

# I wonder if you can help me please, I want a pond in my garden that uses the rainwater from my house roof. While I understand filling it is from my downpipe via a pipe, what bit of kit do I need ( and do you stock it ) so when the pond is full the roof water reverts to going back down the drain? Thank you for your help and look forward to hearing from you

The answer I got back was thus. . . 

# This isn’t something that we have encountered before. We have spoken to several pond supply reps and they are in a similar position to us I’m afraid. Its very rare that we draw a blank but in this instance there is nothing that we can think of to solve the problem.

 

Glad I could help.

[islandgun]

12 hours ago, stumfelter said:

If it's being fed from the guttering there wouldn't be any silt. Have the pond raised enough so you could have a feed from the rwp and a rwp overflow back to the original drain, job done!

perfect !

[D_shooter]

Depending on the level of your pond area, you could place a drain at the desired level and thus would self regulate the water level. 
 

Although this isn’t stopping water from the roof entering the pond it will keep it much cleaner with a steady flow passing through?

 

didnt read the above post!!

Edited September 4, 2020 by D_shooter