If you have read my previous blogs. you will know we are new to the island and moved into a new property with an
empty garden. Having planted our flower bed with lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants, our next step was to build a pond. We have never done this before but there are lots of handy hints on Google so we set out with spades to dig the hole. This was our first attempt – eventually a bit deeper. We forgot to use a spirit level though, more of that later!

We went to a garden centre to find a pond Lining and then to a builders yard to find some stone slabs for the edge. You could easily use big pebbles or any bricks or stones you have to hand. We just likes the colours of these. Here it is with the lining in place and the flagstones added.

At this point we decided to use the soil we had dug out to make a sort of rockery in the corner between the two fences. We trimmed the black plastic back to the edge of the stones and then filled it with water.

Then we realised we should have used a spirit level! Our pond has a slope so the water level is uneven, but we weren’t keen to start all over again!

At stage 3, we brought a couple of water lilies (we discovered later that we have a neighbour who would have given us cuttings so worth finding out if any of your neighbours have ponds already). We moved our little solar water feature from the patio next to the pond.

And finally, we added some stones and plants from the garden centre, some gravel between the stones and a little solar fountain to complete the look. Obviously, the whole point of all this is to attract some wildlife to the pond in addition to the various flying creatures (birds, bees, butterflies) who already visit us.

We were delighted when only a couple of days later a dragonfly appeared and then a week later, we were blessed with a beautiful lily.

We really enjoyed doing all of this ourselves it wasn’t hard or expensive and watching it taking shape was a joy. We hope to have more news as the seasons progress.