Now that better weather is here, with some long warm days and leisurely evenings sitting out in the fresh air during our self-isolation, now is the perfect time to plan to introduce a water feature into your outdoors living space. In relative terms almost any garden can have a water feature, people with quite small garden plots can have one too!

Even if you cannot dig out a hole for the new garden pond this is a good time to make plans for when you can bring in professional help.

An essential part of planning a pond, a fountain or similar feature is where to place it. If you have the space and it is convenient look for a spot away from large trees, tree roots will make excavating much harder and during Autumn your pond is likely to become full of newly fallen leaves.

Planning a garden pond includes what you intend to put in it, fish or plants? Fish are brilliant and make a very restful environment, but Herons love pond fish too and many a gardener has despaired because their Koi carp etc have been predated. Check with the experts about how to get the best from your garden pond.

Ponds work very well without fish, some say better, a garden pond will attract a vast number of garden friendly species without your help, newts, frogs, hedgehogs etc will eat the slugs and snails for you. Please, don’t use slug pellets etc as they will kill the friendly visitors!

Size matters. Work out how large and deep you want the pond to be – families with young children beware as ponds are a magnet for toddlers!

The larger the hole the greater the excavation required, and more water will be needed to fill it.

Fountains and water-movers are very popular, they can enhance any garden, plus the bird population will flock to your garden. Water supply and electrics are less complicated thanks to modern technology, solar-panels, re-circulating water pumps etc making it both safe and easy to set up. However, professional help is at hand.

Creative use of time during the Covid 19 crisis makes perfect sense, plan for later in the year when the experts can call and give advice, prices and service details.

https://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/bury/business-guide/feature/ponds-northwest/