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Make a mini wildlife pond

Follow our brilliant step-by-step guide to make your own wildlife pond at home! It’s so simple and will be a home for lots of wonderful critters on your patch all year round.

Stuff you'll need:

  • A shallow dish or bowl, or anything else that can be filled An
    old watertight container like a washing up bowl, an old
    kitchen sink or a large plant pot.
  • Small stones or gravel.
  • Pebbles, rocks or twigs.
  • A couple of native aquatic plants (optional).

Step-by-step guide

1. Pick a spot on your patch that gets some sun but isn’t in full sunlight all day. Dig
a hole if you can and place the container in it.

2. Fill your container with water, using rainwater if possible – see our rain chain
resource for one way to collect rainwater! If you need to use tap water, fill your
container and then leave it for 24 hours to let any chlorine evaporate.

3. Put some gravel in the bottom. Create little stepping stones or ladders with
pebbles, rocks or twigs

4. Add a couple of native aquatic plants if you can. Great plants for small ponds
include: miniature waterlily, lesser spearwort, starwort and flowering rush. Most
garden centres stock these, but you might find better deals online. Lookout for
freebies on your local Facebook group or Freecycle pages.

5. Over the next few months, your pond will develop an
ecosystem of its own. Leave it alone and let nature do
its job. Don’t be tempted to introduce tadpoles, frogs,
fish or even water from another pond as it can spread
disease. Depending on where your patch is, your pond
could attract wildlife including pond skaters, water
boatmans, dragonflies, damselflies, hoverflies, bees,frogs, toads, bats and birds!