From Ornamental Fish to Wildlife

Originally my pond was built for fish and it had nets to protect the fish from herons and other pests like cats and possibly rats, see earlier pond articles.

Since getting rid of my fish I have decided to turn it into a natural pond hopefully to attract wild life but I needed to make changes because in its present form it is not really suitable.  

To start with I have removed the nets and because the sides are too steep I need to make ways for hedgehogs to get out if they fall in.  I know they can swim but they couldn’t climb the steep slippery sides.

I have initially made a basic set of stone steps at the shallow end, these will be improved, and at the deep end I will make a ramp or some other means to enable them to climb out at this end.

Other problems away from the pond could be the locks and canal, the easy option to keep them safe is to completely block access to this part of the garden under the spoke bridge, the issue with this is my access.  The Spoke Bridge over the gap is removable to allow me easy access to cut the grass and other things that I need to do inside the track so whatever I come up with the bridge needs to be completely removable.  The ‘gate’ sits on two brackets and can be lifted off when need be.

I know that I still have work to do but at least I have started.

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