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Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

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Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#11

Post by kombookcha »

_joel wrote: post #5
kombookcha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently there are some types of plants (like lavender, mint, rosemary or catnip) which mosquitoes don't like being around for whichever reason. Having some near the micropond could be a pretty elegant fix if it works.

Lemongrass too, not sure it could be grown on a window sill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citronella_oil

The fact that all of these plants have delightful smells confirms my dislike of mosquitoes - not only do they bite and spread disease, they also have bad taste in garden plants.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#12

Post by wil421 »

ilamont wrote: post #10

The article is correct in my experience. If you build a pond, wildlife will come. I would only add that having a simple pump to create a little flow and oxygenation really helps reduce algae and mosquitoes. If the pond is deep enough (18"/50cm), it will frustrate raccoons. I've done two small fish ponds using heavy duty rigid plastic liners expecting only the fish (koi and shubunkin) would enjoy it. We live less than…

My pond attracts a lot of wildlife too. Frogs, animals, flying water insects, and even a couple crawfish came from a small creek nearby.

What do you use for soil in your taro plant?

We are much farther South and don’t have to deal with ice. I’ve been trying to put fish in it but the chipmunks turned the pond liner into Swiss cheese in some places.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#13

Post by ilamont »

wil421 wrote: post #12
ilamont wrote: post #10

The article is correct in my experience. If you build a pond, wildlife will come. I would only add that having a simple pump to create a little flow and oxygenation really helps reduce algae and mosquitoes. If the pond is deep enough (18"/50cm), it will frustrate raccoons. I've done two small fish ponds using heavy duty rigid plastic liners expecting only the fish (koi and shubunkin) would enjoy it. We live less than…

My pond attracts a lot of wildlife too. Frogs, animals, flying water insects, and even a couple crawfish came from a small creek nearby. What do you use for soil in your taro plant? We are much farther South and don’t have to deal with ice. I’ve been trying to put fish in it but the chipmunks turned the pond liner into Swiss cheese in some places.

The taro plant is still in its original planter, with the same soil that was in there when we purchased it 15 years ago. I think we added a few small stones to the top (which now are covered with moss above the waterline). It's an incredibly hardy plant, and if it could find soil or mud nearby it would expand for sure ... there are always runners creeping out from the pot, and little baby taros sprouting around the moss. I would think where you are in the south it would do really well.

Kind of surprised about the chipmunks. We have them too but the liner has never been damaged. OTOH it's pretty heavy duty rigid PVC.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#14

Post by voisin »

I have seen people online dig a pit, let pigs hang out in the pit and in a process called “gleying” the pigs seal the pit making it watertight.

I have some acreage and would love to try this out to create a pond, but there are never any real good details on this - what areas it works best, etc etc.

Anyone here have experience with making their own pond without using a liner?

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#15

Post by drewzero1 »

chongli wrote: post #6
skyfaller wrote: post #3

I really want to make a tiny pond at my house, but I'm afraid of the mosquitoes. My native plant supplier encouraged tiny ponds, saying that while you may need mosquito dunks to kill the larva at first, once wildlife is established in your pond e.g. dragonflies will control the mosquitos just fine. I believe him (or at least that it worked for him), but I feel like I would need to do more research before putting it t…

Get some White Cloud Mountain Minnows (usually just called White Clouds). These small fish love to eat mosquito larvae and tolerate cold water quite well (down to 41F/5C). If you later decide to remove them they shouldn’t be too difficult to catch. They’re also quite beautiful and come in a variety of colours.

I have them, love them, and have kept them outside before. I've found their mouths are too small to eat fully-grown mosquito larvae, but as long as they get there before the mosquitoes do they will gladly eat the eggs and young larvae... they are top/middle feeders and will viciously nibble anything in the water column while completely ignoring anything on the bottom.

This year I'm hoping to try the variable platyfish, Xiphophorus variatus (though most just call them 'variatus'). They tolerate a similar temperature range to white clouds but they're slightly bigger and more likely to eat things off the bottom. They're livebearers, so they make more, but in fairness white clouds are among the easiest egg-scatterers to breed and will likely also make more in a pond.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#16

Post by froglets »

skyfaller wrote: post #3

I really want to make a tiny pond at my house, but I'm afraid of the mosquitoes. My native plant supplier encouraged tiny ponds, saying that while you may need mosquito dunks to kill the larva at first, once wildlife is established in your pond e.g. dragonflies will control the mosquitos just fine. I believe him (or at least that it worked for him), but I feel like I would need to do more research before putting it t…

You can buy tiny tablets to add to the water that prevent mosquito larva from developing but don’t harm anything else. I’ve used the Mosquito Killer larvicide in my patio pond for years and it works well. Garden centers sometimes have pond sections with water plants like hyacinth (very invasive), water lettuce, lily.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#17

Post by ljf »

voisin wrote: post #14

I have seen people online dig a pit, let pigs hang out in the pit and in a process called “gleying” the pigs seal the pit making it watertight. I have some acreage and would love to try this out to create a pond, but there are never any real good details on this - what areas it works best, etc etc. Anyone here have experience with making their own pond without using a liner?

Do it on the lowest point on your land - is there anywhere that naturally gets boggy and damp in the rain?

I lived on a small farm as a child and at the bottom of the land someone had dug a basic well near a very small spring. The spring was really just a muddy puddle, but over time from the sheep walking back and forth to drink from the puddle, it slowly became a small pond. As we scaled back the number of sheep we had, the pond slowly disappeared again.

What is the soil like on your land, do any springs already occur or are there other natural ponds?

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#18

Post by neonnoodle »

skyfaller wrote: post #3

I really want to make a tiny pond at my house, but I'm afraid of the mosquitoes. My native plant supplier encouraged tiny ponds, saying that while you may need mosquito dunks to kill the larva at first, once wildlife is established in your pond e.g. dragonflies will control the mosquitos just fine. I believe him (or at least that it worked for him), but I feel like I would need to do more research before putting it t…

This is correct. I added dunks exactly once, and the following years the predatory insects and frogs have done the job. I do regular spot-checks for mosquito larvae and haven't seen one in years.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#19

Post by neonnoodle »

_joel wrote: post #5
kombookcha wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently there are some types of plants (like lavender, mint, rosemary or catnip) which mosquitoes don't like being around for whichever reason. Having some near the micropond could be a pretty elegant fix if it works.

Lemongrass too, not sure it could be grown on a window sill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citronella_oil

Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus) is a similar aromatic grasslike plant that grows aggressively in ponds. I planted a few thin stalks a couple years ago and now it has outgrown five planters and the rhizomes are 2 inches thick. One other advantage of this plant is that the stalks provide a molting place for dragonflies.

Re: Mini ponds are 'tiny universes' of biodiversity for gardens and windowsills

#20

Post by 01100011 »

I ran a couple container-ponds for a year at my old apartment. It was great until the racoons discovered it. They would dig up the bottom and try to eat the fish and shrimp. Otherwise it was a rewarding experience.

I used medaka(ricefish) and a couple airline filters fed with a single air pump run into a splitter to control mosquitoes. I used an aquarium heater for a bit but the electric bill ended up being quite high because it ran too often. You're better off moving the fish inside in the winter if you're in a colder climate. I'm in San Diego and probably could have kept white cloud minnows all year but I was into medaka at the time. I also had a large population of neocaridina shrimp and aquatic snails that I hoped would control algae(they did not).

I got plenty of birds visiting, and the ponds became a favorite watering hole of the local bees. For whatever reason, SoCal bees are not aggressive, so I didn't mind the 20+ bees constantly filling up while standing on my floating plants.

I did end up buying daphnia and moina online since they never colonized the ponds naturally.

I also had a couple "pond jars" to maintain the daphnia/moina population. Those regularly attracted mosquito larvae which ended up as food for the medaka as well as my indoor aquarium fish. I figured the jars were a form of mosquito control since the larvae never reached adulthood.

I initially topped off the ponds with 0ppm, deionized water that I used for my indoor aquarium(I ran a hippie tank with 0 water changes so I needed pure water to top-off). Eventually I switched to using a filter housing filled with "catalytic carbon" which supposedly handles both chlorine and chloramines. I was scooping out enough floating plants regularly to balance the incoming minerals from the tap water used to top it off.

I'd do it again at some point when my daughter is old enough to appreciate it. But next time I'll use some protection against critters digging up things. One nice companion to all of this is a $300 chinese microscope. It's fun to see the pond life under magnification.

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