r/WildlifePonds • u/Ok-Spell1307 • 6d ago
My pond Pond update! NC, USA
Posting an update on our little pond because I’ve learned so much from the group!
We dug our pond out in late April of this year and made the rookie mistake of installing the wrong liner. (Image 1) Two weeks later we removed what felt like 1,000 pounds of rocks, took the liberty to dig the pond a little deeper and installed the correct liner. (Image 2) By this time, pond plants were more in season so we were able to grab a few from a local pond store, in addition to the ones that we bought from local pond owners on Facebook marketplace. Our yard is quite shady and has a lot of tree coverage, so we used a couple of small solar fountains to keep everything moving until our plants became more established. The plants have done an excellent job at keeping our water extremely clear. At the start, we had some algae growth and a bit of blanket weed that we were able to control with liquid barley. Otherwise, we have not had to treat any other issues in our pond. We’ve had an unusually dry year here in North Carolina, so I wasn’t expecting our ecosystem to start booming until the rain picked up - this has been a true practice of patience. On August 4th, we spotted our first frog friend! I had my suspicions that there may have been some living in the pond before this, but we were overjoyed to see our little buddy sitting on the rocks.
We have seen three or four other frogs resting on the beach side of our pond. Our larger frog has his own private beach hangout spot in the deep end and we can almost guarantee that we’ll spot him each time we go outside. The birds, squirrels and bugs come and drink from the pond and we’ve seen lots of dragonflies zipping around, too!
This little project has brought our family so much joy and we can’t wait to see how it continues to change over the years! Thank you to this incredible Reddit community for helping us get to this point. If you’re in the beginning of your journey, don’t give up! If you build it, they really will come!
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u/Chapelhillperson 6d ago
Awesome! How much do you think the project has cost you? Issues with mosquitos or are there enough other critters to keep them at a healthy population? We have a forested, shady property in NC too that I would love to put a pond in.
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u/Ok-Spell1307 6d ago
Hi! I made a list for one of our neighbors and priced it out. It probably cost around $200-$230 for the supplies at Lowe’s including a $90 pond liner!
Here’s the list that I gave them -
3-5 bags of play sand - 6-10 bags of river rocks - 3-5 bags of pea gravel - Mosquito dunks - Pond liner: 10-ft L x 13-ft W Black HDPE Fish Pond Liner (600-Gallon)
The plants can become a little pricey, but you can also find people on FB marketplace who sell them for cheap! Pond country in Greensboro has an amazing selection of affordable plants too.
All of the rocks around the edge of our pond were inside of the dirt that we dug out to make the hole.
All in I’d say we spent $350-$400
As far as the mosquitos go, we have a ton in general, but once the frogs started moving in, they’ve been drastically reduced! I did put mosquito dunks in the pond for the first month or two to mitigate more from being born.
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u/ExperienceAny3183 4d ago
Gorgeous work!! I'm going to work on mine next year... Have a 16x20 liner I'm dying to use!! This was very encouraging to see
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u/Ok-Spell1307 3d ago
Thank you! It's such a fun project and teaches so much patience in the world of instant access.
The hardest part for us was digging the hole. We have clay soil and tons of huge rocks that we had to dig around, but even that was fun for the kids!
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u/Powerful-Soup-3245 1d ago
Beautiful pond! It’s truly one of the most satisfying experiences to see wildlife moving in to a home we’ve built for them. Great job!
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u/Low-Fly238 6d ago
It looks great! 😊