I'm not ready to post real pictures of the full project yet, but I wanted to share some of photos of our new resident/residents.
There are some sinkholes on the site here in Maryland, and I've watched them across several decades for stability or any further movement. The biggest one is about 5 feet (about 1.5 meters) deep at the deepest part. It was essentially a trip hazard at the edge of the cleared area around the house before it gives way to the woodland. It's right at that edge.
After years of talking about it, my partner and I decided this was the Spring we were finally going to start work on the project.
After carefully assessing the hole, and ensuring rocks and sticks had been removed, I added a thick underlayer of leaves, then an under liner, and finally a 20' by 20' (roughly 6 by 6 meter) HDPE Liner (durable and long lasting, able to hold up under our freezing winters, etc.) The pond itself isn't quite that big, but it was necessary to get a liner that large to cover the area I was working with. I gave it some shallows, and a lot of winding curves to maximize the edge. It's also a downslope letting me build an upper 'filtration' basin with irises before spilling down the hill into the main pond, and a small bog edge puddle with more sedges and irises.
I got down in and carefully molded the liner to the contours, and added some stones along the edges to hold it in place. Then I took advantage of back to back major rainstorms to begin to fill it. We had some large rocks we had used for the floor in our first greenhouse, then moved up into the paths of our raised bed garden, and now they're finding a third use as edging for the pond, creating lots of hidey holes.
A lot of the advice you begin to see on backyard water features of any sort, no matter how small is that once you provide a consistent reliable, relatively clean water source, wildlife will find it quickly and move on in.
I expected as much here, as this was right at the edge of a forest and a conservation easement with a stream downhill. Lots of creatures make this their home.
What I hadn't expected was within 48 hours of just lining the hole and letting the water collect, we found our first frog swimming happily in 'the deep end' and hopping out, no problem. I've since added a lot of rock along the edges, a pebble 'beach' at a gentle slope to help critters get in and out or use the water's edge, and started adding a lot of plants, particularly to the bog area I dug out.
We went to a local nursery's educational program on backyard pond plants last week. Some of the basin tables they use to keep their water plants in apparently attract frogs from their nearby huge pond, and thus tend to end up with lots of tadpoles. Their aquatic plants instructor encouraged everyone who lived nearby to take a few home along with their plants, so we helped provide a home for a few tadpoles as well.
Every day I've been working down on the new pond site, I've been seeing frogs, muddy raccoon pawprints on the liner I haven't cut yet, deer hoofprint tracks, millipedes, and various other creatures discovering it.
Since it's intended as a wildlife pond and additional habitat, if an eventual turtle decides to take up residence, we have sort of a 'do not disturb' policy hereabouts. This is the critters' home, we're just trying to support them.
For now, I'm still working at edging it, finishing off the liner now that I'm satisfied with the shape, and continuing with plantings. The new moist/bog area lets me try to grow some wet foot tolerant native plants.
We've added a small waterfall with media for filtration and oxygenation, and a few non-native oxygenating floater plants that can be added to the nearby compost pile as they cover more of the surface. They provide hiding places and shade for the frogs, but I don't want them to overtake it. They should make for good nutrient rich 'green manure' in the compost.
48 hours after making the pond our first froggy friend-
Another sighting a few days later.
It found the gravel 'beach' almost immediately after I put it in. Nearby is the little bog area I had just started, and released tadpoles into.
Very blurry tadpoles (one is near the red stick just to the right of the center of the photo.)
Green frog sunning itself on a rock.
From this afternoon, today's frogs, Starting with a small burry one poking its nose up above the water.
Another green frog that's enjoying a sunny spot on the mossy log I added along the edge.
Most of these pictures were after rainstorms or me working on the pond, so the water is a cloudy muddy mess. There are a number of filtration plants now, and it looks a lot clearer than is in these pictures.