Your Native Garden Pond.If you are trying to attract wildlife into your garden, nothing works quite as well as water! Provide food plants too, and the wildlife may even stay in your yard!It’s not hard to create a simple and inexpensive natural pond or water feature in your native home garden. Luckily for us, by nature, Mother Nature is an untidy person, but that is how we like her! So theres no need to get formal about a native backyard habitat pond! We always suggest using native plants throughout, but of course that's not always possible. Often established gardens and house blocks have non-native trees and plants. In many cases, it would be foolish to remove them for no reason. However, we do urge gardeners to use native plants wherever possible, and replace tired old introduced plants with natives. Try to use local provenance plants (from your local area) if you can. With water plants it is especially important though. Some of the world’s worst introduced invasive weeds have escaped from garden ponds into local waterways. Native provenance water plants are not normally invasive, and if they do escape into a local creek do no harm. It is not difficult to have a water feature, and sometimes topographic features in the garden can be utilised to save much labour. One very attractive pond, complete with waterfall and fountain, has utilised a pile of earth left behind by the builder when the house was built.
In another instance that we know of, two ponds and a waterfall have been slotted into a small unused area at the entrance to the house, and provides a delightful sight for visitors when they arrive.
 Water Hyacinth, one of the Worlds worst weeds, here happily growing in a forestry plantation in Central Queensland. This is what can happen if you use introduced water plants in your pond. Creekbeds, frogponds, birdbaths, swamp gardens, or whatever, water brings a subtle beauty into the garden that nothing else quite does. Native water gardens can also be incorporated into barbecue areas, patios, rain forest gardens, or even the humble vegetable patch. We know of one gardener who has incorporated a black plastic pond in the centre of his vegetable garden, and grows chinese water spinach and watercress amongst his tomatoes and beans! Of course, there are other benefits having a water feature in or near a vegetable garden. Water attracts both bees and birds, the pollinators, and the insect predators. Many garden stores now sell stiff, pre-shaped plastic ponds, as well as flexible PVC or butyl rubber liners that will conform to the shape of a pond you design yourself. Some of these pre-made ponds are too deep for frogs, so you will need to build a ramp so frogs can get in and out of the water. If you use a flexible liner, a layer of newspapers or old carpet under the plastic prevents punctures. During daylight hours, a pond or water feature does wonders in attracting native birds and butterflies into your garden. At night, softly lit with fairy lights, perhaps, a native water garden can transform your patio, barbecue area, balcony, or back yard into a place of quiet magic. Of course you may not have to build a pond. You may have something that can be recycled, such as an old shower base. Whatever you use, make sure its not too deep, or at least has a shallow end so frogs can get in and out.
HOW TO BUILD AN INSTANT GARDEN POND! A simple pond made with heavy duty plastic sheeting, or purpose built liner, can easily be set up as a living, functioning, aquatic environment, in a couple of hours. Pick a spot in the garden that has more than 50% shade. Too much sun encourages algae. Try to have a small tree or shrub leaning over the pond to provide shelter for bird visitors To build an above ground pond, purchase a roll of CCA treated wooden garden edging. Join both ends together, and place in a circle, or in any other shape that appeals. Tie the bottom in with wire, or drive 6 or 8 short stakes into the ground outside the pond, so it will hold its shape.
To build a below ground pond, dig out a hole of a size to suit your liner. Oval or kidney-shaped is fine, about a foot or less deep. Try to leave a shallow portion on one side. Frogs like to sit in shallow water, but need to have access to deeper water if danger threatens. Line the hole with sand, old feed bags, old lino, carpet, or thick newspaper. This is to ensure that no sticks or stones in the ground puncture the black plastic. Take the pond liner, and place in the hole. If you are using black plastic, and you do accidentally put a hole in the black plastic, it can be mended with almost any waterproof sealer. Anchor the edges down with stones or soil. It is helpful if you do this on calm day. A strong wind can make the job difficult! Fill with water, and try to ensure that any creases are flattened out, as the pond fills. When nearly full, place flat stones, bush logs, wood chips, or mulch, around the edge. Try to leave some stones overhanging the edge. Plant some ferns or sedges close to the edge. Make sure that you leave a stick or a rock leading out of the water. Some of the small brown frogs cannot climb very well, and will drown if they can’t get out. Fill the pond to the top. If using tap water, leave for a day to let the chlorine dissipate before adding plants, or a week before adding fish or tadpoles. Place your native aquatic plants in the pond. Free floating species like Ferny Azolla can be just placed in the pond. Plants that need to be growing in soil need to be in a pot. Put a layer of sand in the bottom, then some good soil or compost, then the plant.
Put another layer of sand or gravel on top, to stop the soil and nutrients from escaping. Never use chemical fertilisers with aquatic plants, blood and bone is fine, if any fertiliser is needed.
 Above, the beautiful Wavy Marshwort, a very good native pond plant.
We strongly recommend that you buy your aquatic plants from a reputable supplier. Don't just dig some out of your nearest creek. They could be invasive, or even illegal noxious weeds! Place the pot on the bottom of the pond. It's a good idea to have two or three species of aquatic plants in the one pond, and you can plant them in one pot if you wish. If your pond is big enough, with enough plants to provide shelter, add a few native fish, to control mosquitoes. Native fish such as blueeyes are usually better at mosquito control than goldfish. Finally, pull up a comfortable garden chair, open a cold drink, and sit back and enjoy your Instant native Garden Pond.(Its not just for wildlife!) If you are building an Aussie garden pond, you can jump to our native waterplants page to find out which Aussie native plants are suitable for your pond.
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Place your pond liner in the hole formed by the garden edging, fill with water and overlap and trim the edges of the plastic. Then fasten to the wooden edging with staples, liquid nails, or a similar product.
