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Gardens Design Dilemma landscape design

Front garden wildlife pond?

last year

We’re currently developing our front garden (18 x 15 metres inc drive) & I’d love to include a wildlife pond. My worry is the safety aspect. There are currently no young children in our small close, but is it irresponsible to put a pond in a front garden? Thoughts welcome, especially if you have a front garden pond. Thank you.

Featured Answer

Sarah L

last year

I don't think it's irresponsible, and would be a lovely feature.

Comments (7)

pmasmith3
last year
A wildlife pond would be lovely. As long as your pond is not near the access to your front door, hopefully the postie won’t fall in! You can get metal grids that fit just under the water surface.

Our new neighbours have had a koi pond built in the pier front garden, it’s at ground level and is at least 6 ft deep and approx 10 ft wide and 15 ft long. They had mature trees removed in order to build this eyesore! I would worry about people falling in this pond, especially at night, but they’ve got round that problem by fitting outside lighting suitable for a football pitch! We live in an AONB and dark skies area!
pmasmith3
last year
‘the pier’ should read ‘their’ - but I suppose you could have a pier!
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Sonia
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tamp75
Original Author
last year
@ Sonia, the first image you posted is exactly the type of thing I have in mind, with lots of plants around the outside.
@pmasmith3 - definitely not after a pond that large! Or floodlit! Although I can see that some low level lighting might be useful for safety possibly.
Attached is the location I have in mind for a pond. It’s to the side of our drive and would be bordered on three sides by walls. I’d have the gravel beach at the ‘open’ end, eg towards the front of the photo. Overall would probably only be around 2 metres long x 1.5 wide.
Ashley Lawson
last year
If safety is one of you concerns, then I don’t think you need to worry about it. While building a pond, you just need to ensure that you create a proper, evident and effective boundary to it.

However, you need to worry about the air compression noise if you’re going to have in in the front garden.

Given that the pond water is still, you will need an air compressor to aerate the pond regularly. And the thing about these compressors is that they make a terrible sound.

I had the same problem but now I’ve fixed it. There’s a product called Whisspurr, that is specially created to reduce this noise, so maybe you can try that…
PRO
AGI Landscapes
last year
If your pond is designed correctly and planted correctly you will not need an air compressor to keep the oxygen levels correct.

These ponds tend to look after themselves with some maintenance required.

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