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                         a   S T A M M E R  project              

2007 May 5, 6 & 7, from Saturday to Monday

 This weekend was going to be dedicated to the digging of a pond. Looking through the literature and internet it rapidly becomes clear that there is everything except unanimity about concepts and methods. To name just some polemic topics: while one resource advocates the use of rainwater, the other loathes it; one recommends letting the water settle down and not doing anything for two or three weeks, the other insists on putting oxygenating plants as soon as possible. I decided to go my own way, combine ideas from different authors and give nature itself as much protagonism as possible. These were my starting points:

• The pond would be at the foot of the biggest terrace where it could collect the rainwater from that terrace and the one above it.

• The main source of water would have to be rainfall. I will interfere in the beginning with some water from another ecologically healthy pond in order to inoculate the system and perhaps also to offer some relieve during very dry seasons 

• The pond could be excavated in soil that had already be moved by a bulldozer one year ago so it would be relatively easy to dig without the surprise of big stones or solid rock while at the same time I would not have to face the destruction of a valuable vegetation layer.

• The pond would be of a decent size and depth to facilitate a stable water ecosystem with a lot of big stones for additional temperature buffering.

• An important area of the pond would be dedicated to marshland and shallow areas which usually harbours more wildlife than open water.

• The pond liner would be protected by a 'sandwich' of two layers (4 cm) of fine sand.

• The pond liner must stick out some centimetres in the vertical to inhibit the suction of water by the surrounding area.

Cross section of the pond

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Armed with these premises I draw an outline of the future pond on paper and then on the field and started to dig. I had a long sunny weekend at my disposal and the soil was relatively loose and manageable, so on Monday morning the digging was done.

The next phase would be introducing a layer of fine sand (fortunately  a big pile of this material was left behind by the previous owner) and installing the pond liner (1.2 mm of synthetic rubber (Butyl, EPDM) at around 8€/m2 at the local store) and another layer of fine sand and then filling the pond with a lot of river boulders and some sandy soil in order to create soft slopes and marshy areas. 

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Rectification: with some embarrassment I must confess a serious mistake considering the beautiful birdsong we enjoy day and night that I commented on last week. I was already somewhat hesitating about its origin: the birds who produced the song were difficult to spot and when I saw something it looked quite brown with a reddish tail, not really the dark impression of a male blackbird. Also the fact that it sings in the middle of the night should have been an eye-opener: it is in fact a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos). In order to offer rehabilitation after the somewhat denigrating comments last week I offer here 1 minute of its beautiful song I recorded with my digital camera.

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Another visiting bird was the Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia). It felt so at home that it decided to install its nest in a Juniper shrub at 15 metres from our caravan. It honoured its own name by always hipping on some nearby stones before entering its nest, beautifully camouflaged inside the shrub.

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Needless to say that the terrain was offering a marvellous look at this time of the year, in which I can add 6 or 7 new species per week to the floristic catalogue. I hope to introduce soon a faunistic catalogue to do some justice to all the insects, birds and mammals.

introduction
floristic catalogue
faunistic catalogue
contact
index
gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
map
>> 2007 May 12 
<< 2007 Apr  28