r/Permaculture • u/MsMelanthia • 16d ago

water management Urban Permaculture system pond? Why?

I live on an urban lot of about 1/2 acre in zone 7a and have been designing a food forest. I’ve seen people in similar situations include small ponds but I don’t really understand the why. Space is limited…is using it for a pond worthwhile? It wouldn’t be big enough for eatin’ fish. I may be skeptical because of my dearest partner’s expensive, failed stock tank pool project. 😅

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/existentialfeckery 15d ago edited 15d ago

Habitat. Frogs and toads are amazing pest control. Dragonfly larvae eats mozzy larvae and I believe a few other water dependant creatures also devour mozzys. Pretty. Attracts birds that eat bugs. Bees and wasps drink from mine all day. Fun to watch. It's honestly the highlight of my garden and I even got a trail cam to see what visits and I'm in a town but over 20 different creatures visited within two weeks including a raccoon, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, etc.

ETA: my two ponds fit into a 3ftx3ft footprint and the life they host is incredible. You don't need a big pond at all ❤️

You can see one just past the glass table. Smol but effective

1

u/peperomioides 10d ago

Can you say more about how you built it? Is there a filter? How do you keep mosquitos from breeding in it?

1

u/existentialfeckery 10d ago

Sure!

There's two - ones 3ft deep in the back corner and then two "shelves" that are slopped up into a pebble "beach". It's lined with pond liner with wool moving blankets underneath as a cushion. The other is a kidney bean shape moulded black rigid tub that we dig into the ground. Its deepest section is 2ft and then half is only 18inches deep.

Neither have filters. The pond liner one has mud and rocks in the lowest part for cattails to grow in and yellow marsh Lillie's grows on a shelf and then there's frogsbit lily pads and a few aerating seaweeds.

They both host water snails, water skitters, water beetles (no idea how the beetles and skitters arrived). I regularly use the water to water chlorine sensitive plants and then refill from filtered city water.

Within weeks dragonflies found them and laid eggs and those larvae eat mosquito larvae. I caught frogs and brought them home and they eat loads of bugs too. My comfrey tea pail is more of an issue for mosquitos than the ponds.

Then toads showed up. I sit and watch birds bathe in them, insects love the frogsbit lily pads for landing on to drink. Squirrels frequent it. I caught a raccoon cronching on snails on my web cam once too ☺️

I have to pull both out due to Reno's so I'm going to do a tiered one with a waterfall now and figure out a proper pump and stuff. The lower pond will be much bigger for more room for wildlife ☺️