Having a water feature in our garden can be great for wildlife and for our wellbeing too. Making a micro pond is fun and a great way to connect with nature and with craft.
Some benefits to having a pond in your garden include:
1) Benefits Wildlife- Water is a key habitat for many insects and also essential tool life- wildlife will come if you create a pond.
2) If you grow vegetables in your garden a pond can attract species that will prey on other wildlife that like to eat your greens such as aphids and slugs.
3) A pond is an ever-changing feature and can inspire curiosity and engagement both key elements to connecting with nature.
4) Having a water feature in your garden has been linked with a reduction in stress levels, therefore micro ponds are great for our wellbeing and wildlife too!
Whilst using this nature activity to inspire learning, know you are helping you and your family's wellbeing like this:
2) Keep Learning - See which creatures are attracted to your micro-pond. Compile a list of them (written, drawn, photographic) and then learn to identify them - you may find: insect larvae, frogspawn, skaters or beetles in and on the water, birds and other small creatures coming for drinks and washes. Note what time of day they come, what are their habits at your micro-pond? Once you have identified a few creatures then research what habitats they like best and see if you can add more plants, stones etc to further encourage their presence. Remember to place some stones or sticks that can lend themselves as a way out of the water however shallow as our small creatures all have babies eg hoglets #hedgehogfriendly.
3) Be Mindful - once your pond is in place, take some time to sit quietly watching it, once a day if you can (early morning and dusk are good times) and notice the slow changes that occur around your micro-pond. How many more species do you note over time?
4) Practice Kindness - Remember that the type of creatures you attract to your micro pond may like to have the possibility of shade, fresh rainwater (non-chlorinated water), a plant or bush nearby to escape into, or a food source nearby. All these things are the kindnesses we like to afford ourselves and so take the opportunity to practice kindness and afford them to the creatures we share our planet with.
5) Think Community -Post pictures of your micro-ponds below, we would love to see how you got on - did the fairies make it to your micro-ponds too or other wonders?
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We had this little fella join us at the pond on Saturday. Although he couldn't fly upon arrival he spent a few hours sipping water and preening his feathers before taking to the sky!
Looks amazing, and soon they'll be little frogs too- we can't wait to see how this little eco-system develops.
Daisy and I had a lot of fun creating our micro pond & can't wait to see which little creatures it attracts. Already proving popular with fairies & unicorns!