MAKING A NEW WILDLIFE POND! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING UK

[Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] [Music] Good morning everyone. Welcome back to my lotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are the a lotment diaries where I just basically vlog all about my a lotment plot here in South London. And as not many people are watching these at the moment, I have noticed the viewers dip. Um because we are out of the peak season. So it's like spring summer, my views always go up and then they come down again. Because not many of you are watching, we can just have fun now. We can just have fun guys and just we can say what we like. We can do whatever we like. Um but what we are going to do is make a pond. I have brought with me all the pond stuff that I've been ordering, um, including pond plants. So, really, I do need to get the pond made, filled, and planted up today, which is quite a big job. So, oh, first of all, very, very first of all, cuz we do need to get on with it, guys. We we we can't chitchat today. There is something that's happened that has upset me a little bit. Let me show you. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Um, it's something that I've just come to expect on my a lotment plot. And unfortunately, I am talking about the vandalism again. I know, I know. But basically, do you remember that I had that lovely Seavoy cabbage over here that I was saving. Well, it seems like at the weekend someone's come along and helped themselves to it because it is no longer there. It is no longer there. Now, this very well could be some kind of animal. Um, and I'm not like I'm not ruling that out, but the way it's been cut and sliced off makes me feel like it's a it's a person. He's come along, seen the cabbage, taken it. It's not the first time that I've had crops stolen from my a lotment plot. Um, and a lot of you got in touch on Instagram when I put this up and said, you know, hopefully someone's just really hungry. Someone really needed it. Guys, I'd really like to believe that. I would love to believe that. and you are still you're still holding on to so much optim optimism and positivity and I love that. But the longer that I'm here, the more that I realize that actually it's probably not the case and actually someone's just stolen it. Probably didn't need it. They just saw it and thought I' I've forgotten about that. She's not going to have it. I'll take it. She'll never know. And and they're right. I will never know who took it because how will I? I haven't got a camera here. So, and we're not allowed cameras, by the way. We're not allowed them. So, there we go. There's that idea gone. Yeah. Just one of those things. One of those things. Right. Here's the old pond. Here is the old pond. And I keep thinking, should I just re dig it here and just keep it here cuz it's out the way. Um, what should I do? Should I keep it here? See, I've immediately changed my mind again cuz I was so set this morning when I got here that I was going to move the pond into a sunny area. Now that I'm here and I'm looking at it, I just think this might be the best place for it. I don't really know what to do. I could dig it out a little bit bigger. I don't know what to do. Oh no. God, I had such a clear sort of vision in my head of what I was going to do. I was going to dig it here and put it here instead and have a pond here, but now I'm looking at it. I'm thinking, why would I waste a perfectly good growing bed? Because this is in the sun. This is really good soil and I could put broad beans here or something. So, why would I put a pond there when over here under the tree I can't grow anything there? So, it's wasted space. Yeah, I think that's it really. I think that's nail on the head. Nail on the head is I need to be utilizing all the growing spaces that I've got. And under here, it's ungrowable. It's right under the tree. I wouldn't be able to do anything with this space. So, I might as well stick a pond here. That's why I put it here in the first place. And now it all makes sense. It all makes sense in my head. So, that's what we're going to do. Okay. But we are going to make it bigger. We are going to make it better. Yeah. Cool. Pond liner. [Applause] Right. New snazzy pond liner. And this is really big as well. So I can really go to town on the Why have you turned up now? I'm in the middle of something. All right. All right. All right. All right. [Music] There he is. Oh my god. Is that a mouse? Oh my god. Is that a mouse? Oh my god, it's a mouse. I can't see the mouse, but there's a mouse there. But I can't see it. I can just feel it. I can sense it. I can sense it's a mouse. Things are moving. And I can just I just know it's mouse. She has mouse there. Yeah. Is he your mate? All right. Is that what you're throwing down for him? Oh. [Music] Right. So, one of the crucial mistakes that I made when I first made this pond was that I created a shallow end and a deep end like a swimming pool. Apparently, wildlife don't really like that. They don't want a deep end where it's just deep. They want the shallow end around the whole pond and it to get deeper towards the middle. That's what they want. So, I built it like for a human, for a very, very small for a borrower. I built a swimming pool for a borrower. And what I should have done was build a wildlife pond for wildlife. And that's what I'm going to try and rectify. So before this end here was sort of shallow and it got deeper towards this end. What I'm going to try and but now what I'm going to try and do is make the shallow end around the perimeter of the pool and it to get deeper in the middle. Um I'm keeping kind of the general sort of shape of the pond cuz I quite liked it. But I am going to make it a little bit bigger. Um but we're just going to dig it out for now and then try and build it. Einstein is watching me with very eager eyes. And also, I was just thinking all the wildlife kind of know where this is, like particularly Einstein because he does have a have like a snack on his snack table and then he comes in and has a drink or has a bath. So, I don't really want to move it. So, that's another reason why I want to keep it here. [Music] Okay, it's kind of looking like this now. I have cleared a little bit around around the outside. I've made it a little bit bigger. Now, it's time to start getting the shape of it right. So, I want the middle to be deeper than the outside. It's still going to be quite a small pond. I sort of have a feeling I'm not allowed to to make a huge pond here, you know. I just have a feeling. A little one, yeah, but a big one. No. Right. So the middle like that and make all that deeper. [Music] Okay. [Music] You know what? This is the only time I'll ever be able to pretend to take a bath in my own pond. So, we might as well take full advantage. There we are. Taking a bath in my own pond. Wow, it's lovely. It's really lovely. All right. Right. So, we'll cut around it, put some rocks around, and then we'll start to fill her up. [Music] right? So, this is where we are so far. So, the idea is that the whole all the liner will be covered with rocks and growth. And I'm not really worried about it growing because it always grows up really well and becomes an overgrown weedy mess. So, this will be covered in overgrowth in no time. I also do need to put some rocks inside the pond. What they need is a little like beach around to the outside there. Right. I am absolutely shattered. Um, I didn't bring a hair band as well, so I've sort of had to tuck my hair into my jumper, which is a bit itchy, annoying. That's looking good. I'm happy with that. So, what I'm going to do is go fill up my wheelbarrow. So, what I'm going to do now is start filling it up with water. This is going to take me some time. So, I will report back when it's done, but I will show you the first lot of water going in cuz that's the exciting one. [Music] Heat up [Applause] [Music] here. [Music] I have created a puddle. Right, I'm going to spend some time getting some water. I won't subject you to watching every single bit of water I put in there. And I'll report back when it's filled up. And then we can start planting [Music] [Music] Right. I'm sure that you can see that although the pond is very similar, it's a lot bigger and it's a lot deeper. And you can just see, you can just tell this is a much better wildlife pond. I am so so much happier with it. I really am. I think that is absolutely brilliant. Right, we're going to start planting it up because I have brought the plants with me. Right. Oh god, I'm falling over. I'm tired. So, I have planted pond plants quite a few times. um that might not be a good thing because it probably means that they've died, but I have replanted them a few times and they do tend to do quite well. Um you get these little pots that got holes in. You need aquatic soil, a specific type of soil to go into it. And then got all the plants here. I've got a little variety of them. Unfortunately, I threw all of the labels away because that's just what I do. But I've only got one pot, so I assume they all go in the same depth. So, what we're going to do, we're just going to plant them into that pot, stick it in, see what happens. Right. So, we'll just pop them in. Same way you plant anything really. In they go. This one's cool, isn't it? I like that one. Is that a root or a bit plant? Can't decide. I think it's a root. You are now. And then what we need to do is put some rocks around it so the soil doesn't just fly out the pot. Small rocks would obviously be better, but I don't have any. So, we'll just put in what we've got. Right. I have a feeling we might need to put some bricks in the middle to stand them up. Let's see how far off we are. We're really far off. We're really far off. Okay, that's actually probably No, maybe that is right. God, it's freezing. But it is important. Maybe that will sort of bump it up a little bit. Yeah, that's better. That's better, I think. Yes, that's good. I know all the soils come out. It can't really be helped. I do. Let's put in some of these. Any creatures that sort of end up in here can kind of get back out. It's a good start. I think it needs a bit of tweaking. I think I need to cover the ground sheet a bit more. I think I need to add more rocks into the pool and stuff. But actually, that's a really good start. I'm really happy with that. Right, that's it for me today. Um, because I'm absolutely shattered after doing that. Um, but yeah, I think it's coming along really well. Let me know in the comments what you think of my wildlife pond. Thank you so much again if you have purchased a 2026 a lotment planner. It's below in the description if you've missed out or if you want to take a look at it. And yeah, I will see you again on Wednesday. I think we're going to do a really big a lotment tidy up on Wednesday. That's my main kind of plan. Um, and we're going to pop things on and do some harvesting. I'll see you next time, guys. Thank you for watching. Bye.