Moving to a new home with nothing but grass in the back yard, (having left our carefully cultivated, well-tended, critter-friendly garden behind), was disconcerting - especially with no budget for gardening. But after the first few weekends of having nothing but grass, fence and rooftops to gaze upon at the end of the work day, we decided to forego our upcoming anniversary "dinner and a movie", and spend the money on a small gardening project instead.
Our total cost was around $125.00 (inclding taxes and shipping charges where applicable), but it could have been done for less.
Solar pump with fountain $32.95
35 gallon plastic pond $32.75
(Both of these items were purchased via web stores)
Japanese willow tree 32.05
Annuals (48) $10.00
Mulch (5 bags) $15.00
The entire project took around 5 hours to complete - and we now have a small, bird and frog friendly habitat in our backyard!
Our total cost was around $125.00 (inclding taxes and shipping charges where applicable), but it could have been done for less.
Solar pump with fountain $32.95
35 gallon plastic pond $32.75
(Both of these items were purchased via web stores)
Japanese willow tree 32.05
Annuals (48) $10.00
Mulch (5 bags) $15.00
The entire project took around 5 hours to complete - and we now have a small, bird and frog friendly habitat in our backyard!
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We chose the corner nearest our brick patio. Corners provide more protection from winds, this corner receives the most sun, and it is closest to the community birdhouse. (Make sure you don't have any underground lines you could disturb while digging!)
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It's a 32 gallon capacity - holding much less than this given the displacement for stones and blocks within and it not being filled to the top.
Having said that - as with our once HUGE inground pool, with a few days of steady rain it threatened to flood - so we turned on the pump and ran out the excess. With the pond, we could either remove some of the blocks and/or bail out excess water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_pond
Ponds are great!!! The sound of the water trickling and the birds come by for water. Only problem are mosquitoes. So I stocked mine with feeder Gold fish. You can buy them for 5 or 10 cents at a pet store and they'll grow to nearly a foot long (BTW - Gold fish are part of the Koi family).
I had to put a cage around my pond. I live in Southern California near a green belt that has lots of wild life in it (deer, skunks, bobcats, opossums, rats, rattle snakes and so on...) One night at about 2AM a family of racoons came over for a fresh Sushi dinner. They ate very hearty and all of my fish (about 3 of them that were 10") tore up all the potted plants in it.
So I built a cage around it before I restocked it with fish. Got two Dogs for 24x7 guards. Critter problem solved...
If you go for turtles and Frogs, (which sounds really cool) you may want to have something to protect them...
I have a Bull Toad in mine now, but it's still a tadpole. When it's full grown, it'll hop out and be quick enough to out with the critters (I hope) and live off of eating insects (such as tarantulas, scorpions) and snails that wonder out of the greenbelt.
Instapark® 5 Head Solar Pump Garden Fountain Pond Water Feature is the fountain we are using. And yes it is very small, but this is a budget project. We will upgrade to something a bit grander as we can.
Oh my you have a lot of critters where you are! We had a lot in Maryland where we too lived on a greenway. Now we are on the Mississippi River at Mud Island (Harbortown) in Memphis, a planned community only two decades old. We have few critters within the community - and with a 6 foot fence around the back yard, they'd have a hard time getting in. We have three cats who love the yard and can roam safely - and they are too old to care about chasing frogs or birds so all but the occasional grasshopper is safe.