Ponds can certainly help to improve your allotment; from reducing stress, acting as a water storage and helping your local environment.
Ponds are certainly one of the ways in which you can make a location feel more homely, relaxing, and comfortable. The sound and sight of water brings excitement to your life; it can form a focal point to your garden, and it can act as a home to a huge variety of wildlife.
There’s nothing quite like it when spring arrives, and the pond starts to blossom. Flowers emerge and life starts to flourish around the plants and pond water. Your body of water starts to become a hive of activity; from sights, smells, and sounds. While ponds are great at providing a beautiful centrepiece to a pond and providing an array of benefits, they can even provide benefits for your garden allotment.
Allotment Space (Useful Blogs: How to create a Small Pond using a Container, Pond Building Guide, Pond Build 2011 Diary)
Whether you are an avid gardener or new to the hobby, a huge amount of allotment space can pressure you into using all of this space to grow crops. One of the benefits of a pond is that it can remove this pressure; plus, ponds in gardens should only take up between 15-20% of your allotment space. This may reduce the maintenance your allotment needs, by slightly reducing the amount of space you are using to grow crops. Considering the next 5 benefits, this actually could improve crop yield and make it easier for you in the long term.
You might be worried about the time and energy of building a pond; but this can be really easy. An easy solution would be to purchase one of our Preformed Ponds, which can be placed in a hole in the ground and filled up. After installation, it's just a case of adding plants; then its complete! Fish are optional, though please be aware that if you put fish into a pond, you will need to look at how to filter the water in an appropriate way. If a preformed pond is too big for you, a smaller container can be used.
Easy Water Storage during the hot weather
When summer rolls around and the weather gets incredibly hot, you might see hosepipe bans announced. Which might be a bit inconvenient for you, considering your crops will need this vital liquid sustenance. However, ponds are the perfect solution. Over time, your pond generates a nitrates; this is a hugely beneficial chemical for plants and acts as a natural fertiliser. So not only does a pond act as a water storage for when the hot weather comes in, it can also be used to help replenish the soil and improve growth in your crops!
Allotment Ponds are great at attracting Wildlife (Useful Blogs: The Importance of Wildlife Ponds and How To Build One, Pond Plants, Pond Snails)
As we have outlined in plenty of our other blog posts, ponds really help to support your local wildlife. The pond water doesn’t just help your plants as outlined above, it will also act as a home to birds, insects, mammals, and amphibians! You will also find that common garden pests like slugs and snails will be dealt with by the frogs that gather around your pond.
More Sunshine for Plants
While it may be minor, the reflective surface of the pond will reflect light from the pond and onto your nearby plants; this means more UV rays for your plants, resulting in better health and growth of your crops. While this is not guaranteed or the most effective way at benefiting your plants, extra exposure to sunlight certainly helps.
Reduced Environmental Stress
Think about it; the summer weather rolls in and the weather becomes not just hot, but scorching hot. Where is the best place to be? Probably near the coast, a river, lake or other bodies of water. That body of water will help to reduce the temperature of the local area, which will certainly help your plants in the middle of a heatwave. More so, if the pond has pond plants in it, their casual release of oxygen will also help to enhance the air quality around your allotment. By regulating air quality and temperature, your crops will face less environmental stress and won’t be affected by heat damage as much as they would without a pond.
Relaxation (Useful Blogs: Can you run a pond without electricity?, Top 5 Benefits of Solar Products, Pond Design)
Finally, a pond can have a positive impact on your health and well-being. The sight of a pond, and the potential for running water, will reduce your stress and improve the character of your pond. Looking after your pond doesn’t have to include a lot of maintenance either. You can just sit near it on a hot day, enjoy a drink, relax, and maybe even watch the wildlife come and go!
Even better is that, with the advance of technology, you can use solar power to charge up and operate fountain pumps, air pumps, and LED lights. This means you could have yourself a little fountain display or a few lights around your allotment pond for relaxing on the evenings as the sun begins to set. Very relaxing and atmospheric!
You may also find the below blogs useful:
• Water Features
• Top Tips
• What can you do to help your local environment?
• Environmental Benefits of a Pond
• Importance of Ponds to the Environment
• Benefits of having a Garden Pond
If you have any queries, please email us on info@pondkeeper.co.uk.