Garden pond

A garden pond is a water feature constructed in a garden, normally either for aesthetic purposes or to provide wildlife habitat. The UK charity Pond Conservation has estimated that there are about 2 million garden ponds in Britain. The numbers of ponds in backyards and gardens elsewhere is unknown.

Garden ponds are generally assumed to be excellent wildlife habitats. However, in practice there is remarkably little reliable information available about the contribution made by such ponds to protecting freshwater wildlife as there have been very few rigourous studies made of garden ponds.

Garden ponds are an excellent place to watch freshwater wildlife, especially invertebrates such as dragonflies and amphibians, both of which typically colonise new ponds quickly. Although generally perceived as beneficial garden ponds are, at least in some countries, an important pathway for the spread of exotic non-native plants. In Britain, for example, the non-native species Crassula helmsii and Myriophyllum aquaticum, which cause considerable practical problems, are both escapees from garden ponds.

Garden pond owners have the potential to make many original and valuable observations about the ecology of small waterbodies because so little is known about ponds generally, and specifically about the smallest natural ponds, which garden ponds replicate.