Allotment Drainage Pond: Fully Functional, Apparently


On the left is the pond on Thursday, around midday. Almost immediately after taking the photo, the heavens opened. It rained most of the rest of Thursday, and quite a bit on Friday, too. The right hand photo is how it looked at 3pm or thereabouts this afternoon, Saturday.

That's generally how it goes 1-2 days of steady rain, and it's full. 2 weeks of no rain whatsoever, and it's down to the mud. Mind, we're in the west of Scotland, and drought is a rare thing. Usually, when full, it goes down to a few inches of water and the 3 smaller ponds are visible.

Which is all good. Fluctuating ponds are said to be better for wildlife. Well, it's not quite "all good". The fact that it fills with vegetation when at a low level, which begins to die-off when it fills again with water, means there's a lot of nitrogen, and therefore algae. The problem with algae, apparently, is that soaks up the oxygen. But that shouldn't be too much of a problem as it gets an influx of fresh water every time it rains.

No frogspawn, as of today.

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