A pond brought back from the brink

For years, the pond at the bottom of the park was the sort of place you walked past quickly. Duckweed had spread across the whole surface in a thick green mat, the edges had slumped into the water, and the one bench that faced it was usually occupied by someone feeding the pigeons rather than enjoying the view. Regulars will remember the smell in late summer, and the fact that you could no longer see the water at all from the main path.

That has changed. Over the past few months a small group of volunteers, working alongside the park's friends group and a handful of residents who simply turned up one Saturday and kept coming back, have cleared the pond, repaired the banks and begun replanting it with native species. The water is visible again. So, increasingly, is the wildlife.

What the volunteers actually did

The work was less glamorous than it sounds. Volunteers spent the first few weekends removing duckweed and blanketweed by hand, using garden rakes and fine nets, then barrowing the wet material to a composting area behind the hedge, where it has been left to drain and rot down. Silt that had built up over decades was lifted out in buckets rather than with heavy machinery — slower, but far gentler on the frogs, newts and invertebrates hiding in it.

The main jobs included:

• Clearing surface vegetation by hand, working from the bank and from a small punt borrowed for two weekends
• Removing around 30 centimetres of silt from the shallower half of the pond, leaving the deeper section undisturbed as a refuge for overwintering wildlife
• Re-profiling the southern bank so the gradient gently shelves into the water, making it much easier for amphibians and hedgehogs to get in and out
• Repairing two leaks in the clay lining and reinstating the overflow channel that keeps the water level steady after heavy rain
• Replacing rotten edging and rebuilding a short stretch of the timber boardwalk used by visitors

Volunteers also kept a careful eye on timing. Disturbance was kept to the cooler months, when amphibians are less active and birds are not nesting in the margins, and the water was checked daily for anything that needed moving to safety.

Planting for wildlife, not just for looks

The planting is where the real long-term difference will show. A pond is only as healthy as the plants around and inside it, and this one had lost almost all of its marginal vegetation.

Around the edges, volunteers have put in native marginal plants that tolerate having their roots in water for part of the year. Yellow flag iris and purple loosestrife will give height and colour, while water forget-me-not and marsh marigold fill the gaps lower down and provide early nectar for bees emerging in spring. In the water itself, hornwort and water starwort have been introduced as oxygenators — the quiet workhorses of any pond, keeping the water clear and giving tadpoles somewhere to hide.

A shallow "beach" of gravel and pebbles on the northern edge has been left deliberately bare. It looks unfinished, but it is one of the most useful features of the whole scheme: amphibians, dragonflies and birds all use open, sunny edges for basking, drinking and hunting.

The year-round job of keeping it healthy

Restoration is the easy part. Keeping a pond in good condition takes steady, unglamorous effort, and the volunteers are realistic about that.

• Summer: thin out duckweed and blanketweed before it covers the surface, and top up water levels during dry spells
• Autumn: clear fallen leaves from the water, as they rot down and feed the algae you are trying to avoid
• Winter: cut back dead marginal growth, but leave some standing for overwintering insects
• Spring: check for frogspawn and newts, remove any litter blown in, and replant anything that has failed

The most important rule is to disturb as little as possible, as often as possible. A light touch every few weeks beats a dramatic clear-out every five years.

How to get involved

The group meets on the first Saturday of the month, usually from 10am until about midday, and there is a job for everyone regardless of experience. Bring gloves and sturdy boots; tools and hot drinks are provided. Children are welcome with an adult, though the work near the water is best suited to older ones.

If you cannot spare a morning, there are still ways to help. Reporting a problem — a fallen branch, a leaking edge, a sudden algae bloom — is genuinely useful, as is simply keeping an eye on the water level. And if you visit with a bag of bread for the ducks, please don't. Bread fouls the water, attracts rats and gives the birds very little of value. A handful of oats, or nothing at all, is better for everyone.

What to look for on your next visit

Sit on the repaired bench for ten minutes and you will see the change. Dragonflies have already been spotted patrolling the margins, and the first frogspawn appeared this spring after a gap of several years. Heron tracks in the soft mud suggest the pond is now worth fishing again.

None of this happened quickly, and none of it happened by accident. It happened because a few dozen people decided that a neglected corner of their park was worth a Saturday morning. If the pond looks better to you now, that is the whole point — and the volunteers would be delighted if you said hello.