Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations digging a natural pond in a field

Hi all,

I live in ireland. in the field next to my parents house, it gets waterlogged at a certain site. once the rain stops the water does drain. But i guess the water table here is higher or there is slightly more clay in that area. it looks like this, below while raining and then below again after a night without rain.

I want to make this area a 'natural pond' without a liner. the soil here has lots of gleying, i presume that means the water table is high. what can i do to make it hold water in this area?

should i dig deeper? should i do a soil test around here or is it all going to be the same and cant be improved anyway? should i be 'gleying' the soil with horse manure?

any tips at all would be great. we get lots of rain here

EDIT: this should be a wildlife pond, no introduced fish

Welcome to Pond Boss. A successful pond requires a clay/soil mixture with appropriate runoff areas to fill the pond. Pure clay tends to crack when dry so doesn’t hold water. It appears that you have the runoff , just need a hole in the ground to fill.

thanks. however, do i not need to seal the hole somehow to stop it from leaking? bentonite etc

Yes. But, bentonite can’t just be dumped in. It needs to be blended with the existing soils.

great, do you recommend trying to seal with manure at all or is that an old wives tale?

I personally do NOT believe that is true. Manure will act as fertilizer and you should get extra plant growth in those areas of the pond. The plant roots would probably disrupt any short-term sealing effect from the manure.

Im thinking the horse manure is an old wives tale, very few things are more porous then horse manure, and will make any soil it is mixed in porous to the point that it will drain well, such as garden soil or a farm field. and then when the organic matter in it, such as chewed up plants and hay rot away, it would become even more porous. jmo

I use horse manure to improve the friability of the soil in my kitchen garden.

That is exactly opposite what you're looking for in clay soil that's used to seal a pond.