Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Building a fen

The artesian-well pond is newly made at about 25' in diameter and 10' deep. The current flow is like a garden hose. The new wetland will likely be 30-50' in diameter but could be more naturally shaped and a bit larger. The pond is not mature and the wetland chemistry will also likely change as it ages (as you have indicated). The "duck ponds" below this new project also have basic water, and they are at least 5 years old. They are primarily fed by springs and may form fens over hundreds or thousands of years. The duck ponds get periodic large bladderwort blooms. This project is an experiment. I am thinking about the pitcher plants now because it can take up to 5 years to get mature pitcher plants from seed. There are apparently sundews adapted to northern fens as well. My understanding is that peat can form from a variety of plant materials, and wood chips is just what I have available. I have a variety of other wetlands and will make another typical emergent-wetland this summer on a considerably larger scale. This seems like a cool project to diversify the mosaic of habitat types we have. My water is quite hard and comes from limestone geology. Water can be seen entering the pond through a rock in the center of the photo.