Mini Pond In the Works

Front door to the left there, Dahoon Holly is the big tree with red berries. Trimming the bottom 4' or so on Friday to allow more sunlight to reach the pond. The pond is too the right of the wheelbarrow behind the holly.


I do not have a 'before' picture but it was just plain ole dirt.


So far, its just under 6' long max, tad over 3' deep at its deepest pocket - averaging just over 2' deep with a couple of shelves at various heights. None of which are complete yet as this just started.




I have a lot of California Toads that live in my yard as well as the occasional rattler I have to relocate., hoping to attract some other amphibians as well. Going to do a soft fine sand layer on the dirt, then the plastic pond liner, then some white masonry sand to line the bottom with flagstone and river rocks on the edge, small waterfall will be about 2' to the right of the shovel in the bottom picture. Going to place some 'tree weed edging'(not sure what its called) around the pond to hopefully prevent any 'flood-in', then cover the edging with rocks so its looks nice. Using 'low-light' plants as much as possible, but plan on experimenting and I am not yet sure how much sunlight the tree trim will bring me. Could be a lot more than I am planning, which is fine. Was debating about making an attempt at a 'native' pond(I live in the chaparral, 30 minutes from a town, 15 miles from the nearest water) but not sure just yet.

Any suggestions on critters to add? I am in San Diego a little under 30 miles east from the ocean, inland valley USDA zone 10. I was thinking about some of these as possibilities, just tossing ideas around:

White cloud mountain minnows(but I hear they LOVE frog eggs and I would like to get some local Hyla's to come around REALLY BADLY hahaha), zebra danio, weather loach, bloodfin tetras, guppies, possibly some danio of some sort - as well as crawfish possibly. I would like to add one of those molting self cloning crawfish but am afraid they would manage to hike the 15 miles to a lake and wreak havoc so I am just skipping that idea and possibly going with something native. They sure have amazing coloring though. What about adding any kind of shrimp or other invertebrates? Red Cherries or Ghosts? Vampire crabs? Fairy shrimp(triops! LOL)? I have a horrid garden snail problem, despite the decolates and all the other tricks I have tried, any suggestions on that end and will they hamper the pond or just the plants on the outskirts?

I googled vampire crabs, and it says they are mainly terrestrial. I dont think that would work in an outdoor pond (unless theres a different type of vampire crab that didnt show up when I googled)

I am facing West while looking at the pond area with the camera. Much more sun, but I wont really know until tomorrow morning so I can see how much it gets in the morning-afternoon.

After the trim this afternoon and my daughter with a Taro plant.



...same vampire crabs. Its mostly wishful thinking as I would want to have them inside in a controlled environment anyways. Lots of ferociously carnivorous Scrub Jays around here, amongst other things. So they probably would not last not scampering around the outskirts of the pond.