Seasonal 'puddling'. To Drain or To Pond?

Sorry just realised I've probably posted in the wrong category.
Will post again in wildlife gardening x

Beebea,

Not at all long winded, wildlife is complicated and details help. The first thing to say is that the vast number of landscape features that are important to wildlife which have been lost in the last 100 years, are small boggy seasonally flooded depressions which have been ‘filled in’, in their tens of millions under the mantra of agricultural improvement. So if possible your muddy puddle might be worth cherishing, though of course it all depends on what is achievable and what will fit in the new use of the site. The following is just add to the points Tringa has made.

I don’t think it is possible to be certain what your puddle actually is – could be anything from a compacted part of old trackway to the remnants of a well, but your description of it as a ‘rut’, which I take to mean it is linear rather than roundish, is suggestive of a blocked or collapsed land drain. As to what to about it, unless there is some pressing reason I wouldn’t rush to do anything, though I guess having the builders on site is an argument for using rubble for levelling, infilling etc – however my advice is keep the builders well away from anywhere they don’t need to be and get them to shift any waste off site wherever possible.

So if you can, before going any further I would firm up what your ambitions for your land are and find out exactly what your planning consent allows you to do – for example would an orchard be acceptable, or a hay meadow ? One thing that you will almost certainly be allowed to do is to replace wire fencing with a wild hedge – and that would be a major advance in making your whole paddock/garden/home wildlife friendly. Before anything else though, the place I would start is to look into the history of your site, if possible ask neighbours what the land was used for in the past, and look at old maps – the archive office of your local council will hold various map sources from early Ordnance Survey, Manorial plans and the 19thC Tithe Maps (some council's make these available online making them really easy to work with). You can find out the field names and where the old boundaries were, the location of long demolished buildings, ponds, wells, sheep dips, min shafts, quarries etc, your property deeds may also have useful histroic information. Once you’ve ruled out your puddle being anything old enough or significant enough to have been mapped or recorded I’d suggest doing a bit of impromptu archaeology – just take a sharp spade and cut a narrow trench across the rut, if you come up with a lot of gravel and/or broken pipe etc, then you probably have got a fouled drain and you can decide what to do about that. If however the soil is black and soggy or is very wet clean compacted clay, going down more than 30cms elow the tops soil then you’ve probably got an old water feature of some kind. If it is the latter I’d encourage you to keep it as part of your new design.

A pond would certainly be a valuable addition to your paddock/garden, if you do decide to give up on the rut and you able have a damp wild area adjacent to a new pond, then I suggest cutting the turf from the area of the rut before infilling it, and then transferring that wet adapted turf to the pond margin. One point about chickens – they are veracious predators of invertebrates and plants, and though wild birds will often be attracted to any feed you put out for the chickens, on the whole chickens are best kept separate from what would otherwise be a wildlife friendly area. Finally have a chat with your local Wildlife Trust, they may have local members or one of their officers who can advise you about what wildlife friendly improvements would work best in your location.

Good Luck

Now that was long winded and I seem to be using question marks in place of exclamation marks ? !?

Putting in the research can save effort later on - of course you may find out that the site has just been a non descript field for forever, but if there are some old features - ponds or whatever,  then it will help a lot in terms of knowing what to put where in your future plans. If the current seasonal puddle isn't a practical location for a permanent pond then you will need to resolve what the cause of the wet is, sorting out a land drain problem may need some professional advice, you can probably rely on whoever is going to do the drainage for the house to at least suggest what to do. I certainly wouldn't go for simply filling the depression in because if there is a drain, which may well start some distance from your property then it is going to continue delivering water to the location, so best to get the issue sorted at the same time as the housing drainage if that is possible. I agree with Tringa, if you are going for a larger pond and you can decide on a location, then the opportunity of having a mini digger on site would save you some labour at probably not too great a cost - re: pond construction this site may be useful  freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/projects/million-ponds/pond-creation-toolkit/

As regards the existing fruit trees, it depends somewhat on the time of year but survival rates for shifting mature apple/pears are low. Best done in the winter months when loss of the soil around the roots isn't so critical, and at 15 years the root balls on both could be pretty substantial so successful shifting in the growing season might need lifting gear and careful strapping. If there is disease I'd be inclined to give up on the apple and pear and start with new disease free stock. Re: hedging this can be bought quite cheaply as bare root plants for Autumn/Winter planting - there are number of reputable firms including: www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/index.html  www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/hedging. A young hedge does need stock proof protection so you would need to put a full run of timber rail and post - but a hedge is a project that can be completed over a number of years.

CM