Pond design and layout

[Garden Manager]

I have a bit of a dilemma. I only have room for a small pond but want to make it as wildlife friendly as possible. it is recomended for wildlife ponds to have on area of 'beach' or a shallow/sloping area at the edge. However for my pond this is going to prove difficult to work into the internal layout, and i would like to have a shelf for marginal plants and deeper area for a lilly.

Would the next best thing to a 'beach' be to have a shallow shelf and use planting baskets  on it as the 'shallows'? Would this be enough to allow easy access and exit to wildlife?

Advice please.

PS: the pond is only 1m wide by 1.5 long, max depth 20 inches.

[Garden Manager]

[euronerd]

Hi.
Small ponds are a pain. There's such a diversity of things that seem to want to be there that it's near impossible to keep them all happy. There's also the problem of the ever expanding roots of your water plants, which before long hardly leave any room for water. My own pond is about the same size as yours and I need two or three buckets of dechlorinating water at the side in summer. It sounds as though you've already bought a pre-formed liner. These usually have two or three different levels built in, to accommodate various types of plant. If yours hasn't, a few different sized stones will do the trick. I've never seen this done, but would a seed tray full of granite chips, standing on some stones and barely submerged do the trick to emulate a shallow end? The trouble is, each time you put something else in there, more water is displaced. Fwiw, I have part of an old roofing slate leaning up against one side, which makes it easy for very small frogs to get out, and the underside provides some shade for the adults on the hottest (?) days.
Hope you're successful.

Geoff.