Stefano Ianiro initially decided to build a wildlife pond to capture pictures of local wildlife. He wasn’t sure this specific setup would be, but it ended up working very well and he got great pictures out of it.
Although the pond wound up being successful in getting pictures, he wanted to improve on his design and make it a more natural setting.
He effectively turned a patch of grass into a small oasis but he knew he could do more.
Ianiro decided to go with a more natural shape to his next pond and went to great efforts to make sure it was surrounded with local plants and features that would attract various wildlife.
The overall task of installing a pond involved some smaller and not so small tasks. He put in countless hours of work installing a blind to observe his pond to tilling the surrounding area – which was a mind numbing task he said wasted 30 hours of his time – to encourage vegetation growth.
Spring started to show him that his hard work had been worth it, but it was Summer that delivered the biggest payoff.
Numerous plants started filling out the area along with insects that were attracted by the plants. Eventually, even predators started to show up and wreaked a little havoc around the pond. However, since predation is part of a healthy ecosystem, this meant he was successful in what he set out to do.
Watching his hard work pay of makes us want to build our own wildlife pond.
After all, if you build it, (he) they will come.