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Wetland
Pond, stream or bog?
 All of these are important parts of a wetland system, but you may only have enough space for one or two elements. A stream, unless naturally occurring, may be expensive to run where pumps are required to keep the water circulating.
A pond ideally will contain water all year round, but if it does dry up in the summer it is not the end of the world. Many temporary ponds (they dry up in prolonged periods of dry weather) provide important habitat for invertebrates, so the ecology of your pond will adapt to the prevailing conditions. Try to create a pond where there is a deeper area of water with some steep edge and some gently shelving edge. The pond bottom is best when it has a varied micro-relief (i.e. it is bumpy), even on the shelving edge. In hot weather the water level will fall and the shelving edge may be partially exposed. This is part of the natural process, and unless you have a very shallow pond that will not survive the exposure, do not top up the water levels.
 Planting a pond is relatively easy. Choose some submerged plants such as some of the pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.) to oxygenate the deeper water, some floating leaved plants such as lilies and some other pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.) and then some marginal plants. The marginal plants are species which like to have their roots in wet or damp soils but their leaves and flowers are mainly above the water surface. This group includes water plantain, angelica, water avens, fen bedstraw, yellow flag, and lesser spearwort amongst many other species. The soil for these plants may dry out in the summer without damaging the plants.
If you want to encourage amphibians such as newts and frogs in your pond, it is best not to stock fish which will eat the amphibian eggs. Amphibians only spend about a third of the year in the water, so remember to provide good terrestrial habitat for them. Areas of long grass, shady spots, hibernating areas made of log or stone piles covered over with earth will serve them well. They need to eat as well, so anything that supports slugs and insects will be a good larder for them.
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