What is the interest of having a water point ?
A watering place, a small pond in the garden or in the immediate environment of the vegetable garden has multiple interests for the gardener.
A watering place is beautiful!
First of all, a water feature has an aesthetic dimension: well integrated into its environment, it is an undeniable decorative element in a garden. In addition, you can see dragonflies and all sorts of insects living near water.
A water feature attracts beneficial insects
Secondly, watering holes attract useful auxiliary fauna for the gardener and his crops.
Frogs
Newts, toads or other frogs that love to eat slugs. All amphibians need a water source when they lay their eggs. Toads are capable of traveling several kilometers to find their birthplace to reproduce. But if you offer them a watering hole, they will stay close to your home.
In addition, there is the nostalgic pleasure of observing the evolution of the tadpole into a frog!
Bees
The bees that pollinate your fruit trees, vegetables and flowers need to drink. And this need must be satisfied near their foraging area, near the flowers where they go to collect nectar and pollen. A watering place near a hive or in the garden is therefore highly appreciated. The same is true for all pollinating insects, such as hoverflies, which can rid you of aphids.
Birds
After eating a lot of seeds, larvae and caterpillars, birds (chickadees, sparrows, thrushes...) also need to drink. In fact, if there is no water near their feeding area, they may attack juicy fruits or water-rich vegetables (as do insects) to quench their thirst.
So, if you install a watering place in the garden, not only will you protect your crops from possible attacks, but you will also effectively attract these defoliating caterpillar eaters that ravage, among other things, cabbages or apple trees.
This is particularly the case of the Hyponomeute, a caterpillar that causes defoliation at the ends of the branches of apple and plum trees, and that chickadees love!
You will easily recognize them; they are the ones who weave silk webs to make collective nests.
