Wildlife pond?

bouicca21

I am fancying installing a small wildlife pond and perhaps a frog house too.

Since the only wild life I have seen in the garden are birds, squirrels and foxes, though I have reason to believe there are rats, plus some visiting domestic cats, is it daft to provide facilities for possibly non existent frogs, toads or newts?

TonyMMM

They don't need any facilities other than a pond to breed in (that they can get in and out of), and places in the garden to live/hide. A few stones placed with a gap underneath - a log-pile, some leaves or just well planted borders will be fine.

You will be amazed how quickly they will turn up in a pond if you build one.

arbrighton

We dug my parents pond for wildlife in early 2012. A few weeks ago there were over 40 frogs in there ready for mating. No 'frog' house provided, and they arrived on their own. The water snails must have come with the pond plants we think.

[Deleted User]

TonyMMM wrote: »

They don't need any facilities other than a pond to breed in (that they can get in and out of), and places in the garden to live/hide. A few stones placed with a gap underneath - a log-pile, some leaves or just well planted borders will be fine.

You will be amazed how quickly they will turn up in a pond if you build one.

We are in the middle of creating a pond and the frogs have already moved in! We are now having to finish things off around them, but them seem happy.

Pay_me

In my old house in a remarkably bland edge of city housing estate (no green fields or wildlife friendly woodland close by) we built a wildlife friendly pond slanting edges, different water levels, various plants, no filter and very little maintenance (we cleaned it once every winter and topped it up with fresh water in summer that's all, the plants kept it clean all other times).

It was amazing how many different species made that pond home including frogs and toads.

Build the pond, sit back and let nature fill it, you won't be disappointed.

bouicca21

Pay_me, how big was it and more importantly what sort of plants? I have sworn against Canadian pond weed, but I love marsh marigold. I have been warned against waterlilies in a wildlife pond.

Davesnave

Pay_me wrote: »

Build the pond, sit back and let nature fill it, you won't be disappointed.

You might be disappointed at first.

Frogs, and especially toads, are conservative creatures. They have fixed ideas about what makes a great pond, so they may shun yours, at least to start with. Toads almost certainly will.

Eventually they'll come, but my experience is that it may take a few years, if there are viable and well-established alternatives nearby. If there aren't, the population may be relatively low to begin with.

So, just "build it, and they will come...".....on their own terms.

Davesnave

bouicca21 wrote: »

Pay_me, how big was it and more importantly what sort of plants? I have sworn against Canadian pond weed, but I love marsh marigold. I have been warned against waterlilies in a wildlife pond.

You need oxygenating weed. Elodea may spread like wildfire, but it does belt out the O2 on a fine day. Look at the alternatives, if you can find well- behaved ones. I used it, but that was because it was free.

As for lilies, yes, the big 'uns can be a bit much, but there are some nice tiddlers, at a price. You need something to shade most of the surface. Aponogeton is an alternative, I think, but don't quote me on that.

Marsh marigolds are nice, but blink and you miss them, so far as flowering goes. I'd go for a arum lily to follow on....but this isn't about me....

andrewf75

you can get a native pondweed called water milfoil which does the same oxegenating job. If its a true wildlife pond you should plant native plants really.

Davesnave

andrewf75 wrote: »

If its a true wildlife pond you should plant native plants really.

I can see this ruling out quite a lot, if a fundamentalist approach is adopted. And one still has to be careful, because there's many species of milfoil.

Would you say the same about wildlife meadows, or gardens?

I can see that pond is somewhat different in that it's a micro-environment with very restricted boundaries.

andrewf75

Davesnave wrote: »

I can see this ruling out quite a lot, if a fundamentalist approach is adopted. And one still has to be careful, because there's many species of milfoil.

Would you say the same about wildlife meadows, or gardens?

I can see that pond is somewhat different in that it's a micro-environment with very restricted boundaries.

In my garden I've taken a fairly fundamentalist approach for my wildflower meadow and my pond. Elsewhere pretty much anything goes and if something non-native appears in my pond or meadow I'm not going to be strict about it...

But if you're planting a pond from scratch and its specifically a "wildlife pond" then it makes sense to plant it with native plants - especially if you're talking about say oxygenators where aesthetically there is little difference. There are several good websites which have clear categories for native plants so you're not really restricted that much.