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wee-pond

Little weeeedLittle weeeed Posts: 54
in Wildlife gardening

As I said above, I am thinking of adding a (very) small pond in my garden.....my question is......how on earth do frogs, toads etc find it?   I live in a town on the east coast of Scotland and unless the wildlife can read google maps, I cannot see how they'll know it's there! image    I've heard the expression "If you build it, they will come" ....really ??  Will I have to import frog spawn from somewhere else?   Also, what is the smallest pond I'll need if I want frogs etc?  

Probably more questions will follow.image

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  • Heather MichaelsHeather Michaels Posts: 328

    I wish I could help but unfortunately I can't. All I do know is that my other half was out mowing the grass last weekend and found a baby toad, all on its lonesome, just sitting curled up in the grass and we don't even have a water feature much less a pond or any other body of water (puddles don't count!). So I'm guessing they'll find their way to you somehow or another, I mean if they'll come to my waterless garden I'm sure they'll find their way to a pond. Perhaps they have an inbuilt satnav?!  Hope you figure it all out.

  • waterbuttswaterbutts Posts: 1,214

    I think that their porous skins can sense the presence of water nearby.image

  • HaisieHaisie Posts: 108

    There is a guide on GW to show you how to build a small pond. A video also I think. I am also going to build a small pond when I find the right old sink/trough. I've been looking for what I want for a long time but old troughs are so expensive. I don't want to sink one into my garden as I don't have a shaded area where the grass is. So I want to have one on a couple of bricks with a ramp for the frogs to get in. I will use builder's sand, upturned plant pots and slabs of something to give them places to hide. A ouple of plants too. Really wish I could find something appropriate to build it with. I don't want to use a plastic container.

  • Little weeeedLittle weeeed Posts: 54

    Haisie - have you tried your local freegle or free cycle ?  You could put in a"wanted" ad. You never know.  I went to our local "Steptoes"  yard and he had an old metal hip bath and a big round metal bowl.....lying open to the elements (and had been for some time) and he wanted £50!  Each !  image  I'm just gonna dig a hole and line it.  You could do the same with a small wall to make the edge higher and include your ramp. image

  • HaisieHaisie Posts: 108

    Little weeeed, thank you for the suggestion that I should put an ad in freegle r free cycle things - great idea. I've been looking for so long now and I got the jist that 'old' things come at a huge price. It seems really trendy to use old things and they do come at a price. I looked on a website at a reclamation yard thing near me in Lancashire and they had what I wanted - an old stone trough, only small, and it was a whooping £300! Some went up to £3000! I think I'll eventually drag a stone kerb home and use my nail-file to chisel it out...

  • HaisieHaisie Posts: 108

    Oh and I don't think that I can put one in my garden as advice says it should be shady, not overlooked by trees as leaves fall into it. I just don't seem to have the right spot to dig. I have a north facing back garden but in summer the sun creeps to about 4 ft away from the house My plan was to put it next to my fence in the shaded bit...

  • SwissSueSwissSue Posts: 1,447

    Since it will only be a small pond, you can always go out regularly with a small net and fish the leaves out. Also, don't forget to put a small ramp inside the pond, so that any other creatures (hedgehogs etc.) that climb up the outside one and fall in, can get back out again!image

  • HaisieHaisie Posts: 108

    Thanks Swiss Sue - that's what the upturned slabs will be for too, to give them something to get out of - all instructions are on here somewhere! A net is a good idea, although just not possible in my garden as it is north facing and clay soil it gets swamped in winter and not too goo to walk across - will stay with my idea of putting it near the house - only option I have in my garden.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Central Norfolk UKPosts: 56,676

    We made a very small pond in our last garden (in a plastic dustbin sunk into the ground).  It had a small water lily and some oxygenating plants in it and we made a way for animals and amphibians to get in and out of the water.  Within within a very few weeks we found a frog sunbathing at the edge of the pond half in and half out of the water.  The garden was in the middle of a large area of small victorian terraces mainly with walled gardens and concrete back yards, right in the city centre.

    Frogs will find your pond, don't you worry image

    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • Little weeeedLittle weeeed Posts: 54

    Thanks everyone. I hope to have the pond ready for spring.  I will wait in hopes for hopping visitorsimage

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