Altering a Pond
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We have 2 small ponds situated next to each other with one being 9 or so inches higher and seperated by a low wall.
They are both stocked with water lillies and other aquatic plants and are very healthy.
The 'top' pond contains Frogs although they use the lower one too ofcourse. Any Frogspawn is moved to the top pond.
The 'lower' one has 11 Goldfish living in it.
The 'top' pond has a slow leak which can easily be cured by topping up but we would like to empty both and re-do the area.
Please can anyone tell us the best time to empty ponds given that Frogs, Fish, Newts etc are there all the time?
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I do not think there will be a good time to do it. Wildlife will be affected no matter how careful you are. Early spring would be my best guess and try and get the whole thing completed in 1-2 days at the most. Are you going to make it one big pond or keep the two separate ones. No idea what to do with the fish unless you buy some big trugs to put them in while the construction is going on. From experience they can be a devil to catch.
We'd like to enlarge the ponds but they need to remain separate because the Goldfish would eat the frogspawn . This happened when we had just one pond many years ago and introduced fish...a whole generation of frogs was lost.
Thankyou for your help.
September is a good time - after the amphibian breeding season and before it starts to get cold. Spring would be more disruptive as frogs and newts would be starting to breed then.
Thankyou for your advice. I didnt know Newts ate frogspawn too.
We were thinking of early Autumn so will probably go with that