Garden ponds and

boggy areas:

havens for wildlife

working today

for nature tomorrow

Ponds and biodiversity

England is damp and cloudy, and
naturally full of ponds, wetlands and
the plants and animals they support.
But the drive to intensify agriculture
has hit hard. Land drainage, from the
Romans onwards, reduced pond
numbers to about 1,250,000 in 1890
and to only about 400,000 today.

Most of these ponds were made for
watering stock, or were used for
foundries, mills or water storage.
Many are now polluted from run-off
from roads and agricultural fields.
Others are changing naturally,
through lack of management, and are
overgrown by trees or filling with
silt. While still important for many
species of wildlife, they rarely contain
an abundance of common species.

Garden ponds help to reduce this
loss. Few will sustain endangered or
highly specialised species, but they
can be a real haven for many others.
Frogs may be doing better in
suburban gardens than in the wider
countryside. Well-designed garden
ponds can provide a refuge for many
species of freshwater plants and
animals. They are valuable for other
wildlife too. Birds drink and bathe in

the shallow margins, or eat the
autumn seed heads of reeds. Insects
feed on exposed mud, and at night,
bats hunt for flying insects over the
water. If you want to see plenty of
wildlife close to home, put in a
garden pond.

3

Garden ponds

Why have a garden pond?

Most people are fascinated by water and a garden pond is an excellent
way of having it close to home. Garden ponds provide beauty and
interest, and if well designed, will make a real difference for wildlife.

Top: Frog with reflection. Andy Sands
Bottom: Starling. Paul Keene
Opposite: Ragged robin. Chris Gibson/English Nature

4

Ponds and garden beauty

Ponds can look marvellous in
gardens. Water gives a natural,
peaceful effect. Reflections add
brilliance, colour and movement.
Having a pond – especially with a
bog garden – allows a greater variety
of plants to thrive, and even in the
most scorching summer, ponds
remain lush and refreshing to the
eyes. The birds and insects they
attract animate the summer garden,
and there is joy and fascination in
watching the changing occupants and
character of the pond through the
seasons. For older children, there
can be few better introductions to the
natural world than discovering the
extraordinary wild creatures that lurk
in and around garden ponds.

What is the purpose of your
pond?

This leaflet is about creating a pond
for wildlife.

Formal garden ponds, often concrete,
with vertical sides and overhanging
flagstone surrounds, can give a strong
central design to a garden and are
valued for reflections and shape.
However, the steep sides make them
dangerous traps for hedgehogs and
mice. Even cats and dogs may fall in
and be unable to climb out. Frogs
and toads will be trapped in the pond,
and may drown once past the tadpole
stage.

Many people want to keep fish in
their pond. Unfortunately, they may

Formal ponds like this one are not built with nature in mind. Bob Gibbons

dig up bottom-rooted vegetation and
most will eat tadpoles and other pond
animals. If you regularly feed large
numbers of fish, the nutrients added
to the water will encourage green
algae and blanket weed that can
smother the whole pond in a very
short time. Most ponds with large
fish have to have pumps, filters and
aerators. The answer may be to have
one pond for fish, and another,
without fish, for wildlife.

Gardeners usually want to add exotic
plants to their ponds, as to their
flowerbeds. These will not stop
plenty of interesting native animals
colonising their ponds, but plants
long-adapted to conditions here
normally support a greater variety of
invertebrates. Wildlife ponds should
contain mainly native plants, many of
them very beautiful.

Designing your pond

Think carefully where your pond is
to be. Once dug, it can’t be moved!
If it’s in sight of the living room or
kitchen windows, you’ll be able to
watch birds, bats and other visitors
from inside your home. If the pond
is away from the house, it may attract
more timid species, and you can plan
the garden so the pond is a beautiful
surprise in a private corner. Mark
out the outline with canes and see
how it will look before you start
digging.

Aim to have part of the pond in full
sunlight. This allows the water to
warm up quickly in the spring, so
encouraging plant growth. Some
wildlife species prefer shaded water,
but avoid digging a new pond right
by a large tree as you may damage

5

Garden ponds

Even very small ponds can be rich in wildlife. Bob Gibbons

6

the roots. Worse, new roots may
penetrate your liner and your pond
may fill with leaves. Think also
about where the water supply is to
come from.

How big should it be? This is up to
you and your budget. Bigger ponds
mean more plant species and a more
varied habitat for animals. But
doubling the dimensions of a pond
increases the liner cost four times,
and creates eight times the volume of
soil to dispose of! The pond should
be in scale with the rest of your
garden: even tiny ponds can hold a
lot of wildlife. If you have the space,
an excellent arrangement for wildlife
is to have one larger pond, several
shallow small pools and a bog garden
area, allowing some pools to become
muddy or dry in the summer. This
variety of habitats will ensure a great
diversity of species.

Garden ponds needn’t be deep.
Most pond animals are found in the
shallowest water – a couple of
centimetres deep. Deep open water
is the most dangerous habitat for
small animals, especially if fish are
present - so maximise the shallows.

For a wildlife pond, 40-50cm is deep
enough, and will mean much less soil
to remove.

A clean water supply is crucial. If
water is contaminated with fertilising
nutrients, you will face a continual
struggle with algal build up. If your
pond is on a slope, it will fill from
rainwater run-off. It is, then, very
important that the ground above the
pond is not artificially fertilised, or
left bare, because nutrients and silt
will wash in.

Green woodpecker. Chris Gomersall

The cuckooflower is one of the main food
plants of the orange-tip butterfly.
Chris Gibson/English Nature

Most people fill their ponds with tap
water. This is easy – but rather
wasteful. Tap water also often
contains high quantities of nutrients
that encourage algal growth. The
best possible source is rain water.
Can you site your pond close enough
to the house or a greenhouse or shed,
to be able to siphon water from a
butt? With a little ingenuity, you
may be able to divert water from a
down-pipe directly into the pond.

What shape should the pond be?
Straight edges look unnatural and
should be avoided. The margins are
best for wildlife, so in larger ponds,
try for a wavy-edged oval rather than
a plain circular shape. The most
important design element is the
profile of the sides. Make sure you
leave LOTS of shallow water shelf

area at about 1-15cm deep, where
water plants will flourish. The
margins should be very gently sloping
in at least some places, so the finished
pond merges naturally into the land.
Ideally, create a ‘drawdown’ zone, a
very shallow (5cm or less) area,
which you can cover with gravel and
round stones, to form a beach and
protect the liner in summer. Flooded
in winter, it will partly dry out in
summer, making a fabulous habitat
for many insect species, and a great
bathing area for birds.

Constructing your pond

•

You can make a pond in any
month but early autumn is perhaps
the most practical season, when
the ground is neither too hard, dry
nor cold.

7

Garden ponds

Water boatman Corixa punctata. Bob Gibbons Bogbean. Chris Gibson/English Nature

8

•

You don’t want to put a spade
through an underground pipe!
Check your site plans for evidence
of buried cables or pipes. You can
usually work out where the drains
run by following the inspection
covers.

•

Unless you garden on heavy clay,
you will need a liner. For very
small ponds you can buy pre-
formed liners of plastic or
fibreglass, but some of these don’t
have gently-sloping sides for
animals to escape. Some gardeners
use concrete, but this is a major
undertaking, and can be very
expensive. Most people use a
flexible liner. The best ones are
of butyl or EPDM rubber, and
should be guaranteed for 25 years.
Don’t be tempted by cheap
polythene. This often splits and
punctures within a couple of years.

•

How big a liner do you need?
Measure the greatest length and
width of the hole and then the
depth. Add twice the depth to
both of the other dimensions.
This means that if the length is
3m, the width 2m and the depth
40cm then you need a liner 3.8m
long and 2.8m wide. Allow for
extra liner so that the edges can be
buried in the surrounding soil.

•

When you have dug the hole,
remove all sharp projecting stones
or roots that could puncture the
liner. This is time consuming, but
essential. Locating and repairing
holes later is extremely difficult!
Add a 2.5cm layer of damp sand
as further protection, or use a
fabric layer. Old carpets cut to
shape will do, although they will
rot eventually and become
ineffective. Alternatively, buy

Pond watching. Bob Gibbons

9

Garden ponds

For large and ambitious
projects

Most garden ponds don’t need
planning permission. But if you
are making a very large pond,
if it is close to your boundary
(especially if this is a road or
footpath) or on agricultural
land, contact your planning
officer and ask for advice.
Officers are almost always
helpful and often interested in
ponds themselves.

If you are going to take water
from a river or stream or
discharge water into one, you
will require a licence from the
Environment Agency. In any
case, if your garden is on the
flood plain of a river, you must
consult the Environment
Agency, especially over the
removal of spoil.

Ponds and safety

It is essential to plan your
pond with safety in mind. The
following steps will help to
reduce risks for young
children:

• Keep the pond shallow,

and have wide, very gently-
sloping margins all round.

• Have plenty of marginal

plants, especially where
sides are steeper.

• Don’t let the pond surface

become completely covered
with duckweed or other
floating species, which can
make a pond look like an
area of flat ground and
encourage children (and
dogs) to walk into it.

• Fence the pond securely.

The fence should be at least
110cm high, and with close
vertical posts that can’t
easily be climbed or
squeezed between.
However, make sure that
you can get over or through
the fence immediately in
case a child somehow
manages to get past.

• Strong plastic or metal

meshes to keep children
completely away from the
water are now commercially
available.

These are only really
appropriate for smaller
ponds, and must be
properly installed so
children can’t get under
them. Safe commercial
models are advertised in
garden magazines.

10

do this is to use turf. The grass
will grow into the pond, making it
easy for animals to climb in and
out. Beach areas should be
covered with fine pea gravel (not
sharp edged pieces) and round or
flat stones. As silt collects
between the stones, plants will
start to colonise, so you will
protect the liner and have an
attractive area of habitat as well.

•

You don’t need to spread subsoil
over the pond bottom to encourage
plants. And NEVER put topsoil
into a pond, because you will
bring in unwanted nutrients.

For more details, consult one of the
excellent guides listed at the end of
this leaflet.

Ponds and the rest of your
garden

For many animals, the quality of
habitat outside the pond is just as
important as the water itself. This is
especially true for frogs, toads and

thick polyester matting from
lining suppliers. If you have put
in a beach area, it can be a good
plan to put an extra layer of surplus
trimmed-off liner over the liner on
the beach, to help protect it from
people’s feet and dogs’claws.

•

What to do with the spoil? A
pond two metres by three metres
and 50 cm deep in the middle will
create two cubic metres of loose
soil. If the garden is on a slope,
use some of this to ensure the
sides of the pond are level all
round. Many people use the
surplus soil to make a rockery or a
bank nearby, and these features
can be great winter refuges for
amphibians. Make sure the rocks
come from a sustainable source,
and not from rain-sculptured
limestone, and plant the bank
with native species to provide
cover all year round.

•

Digging is hard but satisfying
work. Hand digging makes it
easier to make modifications and
adjustments as you go along. For
big ponds, if you have vehicle
access, you could hire a mini-
digger or approach a contractor
for a quote. One digger and its
operator can do a huge amount in
a day for a modest rate, but make
sure that you agree plans and
costs in advance.

•

Hide the edge of the liner. For
most of the pool, the best way to

Amphibious bistort. Chris Gibson/English Nature

newts, which spend most of their
lives on land, using the water mainly
to breed. A very formal garden will
offer no support for these
amphibians, which need dense cover
and a plentiful supply of insects and
worms for food. Set aside a
proportion of your garden to help
them, with dense, shady, shrubby
borders and areas of long grass under
trees. Leaving a few areas unkempt
is great for wildlife, and you can
provide over-wintering habitat by
making piles of logs in a quiet
shaded area. Rockeries make good
amphibian habitat too.

Bog gardens are wildlife assets.
Create one when you make your
pond. A bog garden is an area which
is permanently damp, in which
moisture-loving plants can thrive.
Dig a hole about 30cm deep, line it

with butyl and then just refill it with
the extracted soil. A bog garden can
look wonderful next to a pond,
especially if it’s located so that
surplus pond water drains into it
naturally. Dense, lush vegetation in
bog gardens is superb habitat for
newly-emerged young frogs. Bog
gardens also support some very
attractive native flowers.

11

Garden ponds

Smooth newt. Chris Gibson/English Nature

Common toad. Roger Key/English Nature

12

Native plants for your pond

Plants are vital components of your
wildlife pond, providing both habitat
and food for a host of animal species.
Wildlife ponds should have much of
their water surface covered by a good
variety of plants. The more
complicated the underwater
‘architecture’ of roots, stems and
leaves, the more animal species can
co-exist. Very few animals like clear
open water, where they are easily
spotted and eaten by fish.

Although some plants can colonise
ponds very quickly, people will want
to introduce plants of their own choice.
It is important to plant native species,
to which our native animal species
are adapted. The species in the table
(see pages 14-15) are all attractive
and easy to establish.

Water plants fall into four rather
artificial categories. Submerged

Left: Fringed water-lily. Right: Water mint. Chris Gibson/English Nature
Facing page: Parrot’s feather. This introduced plant can quickly smother even a large pond. Bob Gibbons

plants live with all or most of their
structure underwater. They offer a
very valuable habitat for animal
species in deeper water, and help
mop up surplus nutrients.

Floating leaf plants have their
leaves on the water surface in
summer, and provide shade and
cover. Floating sweet-grass provides
some of the best habitat, and is
excellent for growing over the edge
of the liner, giving a natural look.

Emergent plants include some
attractive species. They prefer
shallow water to root, forming
excellent invertebrate habitat, but
most of their summer growth is out
of the water. They include rushes
and reeds, as well as some very fine
flowering species, but some are just
too vigorous for a small pond.

Marginal and bog plants thrive at
the water’s edge or in wet soil. They

14

Submerged plants

Curled pondweed (Potamogeton crispus)

1

Also fennel pondweed (P. pectinatus)

Water starwort (Callitriche stagnalis)

1

Floating rosettes of rounded leaves

Rigid hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)

1

Thickly-tufted plant, vigorous

Water milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

1

Caution! NOT Myriophyllum

aquaticum

Water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis)*

1

Partly floating, attractive white

flowers

Floating leaf plants

Broad-leaved pondweed

2

Excellent for habitat

(Potamogeton natans)

Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae)

1

Attractive white flowers

Floating sweet-grass (Glyceria fluitans)

2-3

Good habitat; plant at the margin to

float out

Yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea)

2

‘Brandy bottle’: smells of alcohol

Fringed water-lily(Nymphoides peltata)

2

Fringed yellow flowers like buttercup

Water soldier (Stratiotes aloides)

2-3

Impressive spiky plant that sinks in

winter

White water-lily (Nymphaea alba)

3

Beautiful, but too vigorous for most

gardens

Shallow water emergents

Amphibious bistort (Persicaria amphibia)

1

Pink flower stalks, dark green leaves

Water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpiodes)

1-2

Small, pale blue flowers

Lesser spearwort (Ranunculus flammula)

1

Less spectacular, less invasive than

spearwort

Spearwort (Ranunculus lingua)

2-3

Giant water buttercup, to 90cm high

Arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia)

1-2

Arrow-head leaves, and small white

flowers

Brooklime (Veronica beccabunga)

1

Blue flowers, straggly, good at the

pond edge

Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliate)

2-3

Beautiful, invasive but easy to control

Native plants for garden ponds

Suitable

Comments

for

15

Garden ponds

Tall emergents

Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus)

1-2

Very pretty pink-flowering rush

Branched bur-reed (Sparganum erectum)

3

Unusual spiky flower, semi evergreen

Water mint (Mentha aquatica)

2-3

Pretty, scented leaves, invasive, good

for bees

Water plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica)

2

Small pink flowers, up to 1m high

Greater pond-sedge (Carex riparia)

2-3

Makes good invertebrate habitat

Lesser bulrush (Typha angustifolia)

2-3

Not for small ponds

Common reed (Phragmites australis)

3

Fine plant, but too big for most ponds

Marginal and bog plants

Bugle (Ajuga repens)

1

Very pretty, deep blue, good for insects

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

1-2

Superb low yellow-flowering plant

Hard rush (Juncus inflexus)

2

Less invasive than soft rush; brown

fruits

Lady’s smock (Cardamine pratensis)

1

Pretty pale purple flowers

Yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus)

2

Superb yellow flowers, red seed

capsules

Ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)

1

Pretty, delicate pink flower

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

2

Great red-purple spikes

Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris)

2

Fine yellow-spiked plant

Marsh woundwort (Stachys palustris)

1-2

Pale purple flower spikes

Great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum)

3

Tall red-flowered plant, seeds freely

Hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum)

3

Impressive red-purple flowers, seeds

freely

Royal fern (Osmunda regalis)

2-3

Superb native fern, dislikes lime

Suitability

1

Plants appropriate for all ponds, including small ones.

2

Plants rather too big or vigorous for smaller ponds.

3

Plants best reserved for larger ponds only.

*

Most crowfoots do best where the water level drops to expose a

muddy margin on which the seeds germinate.

Native plants for garden ponds

Suitable

Comments

for

include some real beauties. If you’ve
made a bog garden alongside your
pond, you can really go to town with
some stunning effects, while
providing cover for frogs, toads and
newts.

Non-native plants

Ideally, a wildlife pond should only
contain native species. But there are
attractive exotics. These can still
provide cover for wildlife although
they are less likely to be food plants
for insect visitors. Use them
sparingly, letting natives form the
bulk of the planting. Beware, too, of
the problem plants below!

Invasive aliens

The words recall science fiction, but
the danger is real enough. Many
species of imported plants have
escaped from garden ponds into the
wild. A few are causing very serious
ecological damage to ponds and
rivers, through their ability to spread
from small fragments and form dense
choking mats of vegetation. NEVER
plant any of the following aquatic
species in your pond (which they
would take over in no time). Be
careful, because some of these species
are still on sale in garden centres.

•

Fairy or water fern (Azolla
filiculoides)

Floating pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides - a plant to avoid! Bob Gibbons

16

•

New Zealand pygmyweed or
Australian swamp-stonecrop
(Crassula helmsii)

•

Parrot’s-feather (Myriophyllum
aquaticum)

•

Floating pennywort (Hydrocotyle
ranunculoides)

•

Canadian pondweed/Nuttalls
pondweed (Elodea
canadensis/Elodea nuttallii)

•

Curly waterweed (Lagarosiphon
major)

If you think any of these species may
have colonised your pond, don’t

panic, but physically remove all you
can, compost the plants, and keep
doing so until you are sure they have
disappeared.

Under no circumstances dispose of
even a fragment of any of these
plants in the wild!

Where to get plants

It’s illegal to uproot any wild plant
without permission from the
landowner, although you can collect
seed. Your best source may be

17

Garden ponds

Above: Crassula helmsii - another invasive. Bob Gibbons
Top right: Who needs the cultivated variety when the native one is as beautiful as this? Marsh marigold. Chris Gibson/English Nature
Bottom right: Frogbit. Chris Gibson/English Nature

18

neighbours, friends or a local
gardening club, who will usually be
able to spare cuttings of their own
pond stock, but watch out for
aliens! Often, your local wildlife
trust will be doing management work
on a reserve pond, and may be able
to provide material. There are some
excellent specialist native plant
suppliers, many of them listed on
Flora Locale’s website
www.floralocale.org.

Although many garden centres now
sell native species of pond plants,
these may be ‘improved’ garden
varieties, which are actually of less
use to wildlife. The double-flowered
variety of marsh marigold – Caltha
palustris plena – is one to avoid.
Some centres still sell the invasive
plants mentioned earlier, and their
native stock may be contaminated
with exotic species.

Managing your pond plants

Once established, most water plants
grow extraordinarily fast unless they
are heavily shaded. This means they
compete for space in a small pond
and need management. Some plants
like bogbean send out long runners
and can spread two or three metres in
a season, but are easily reduced
because the brittle stems can be
snapped. Others, like the common
reed – only suitable for the very
largest ponds – form dense, tough,
root masses that need a saw to cut
them back.

Don’t over-manage your pond plants.
Remember, they are home for the
animals in the pond, so leave them
alone during the summer, especially
the grasses growing out from the
lawn with leaves spreading into the
pond margins. It’s best to remove

Great pond snail. Garth Coupland Water scorpion. Roger Key/English Nature

excess vegetation in the autumn,
when most amphibians have left the
pond. The submerged plants in
particular may have grown very
strongly. Pile the material by the
pond for 24 hours, so that the tougher
trapped animals have some chance to
escape, but don’t let it begin to rot
there, or nutrients will leach back in
to the pond to cause algal problems.
Pond plants compost quickly and
well. NEVER put any material from
your garden into a wild pond. You
could unknowingly be releasing a
problem species or disease into the
wild.

Animals in your pond

Although plants are beautiful and
valuable in their own right, it is the
animals that provide the greatest

interest for many people. There
could be dozens of species in a good
large garden pond, although some
will be too small to see without a
microscope. Getting animals into
your pond is easy – they find their
own way, provided the water quality
is good and the right plants are
established. Frogs, toads and newts
will discover your new pond quickly,
usually within a season and even in
most heavily urbanised areas. Insects
fly in, and arrive within days. Other
animals, like snails and small
crustaceans find their way somehow.
They travel on the feet of ducks or
bathing birds, or arrive attached to
introduced plants.

Animals play many roles in ponds.
Freshwater shrimps eat organic
debris and rotten vegetation. Water

19

Garden ponds

Migrant hawker. Paul Keene

20

fleas and others consume bacteria
and tiny single-celled organisms
living in the bottom sludge or as
plankton in the open water.

Herbivores, including snails,
mayflies, caddis-flies and some
beetles, eat larger algae and plants.
Other species are predators, eating
other animals, and then themselves

being eaten by bigger predators.
Some live all their life in the pond,
while others, like the dragonflies,
stay there for several years as
flightless larvae, before enjoying a
brief period as flying hunting adults
and then returning to the pond to lay
their eggs.

Birds, bats and beasts

Once your pond is established, it will
be a magnet for other animals. Many
garden birds such as blackbirds and
starlings will bathe at the edges, and
others will come down to drink. You
may see house martins and swallows
dipping for drinking water as they fly
or landing to collect mud for their
nests. Garden ponds are often staked
out by herons on the look out for
prey. If you are very lucky, you may
see the whirring blue flight of a
kingfisher, although they rarely find
the small fish they want in garden

Emperor dragonfly. Dave Sadler

Great diving beetle. Roger Key/English Nature

Thirsty hedgehog. Mike Powles

ponds. Grass snakes may visit or
even take up residence for the summer
if there are plenty of frogs to eat.

If you watch a pond at dusk you are
likely to see bats, probably
pipistrelles, flying over the water,
attracted by emerging insects.
Hedgehogs and even badgers may
stop for a drink, although you will be
fortunate to see them.

Frequently asked questions
about ponds

I already have a garden pond - what
can I do to make it more wildlife
friendly?

Formal ponds are not designed for
wildlife. They tend to have steep
sides without extensive shallow

areas. Concrete fish ponds can be
difficult for animals to escape from
and few have extensive vegetation
cover. To help wildlife, first ensure
that frogs and hedgehogs can leave
the pond, using rocks, stones or
paving slabs as a ramp. Then, create
more shallow habitat. Use sandbags,
recycled bricks or building blocks to
make a retaining wall near the pond
edge, and backfill to near the water
surface, using stones, gravel or
subsoil (NOT topsoil). This will
produce shallow water habitat in
which plants can get established.
Remember that a complicated
underwater ‘architecture’ will
support more animal species.
Finally, do you really want those
fish? If you can bear to give them
away (don’t release them into the
wild!), or just not replace them when

21

Garden ponds

House martins collecting mud for nests. Bob Gibbons

the heron has breakfasted, you’ll
enjoy many more species of animals
in your pond.

Should I put in a fountain and filter to
keep the water clear and oxygenated?

These aren’t needed for a wildlife
pond. Pond filters take out suspended
particles – but also the plankton
essential to a healthy pond. They are
only needed in over-stocked fish
ponds. Fountains help maintain
oxygen levels in fishponds, but oxygen
isn’t a problem in a balanced wildlife
pond. For all that, fountains and
waterfalls can make attractive features
and they do no harm at all to wildlife.

Should I put a net over the pond to
keep leaves out in autumn?

It is difficult to net larger ponds, and it
isn’t necessary unless the pond is right
under a large tree. Sometimes frogs,
grass snakes or birds can get tangled

in, or trapped under nets. A moderate
input of leaves does no harm.
Leaves have little fertilising ability,
but are food for many small
organisms. It is best to use a rake to
remove excessive leaves, and put
them into the compost heap.

I’m finding dead frogs in and around
my pond – what is the problem?

Although most frogs hibernate under
cover on land, a few over-winter in
the bottom of ponds. If the water is
frozen for a long period, some frogs
may be killed by a build up of toxic
decay gases. Bodies may float to the
surface in spring. Occasionally,
female frogs are drowned during the
mating period by over-attentive
males. The most serious cause of
death is the newly imported Red Leg
Disease, a viral complaint that causes
starvation, unpleasant ulceration and
eventually death. If your frogs look
unwell, look up the Froglife website

22

The grass snake is the largest British snake. Harmless to humans, it can
spend much of its time in water, often feeding on frogs. Andy Sands

The linnet is one of many bird species that may drop
in for a quick drink. Chris Gomersall

at www.froglife.org, where you will
find photographs of diseased animals,
and a reporting sheet to help track the
spread of the disease.

There are no frogs or newts in my
pond. Where can I go to get some?

If the conditions are right in the pond
and the garden and if there is another
pond within half a kilometre or so
from which they could migrate,
amphibians will find their own way.
The process can take up to a year
although it is normally much quicker.
Alternatively, bring in a couple of
masses of frogspawn, collected from
other gardens. Ideally, get spawn
from more than one source to avoid
inbreeding – but never from the wild.
Check with the owner that the
“parent” pond doesn’t have a frog
disease problem. Newts are best
introduced as adults but great crested
newts are specially protected and it is
illegal to move them at any stage of
their lifecycle.

I have too much frogspawn in my
pond, where should I put it?

You will have frogspawn according
to the number of frogs surviving in
and around your pond, so there won’t
be ‘too much’. Nearly all tadpoles
die and are eaten each year, the huge
numbers in early spring dwindling to
only a few young froglets by the
summer. Don’t move frogspawn
from your pond to the wild as you
may inadvertently spread diseases.
You will also increase the survival
chances of the remaining eggs and so
may finish up with more, rather than
fewer frogs!

My pond develops a thick layer of
green weed or duckweed. What is
wrong?

Blanket weed and duckweed are
natural components of pond
communities, and both in moderation
are excellent habitat. However,
duckweed can spoil the appearance
of a pond and is almost impossible to

23

Garden ponds

Both photos Bob Gibbons.

However much frogspawn you have in your pond, only
a tiny number of eggs will develop into adult frogs.

24

eradicate. A heavy build-up of
blanket weed or duckweed usually
means there is too much fertility in
the water. The likely reason is
nutrients in the water supply. Using
tap water is often a cause. Another
may be run-off from a fertilised lawn
or flowerbed. If you can’t improve
the water supply, there are other ways
to reduce the problem. Remove all
blanket weed with a lawn rake as it
builds up, and compost it. Duckweed
can be skimmed away. Remove
dying vegetation each autumn, and
cut back the plants hard so they have
plenty of opportunity for new growth
next year. Removing vegetation will
limit nutrient build up, and fast
growing plants next year will
compete for nutrients with the algae.
Immersing small bags of barley straw
is an effective natural control for
blanket weed, although it won’t
provide more than a temporary fix.

My old pond dries out in the summer.
Does it need digging out?

Drying out is common in older ponds
with a build-up of silt and organic
matter, but these old temporary ponds
can be extremely good for wildlife.
They usually hold water for long
enough in spring for successful
amphibian breeding, and acquire a
special set of species which tolerate
partial drying out. Why not dig a
small new pond next to the old one,
to restart the succession process? If
there isn’t space for this, and you
want standing water all year, dig out
only part of the old pond, to preserve
some of the valuable drying habitat.

How can I stop my pond freezing
over in winter?

Frozen water isn’t really a problem
unless you are keeping fish, or if
there are a lot of over-wintering

Foxes occasionally visit garden ponds but you may need to be an early

The larvae of dragonflies are fearsome predators,

riser to see one. Mike Lane

taking tadpoles and even small fish.
Roger Key/English Nature

frogs. Even then, you only need a
small hole to allow gases to escape.
Float a large ball on the surface to
keep a vent open. Alternatively,
make a hole by resting a saucepan of
hot water on the ice to melt through.
Never hit the ice with a hammer to
break it as the vibrations can kill
sensitive animals throughout the
pond.

Enjoying your pond

Don’t just spend time working on
your pond – give yourself time to
stop and enjoy it, and the fascinating
creatures it contains. All sorts of
birds visit ponds including pied
wagtails and their beautiful (unfairly
named!) cousins, grey wagtails. In
the early morning you may glimpse a

25

Garden ponds

fox coming to drink. In the heat of
the day, watch the dragonflies and
other insects flying over the pond,
mating and laying eggs. Look out
for dragonfly larvae emerging and
hatching into winged adults - one of
the most extraordinary events you
can witness in a garden. In the
evening, don’t forget to look for bats.

Use the books on ponds and pondlife
listed on page 26 to discover what
species you have in your pond. The
easiest way to study small
invertebrates is to catch them with a
fine kitchen sieve, and study them in
a white plastic tray. Why not build
up a list of species from season to
season and year to year? Eventually,
you may become a pond expert
yourself!

Arrowhead. Chris Gibson/English Nature

The grey heron may not always be a welcome
visitor. Bob Gibbons

26

Finding out more

The Ponds Conservation Trust, 1999.
The Pond Book: A guide to the
Management and Creation of Ponds.
Oxford. Order through

www.pondstrust.org.uk

Louise Bardsley 2003.
The Wildlife Pond Handbook.
New Holland, London.

Peter Robinson, 2003.
RHS Water Gardening.
Dorling Kindersley.

Trevor Beebee 1995.
Pond Life.
Whittet Books.

Lars-Henrik Olsen, Jacob Sunesen
and Bente Vita Pedersen 2001.
Small freshwater creatures.
Oxford University Press.

D.G. Hessayon 1993.
The Rock and Water Garden Expert.
Transworld Publishers Ltd, London.

P.S. Croft 1986.
A Key to the Major Groups of British
Freshwater Invertebrates.
Field Studies Council.

The freshwater name trail,
and Guide to the reptiles and
amphibians of Britain and Ireland.
Field Studies Council AIDGAP
leaflets.

This is one of a series of English
Nature leaflets about gardening with
wildlife in mind. The others are:
Reptiles in your garden; Amphibians
in your garden; Wildlife-friendly
gardening: a general guide;
Composting and peat-free gardening;
Plants for wildlife-friendly
gardening; and Meadows in your
garden. In preparation: Dragonflies
and damselflies in your garden. All
leaflets are free and can be obtained
from the Enquiry Service on
01773 455101 or e-mail:
[e-mail]

English Nature also produces an
interactive CD, Gardening with
wildlife in mind. This has detailed
texts and photos of 500 plants and
300 ‘creatures’ and shows how they
are ecologically linked. It costs
£9.99 (add £1.50 postage and
packing) and can be obtained from
The Plant Press, 10 Market Street,
Lewes, BN7 2NB. Alternatively call
John Stockdale on 01273 476151 or
e-mail [e-mail]

Small wildlife pond. Bob Gibbons

Useful organisations

Pond Conservation:
The Water Habitats Trust,
BMS,
Oxford Brookes University,
Gipsy Lane,
Oxford OX3 0BP.

www.pondstrust.org.uk

Froglife,
White Lodge,
London Road,
Peterborough PE7 0LG.

www.froglife.org

Flora Locale,
36, Kingfisher Court,
Hambridge Road,
Newbury RG14 5SJ.

www.floralocale.org

The Herpetological Conservation
Trust,
655A Christchurch Road,
Boscombe,
Bournemouth,
Dorset BH1 4AP.

www.herpconstrust.org.uk

The Wildlife Trusts,
The Kiln,
Waterside,
Mather Road,
Newark NG24 1WT.

www.wildlifetrusts.org

Plantlife,
14, Rollestone Street,
Salisbury SP1 1DX.

www.plantlife.org.uk

Royal Horticultural Society,
80, Vincent Square,
London SW1P 2PE.

www.rhs.org.uk

Above: Azure damselfly. Robin Chittenden
Above right: Brooklime. Chris Gibson/English Nature

27

Pond Conservation is the national
charity working to conserve and
protect ponds and small water
bodies through research, training
and practical management and
creation projects.

English Nature is the
Government agency
that champions the
conservation of wildlife
and geology throughout
England.

This is one of a range of
publications published by:
External Relations Team
English Nature
Northminster House
Peterborough PE1 1UA

www.english-nature.org.uk

© English Nature 2005

Printed on Evolution
Satin, 75% recycled
post-consumer waste
paper, elemental chlorine
free.

ISBN 1 85716 856 9

Catalogue code IN16.9

Designed and printed by
Astron Corporate
Solutions.

15M.

Front cover photographs:
Top left: Pond skaters may arrive at
new ponds within days.
Roger Key/English Nature
Bottom left: Broad-bodied chaser.
Paul Keene
Main: The kingfisher is an unlikely
visitor to most ponds but can turn up
almost anywhere near water.
Chris Gomersall