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My garden pond
On Friday I drained the pond. Or rather I bailed hundreds of gallons of smelly, gloopy water using whatever came to hand - plastic planters, a broken watering can and the rabbit's litter tray.
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Gardeners' World Web User
02/05/2008 at 00:51
well, this is not what I expected,, me leaving a message on this site, well here we go.

My children 13 and 16 have brought home a Tupperware box of tadpoles(baby frogs) for the ones who are not sure what I am on about.

They are interested in leaving them in the garden to have frogs at the end of the summer.

How do I keep them? what do I have to provide for them to be happy in and come back next time? I would be greatful of some tips.thank you

my email is myultimateevents@hotmail.co.uk

Gardeners' World Web User
05/05/2008 at 18:48
Help please, Last year I cleaned the bottom of the pond with a small nett. Quite a lot of debris but not massive. I also placed some " rocks" in the pond to give the frogs a means of escape. This year, frogs have gone, the pond weed does not seem to be doing well, the Flag Iris's around the ledges have not flowered either! The water is very clear and the fish seem fine. Have the rocks i bought from BQ changed the quality of the water please? Thanks
Gardeners' World Web User
08/05/2008 at 19:23
I'm building my first pond. Everywhere I ask for commercial underlay to put on top of sand layer and under butyl pond-liner, I'm told to use cardboard instead. Is this right? Is it OK to wet the cardboard to make it more flexible to lay? I'm very confused. Can anyone help?
Gardeners' World Web User
12/05/2008 at 17:43
The tadpoles need to be in water body of some sort, garden pond or ditch or lake. They are possible to rear in an aquarium, but there will probably be fairly high mortality. They need fairly dense plant cover and much murkier water than you would have to keep fish. They also need some way to get out of the water when they turn into froglets, so boulders or rocks or logs at one end. The little frogs, 10–15 mm long can be released somewhere near a relatively natural water body so that when they return in a few years time to mate and breed themselves, they do not try and get into your garden shed or whereever you keep the water tank.

Patty, I used old carpet, but you have to be very careful to get out all of the tacks and nails. The point of the underlay is to stop any sharp objects in the ground, such as rocks, stones, broken glass or shards of metal, penetrating and puncturing the butyl sheet when the tremendous pressure of the water pushes down on it. Corrugated card would probably be OK, and yes, damp it to make a good squidgy fit.

Stinky,not sure about rocks affecting the water, but you won't get much luck from returning frogs producing tadpoles if you have fish in the pond. I'd be tempted to get rid of the fish.

Gardeners' World Web User
27/05/2008 at 17:57
I have a pond with koi,sterlet,gold fish and frogs and tadpoles all live happy together.I got extra liner which I didn't cut off instead down the length of the pond on one side I dug a ditch about 10" deep and planted some things in baskets and some things in hessian sacking this area is out the way of the fish because has anyone knows who have koi, know they are really destructive, it also makes a safe place for tadpoles,I also dug out on the corner at the top of the ditch/pond a 1' basin which was to have a lilly so the fish did't rip it up this is also occupied by tadpoles to the right of that the liner continues with a large filter system stood on it,this also has a few inches of water over it and more tadpoles.Down the right side is a shallow ledge with bolders and plants in hessian in it, I've even seen tadpoles in this part, birds drink and bath in here so all live happy together.Theres a bamboo water shoot into the basin so the water quality is good and the water in the ditch is fed from the pond but it passes through a bank of mimuless which I've found keeps the tadpoles out the reach of the fish.
Gardeners' World Web User
04/06/2008 at 09:16
We have a newly created garden pond which is settling down very well. However, we have a vast number of whirligig beetles...... very entertaining to watch but can you have too many in a 5mx4m pond?
Gardeners' World Web User
20/06/2008 at 19:22
I have recently bought some sticklebacks for my son and put them in our small garden pond. For the last two weeks we have only seen them twice? I was advise the pond water should be fine and not cause them problems. Can anyone advise what are suitable conditions for sticklebacks, and is there disappearance normal behavior?. (we have not had herons visit the garden!!)
Gardeners' World Web User
29/06/2008 at 11:39
Hi - I made a wildlife pond about 4 weeks ago - I have one frog already, and the pond is full of insect larvae, but i don't know what they are! at first glance I thought they were very tiny tadpoles, about 2mm long, but looking closer they have a "jointed" look to their backs. Does anyone have any idea what they are?
Gardeners' World Web User
01/07/2008 at 16:34
We've got the same insect larvae in our tiny wildlife pond - does anyone know what they are??
Gardeners' World Web User
01/07/2008 at 21:27
Judging from my own experience with newts, I suspect the fish are very good at hiding, and that they are still in there, just invisible. A great trick for seeing some of these more secretive pond creatures is to go out at night and shine a torch beam down into the water. This shows up what's down there, and you are unlikely to startle anything with your shadows.

Reply to Gardenbabe. The first insects to arrive at my pond were mosquitoes. I suspect you have their larvae, or larvae of some other midge. Don't worry though, you'll soon get damselfly, dragonfly, boatmen and skaters. All these are predators and keep the flies down to acceptable numbers

Gardeners' World Web User
02/07/2008 at 21:05
Richard, what's your opinion on pond pumps? My mother keeps threatening to buy one. They say they're fish-friendly, but what about the other wildlife? Especially those high-powered ones that suck up all the gunk, do they take newts and froglets and larvae with them? Thanks
Gardeners' World Web User
30/07/2008 at 12:52
I've read lots of usefull info on ponds but not alot on how to create the best waterfall. i'm trying to build a cascading waterfall from a hight of about 4 feet with largeish stones and boulders. I'ts difficult to get the water to look natural,falling on top and through the stones instead of running underneath between stones and liner. Any advice out there would be so usefull. thanks, Julia
Gardeners' World Web User
06/08/2008 at 21:42
I have just done a pond for the northwood kirkby allotments we wont to bring frogs and toads . and may be sume newts.to are new pond. we are over run by slugs and snals.by puting tadpoles into the pond. is this the only way you will get frogs and toads. or will they cume on ther owen.
Gardeners' World Web User
12/08/2008 at 19:54
Hi, I have a fair sized semi-formal (it is kidney shaped but edged with slabs) pond at the mo which was in place when I moved in. The solid concrete waterfall now leaks & treatment with sealant has not solved the problem as the surface is too crumbly. Any ideas on how to repair/replace or, if I were to reduce the size of the pond to half pond half bog garden what advice do you have?
Gardeners' World Web User
14/08/2008 at 18:57
joey woosey, don't bring anything other than plants and fish if you want fish to your pond,frogs etc will come on their own this is safer because of all the disease you could bring. I would'nt be surprised if you have'nt got some around by now. Go at night and look, frogs travel far on a night. Good luck.
Gardeners' World Web User
02/09/2008 at 08:47
We first built a pond 2 years ago. It was built in a bad place,2 very large trees overlooking the pond. I lost a good few fish to the heron,but we now have trip wire around the pond,so we have not had it in the garden this year, but have seen it flying around. We have frogs and around 15 cold water fish in the pond.8 weeks ago I noticed one of the fish was at the bottom of the pond,so I took a closer look. The fish had small worms atached to it. I went onto the internet to find out what they where. To my horror they where called anchor worms,very bad to have in your pond. So it cost me a lot to clean the pond out and treat the fish with this nasty worm. I had to buy a pond vacume to get rid of all the smelly sludge at the bottom of the pond.I had no option but to do this. Now the pond is clear and the fish look very happy with no anchor worms in site. Now as the leaves are starting to fall,we have built a large frame with a net over it to protect the pond in the winter time.I have friends who are very clever, who have just built a Waterfall with a fast flowing stream,it looks fantastic at nigh,as the pond & the waterfall are all lit upin a blue lights. PS had a parrot having a bath in the sream last week. PPS no fish or wildlife where hurt cleaning out the pond, I kept the pond water, did not flush it away.It was 2 weeks before the water clear in the pond.
Gardeners' World Web User
02/09/2008 at 21:05
Can anyone advise me about the large yellow irises i have in my reasonably sized pond? They have always flowered beautifully but this year they were dreadful.I did cut them down at this time last year and now i wonder if that had anything to do with it.
Gardeners' World Web User
13/09/2008 at 18:30
I have a very small pond which I cleaned out in the spring (wrong time I think) and got rid of the fountain.I purchased some oxygenation plant that floats on the top and 3 marginal,one of which died.The other 2 seem to be alright but I'm not sure if I planted them correctly,infact I simply placed the pots directly into the water.Should I have transplanted them into something different and what do I do to the floating roots of the marigold?
Gardeners' World Web User
28/11/2008 at 20:33
I had an awful problem with green water this year which has been resolved succesfully. My pond is 8ft x 6ft 2ft 6in deep ,about 600 gallons ,i had a UV filter of 6watts . After untold products entering the pond ,to no avail i took a friends advice and bought a new filter box with built in 18 watt UV within a week clear water.I have 16 fish up to 3lb and i can now enjoy them
Gardeners' World Web User
12/01/2009 at 21:05
I am sorry to say I can't help anyone with any advice, as our ponds tend to manage on their own and if/when anything does happen I put it down to nature, and it usually sorts itself out - with the exception of blanket weed which is frustrating stuff to say the least! I wonder, though, if anyone has seen some strange, slightly prehistoric creatures in their ponds? They start of small and relatively harmless looking, as they mature they are definately carnivorous looking and then they seem to disappear. There heads have a sort of fat round shape with mandible-like parts coming from the sides (one on each side). Looks like this is where the unfortunate prey are held. There bodies are long, thin and appear to be in sections and they are very flexible. They are mouth breathers and come up to the pond surface for air. Like some prehistoric scorpion-like speed freaks in the water. We can only assume that they metamorphosize into something totally different and either stay at the bottom of the pond - or fly away. They are not dragonfly/damsel fly larvae so we haven't a clue what they are. They get to a size where they would give people a rather nasty bite and then they are gone, or are they?
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