Anyone who knows me will be fully aware of my fascination with the wildlife in my garden. I think my family are somewhat immune to my rantings about what creature I've found while out there now, but others find it amusing when I rave about the teeniest frog I've just seen, or the stag beetles I've witnessed dancing on the water.
My main focus for wildlife are the little ponds dotted around my garden. I started off with one, added another three, then one more joined in last year. They really are teeming with all kinds of life, including frogs and tadpoles, newts, dragonflies and stag beetles.
All of my ponds have been made from containers that I happened to have laying around. You can really use just about anything, as long as it is waterproof. The one above is a very large plastic plant pot, lined with a thick dustbin bag and edged with slates and pebbles and lots of bushy plants.
As you can see, the frogs are very happy in it and have layed plenty of spawn in amongst the Spearwort :-)
The three ponds below were the first set I made. I'd dug up a sunken fish pond, having made the decision to have a freestanding one on the patio, and was left with a huge hole to fill. Rather than pile it all up with compost, I decided to pop some pots in to serve as mini ponds for the frogs. A few years ago, it looked like this, with plenty of logs and pebbles providing hiding places.
And it now looks like this:-
Choc full of Marsh Marigold, Irisis, and Pond Grass, and surrounded by mounds of stunning Carex. The baby frogs especially like hiding out in here.
Last year, we knocked down a dilapidated garage in the garden, freeing up a lovely new space for me to fill. It was right next to the patio, and I thought would be the perfect spot for another little pond, one that I could whip out to from the kitchen in my slippers and have a quick peep at. I used a rectangular storage container for this one (ousting some Christmas decorations ;-) ) but because of the dire weather last year, I never really got to finish it off. Well, yesterday, I set to and added some fresh pond plants to it, carefully avoiding the frogs already in there and the mounds of spawn, and edged it with some slate and pebbles. I'm really happy with it.
And I think this cute couple are too!
I'm looking forward to seeing the borders of it bulked up with plants in the coming years to provide plenty of shade and shelter. And in return for my generosity in providing them with homes, those frogs had darn well better eat all the nasty slugs in my garden this year!
