Hi from Nottingham

Hi Wolf, welcome to Gardeners Cornere. This is the first year that I've had Frog Spawn in my pond although it's in a quiet secluded spot and was built in 1993. I suspect that I have had spawn in the pond before but I have fish in there too, so it's possible that they ate the spawn.

This time, because it was floating on top of a raft of weed, I took a jugful of it and placed it in a bucket. Further advice from other members was to put it into two buckets like so:



As you can see I have loads of Tadpoles. Further advice was to give them a feed of crushed fish flakes which I'm doing and the Tadpoles are eating.


And this is my pond during last summer.

I hope this has been of some help.

 

Yes, joined as an Apprentice as a Air Radar Fitter, first posting with Treble One Squadron [just swapping over to Lightnings], 2 years in Aden, 6 years in Kenya, and Midland Radar in Rutland, then HQ Strike Command at CTTO. I'd signed on until the age of 55 but bought myself out, as a Chf Tech, after 22 years because I was coming further away from my screwdrivers and test meters!! Enjoyed every minute of it though.

It does take time for a pond to settle down. I don't use filters or anything like that as I believe in the natural balance of Nature. So I use marginal plants and a linked bog garden to extract the nutrients from the water to stop Algae building and it works. My pond has never been cloudy or green despite having fish in there and has always been clear.

 

I think there's not much wrong with your set up, Wolf, to be honest, although like everyone's features and ponds there's always room for improvement, including mineYou've already mentioned that you've got the basic insect life, and a Toad and Frog. So that proves your water feature is attracting wild life First off, if you can, post some pics.

My pond normally relies on rain water for refilling, but should the level drop too much I have a hosepipe running the length of the garden, at the back of the borders where it's unseen, from an outside tap to the pond. There is electrical power too, for a waterfall, and also during the Winter, a pond heater to keep a hole in the ice.

Before I dug the pond I did a bit of research trying to decide which way to go regards keeping the pond water clear, i.e: electrical powered Pond Filters or using Nature to do it. I was put off the first by the vast array of gadgets professing to do this and that and also the great expense and the maintenance of the filters, and went for the second after reading an article by the late great Geoff Hamilton on ponds. He said if you planted heavily enough with marginal plants they would keep the pond clear by extracting the nutrients stopping algae forming. He also had a second card up his sleeve as he explained how to create a bog garden in the pond. The idea being dig out the pond, lay the liner, and then build a wall of "dry" bricks, i.e: using no mortar between the bricks, just laying them on top of each other. The wall was to go whatever width you want along the side from bank to bank, then filling the void between the wall and the bank of the pond with ordinary garden soil. You then fill the pond with water and the water leaks into the bog garden area through the gaps in the bricks, thereby being continuously fed with water. Also the plants in the bog garden are also taking out nutrients from the pond through the water coming through the bricks. That last part I considered was a stroke of genius from Geoff Hamilton.

You can see the brick wall on the right.


The water in this pic looks murky for a reason, I'd just been wading around in it, getting rid of old leaves and bits and pieces.

The one thing that will attract and keep the wildlife is the plants you put around the area. I over planted deliberately on both margin plants and bog plants and during the Summer sometimes lose sight of the waterfall due to the growth of the plants.



But I can sit there and listen to the waterfall