Natural England works for people, places and nature to conserve and enhance biodiversity, and in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas. We conserve and and boggy enhance the natural environment for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people, and the economic prosperity it brings. areas: havens for wildlife www.naturalengland.org.uk

© Natural England 2007

ISBN 978-1-84754-009-6

Catalogue code NE27

Written by Dr Steve Head. Designed by RR Donnelley

Front cover image: The kingfisher is an unlikely visitor to most ponds but can turn up almost anywhere near water. Chris Gomersall www.naturalengland.org.uk Why have a garden ?

Most people are fascinated by water, and a is an excellent way of having it close to home. Garden ponds provide beauty and interest, and if designed can be of real benefit for wildlife.

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. By 1890 land had reduced the number of ponds to about 1,250,000: today only around 400,000 remain.

Most of these ponds were man-made: created as drinking places for cattle, or to store water for industry – iron foundries, mills and the like. Although some ponds are in good condition, many are now polluted by run-off from roads and agricultural fields. Others are changing naturally through lack of management and becoming overgrown by trees or filling with silt. While still important for many species of wildlife, these ponds rarely contain an abundance of common species.

Garden ponds help to reduce this loss. Top: Frog with reflection. Andy Sands Few will be suitable for endangered or Bottom: Starling. Paul Keene highly specialised freshwater species, but they can be a real haven for many providing a refuge for many freshwater others. For example, frogs today are plants and animals, a well-designed certainly doing better in suburban garden pond can be valuable for other than they are in much of the wildlife too. Birds drink and bathe in wider countryside, where suitable the shallow margins, or eat the autumn seed heads of reeds. Ponds will attract

Water forget-me-not. Chris Gibson/Natural England forget-me-not. Chris Gibson/Natural Water no longer exists. As well as

2 3 are many ways in which you can make their ponds. These will not prevent it more wildlife friendly, see Frequently interesting native animals colonising a asked questions, page 21. pond, but native plants normally support a greater variety of Many people want to keep fish in their invertebrates which, in turn, will attract pond. Unfortunately, fish often dig up a greater variety of other wildlife. For bottom-rooted vegetation and most this reason wildlife ponds should will eat tadpoles and other pond contain mainly native plants. There is a animals. If you regularly feed pond wide choice and many are very fish, the nutrients added to the water attractive. (See Native plants for your will encourage green algae and blanket pond, page 12.) weed that can rapidly smother a pond. Most ponds with large fish need to Siting your pond have expensive pumps, filters and aerators, all of which may be disruptive Take some time to choose the best site to wildlife. Most fish just don’t mix well for your pond. Once dug, it can’t be with wildlife so it may be best to moved! If it can be seen from the living Formal ponds like this one are not built with nature in mind. Bob Gibbons exclude them from a wildlife pond. If room or kitchen, you’ll be able to you want both, one answer is to have watch birds, bats and other visitors insect life which, in turn, will provide children, there can be few better two ponds, one mainly for fish and the from the comfort of your home. If the food for creatures such as house introductions to the natural world than other for wildlife. pond is away from the house, it may martins and bats. If you want to see discovering the extraordinary wild attract more timid species. Perhaps plenty of wildlife close to home, put a creatures that lurk in and around Some gardeners add exotic plants to pond in your garden. garden ponds.

Ponds and garden beauty Formal ponds, fish and exotic plants Ponds can look marvellous in gardens. They create a natural, peaceful Formal garden ponds are rarely good atmosphere, and the reflections from for wildlife. They are often concrete, the water add brilliance, colour and with vertical sides and overhanging movement. A pond – with an attached flagstone surrounds. These steep sides if possible – allows a make them dangerous for small greater variety of plants to thrive in mammals such as hedgehogs and even your garden, and even in the driest cats and small dogs may fall in and be summer will remain a lush and unable to climb out. Frogs and toads refreshing oasis. The birds and insects a can get trapped in these ponds, and pond attracts animate the summer may drown once they grow past the garden, and there is joy and fascination tadpole stage. in watching the character of a pond If you already have a formal pond there change through the seasons. For older Even very small ponds can be rich in wildlife. Bob Gibbons

4 5 you’d prefer to plan your garden so the plant species and the more species you pond is a surprise hidden in a private have, the greater the variety of animal corner. Mark out the outline of your they will create. However, proposed pond with canes and see doubling the dimensions of your pond how it will look before you start means you’ll be paying four times as digging. much for the liner, and disposing of eight times the volume of soil! Aim to have part of the pond in full sunlight. This allows the water to warm If you have the space, an excellent up quickly in the , so arrangement for wildlife is to have one encouraging plant growth. Some larger pond, several shallow small wildlife species prefer shaded water, pools and a bog garden area, allowing but avoid digging a new pond near a some pools to become muddy or dry in large tree as you may damage its roots. the summer. This variety of habitats Worse, new roots may penetrate your will ensure a great diversity of species. liner, and your pond may fill with leaves in the autumn. Depth Garden ponds needn’t be deep. Most Water boatman Corixa punctata. Bob Gibbons. Right: Bogbean. Chris Gibson/Natural England Size pond animals are found in the wildlife pond, 40 to 50 cm is deep possible source of water is . Siting How big should it be? This is up to you shallowest water – a couple of enough, and will mean much less soil your pond near a rainwater butt (filled and your budget. The pond should be centimetres deep. Deep open water is to remove. by run-off from guttering) means you in scale with the rest of your garden – the most dangerous habitat for small can easily siphon water from the butt even tiny ponds can hold a lot of animals, especially if fish are present – Water to the pond using a length of hosepipe. wildlife – but bigger ponds mean more so maximise the shallows. For a A clean water supply is crucial. If water Alternatively, you may be able to divert is contaminated with nutrients, you will water from a gutter’s downpipe directly struggle to keep the water clear as into the pond. algae builds up. If your pond is on a slope or in the bottom of a hollow, it Margins will fill from rainwater running off the The most important design element of land around it. For this reason don’t your pond is the profile of the sides. apply fertiliser to ground above a pond. Make sure there is a large shallow ‘shelf Also, don’t leave this ground bare, as area’ where the water is about 1 to 15 rainfall will wash nutrient-rich silt into cm deep. Water plants will flourish in your pond water. this zone. The margins should be very gently sloping (in some places at least) Most people fill their ponds with tap so they merge naturally with the land. water. This is easy – but rather wasteful. Ideally, create a ‘drawdown’ zone, a also often contains high shallow area you can cover with gravel quantities of the nutrients that Green woodpecker. Chris Gomersall. Right: The cuckooflower is one of the main food plants of the and round stones to form a ‘beach’. encourage algal growth. The best orange-tip butterfly. Chris Gibson/Natural England Flooded in winter, it will partly dry out 6 7 in summer, making a fabulous habitat buried cables or pipes. You can of the other dimensions. For for many insect species, and a great usually work out where the drains example, if the length is 3 m, the Ponds and safety run by the position of their width 2 m and the depth 0.4 m then bathing area for birds. The gravel will It is essential to plan your pond inspection covers. you need a liner 3.8 m long and protect the exposed liner from the sun. with safety in mind. The following 2.8 m wide just to cover the hole. • Waterproofing. You can buy rigid steps will help to reduce risks for Shape You need also to allow for extra preformed pond liners made of liner so that the edges can be young children and pets: What shape should the pond be? plastic or fibreglass, but some of buried in the surrounding soil. • Keep the pond shallow, and Straight edges look unnatural and these don’t have the gently-sloping have a wide, very gently should be avoided. The pond margin is sides that animals need to come • When you have dug the hole, sloping margin all round. often the part most-used by wildlife, and go easily. Some gardeners line remove any sharp projecting stones and creating a wavy-edged oval- their ponds with concrete, but this or roots that could puncture the • Have plenty of marginal shaped pond will maximise the size of is a major undertaking, and can be liner. This is time consuming, but plants, especially where sides this area. very expensive. The best solution is essential. Locating and repairing are steeper. to use a flexible liner made of butyl holes later is extremely difficult! • Don’t let the pond surface Building your pond or EPDM rubber, preferably one Line the hole with a 2.5 cm layer of become completely covered guaranteed for 25 years. Don’t be • You can make a pond in any month with duckweed or other tempted by cheap polythene liners For large and ambitious but early autumn is perhaps the floating species. This can as they often split or puncture projects most practical season as the ground make a pond look like an area within a couple of years. is neither too hard, dry nor cold. Most garden ponds don’t need of flat ground and encourage • How big a liner do you need? planning permission. But if you children (and dogs) to walk • You don’t want to put a spade Measure the greatest length and are making a very large pond, if it into it. through an underground pipe! width of the hole and then the is close to a boundary (especially • Fence the pond securely. The Check your site for evidence of depth. Add twice the depth to both if this is a road or footpath) or on fence should be at least 1.1 m agricultural land, contact your high, and with close vertical local planning officer and ask for posts that can’t easily be advice. climbed or squeezed between. However, make sure an adult If you are going to take water can get over, or through, the from a river or stream or fence quickly in case a child discharge water into one, you will somehow manages to get past. require a licence from the Environment Agency. • Strong plastic or metal meshes can be used to ‘cap’ a pond, You must also consult the but these are only really Environment Agency if your appropriate for smaller ponds. garden is on the flood plain of a They must also be properly river, especially over the removal installed so children can’t get of spoil. under them.

Pond watching. Bob Gibbons

8 9 damp sand as further protection, or • Hide the edge of the liner. For most use a fabric layer. Old carpets cut to of the pond margin, the best way to shape will do, although they will do this is to use turf. The grass will eventually rot down and become grow into the pond, making it easy ineffective. Alternatively, buy thick for animals to climb in and out. polyester matting from a lining Beach areas should be covered with supplier. If you have created a fine pea gravel (not sharp-edged beach area (see Margins page 7), it’s pieces) and round or flat stones. As a good idea to put a double layer of silt collects between the stones, liner underneath it. This will help plants will start to colonise it. This protect this exposed area from plant growth will help protect the people’s feet and dogs’ claws. liner and create an attractive habitat. • What to do with the soil? A pond 2 m by 3 m and 0.5 m deep in the • You don’t need to spread soil over 3 middle will create around 2 m of the pond bottom to encourage Smooth newt. Chris Gibson/Natural England loose soil. If the garden is on a plants. As well as being in which moisture-loving plants can slope, use some of this to ensure unnecessary, adding soil to your important as the water itself. This is thrive. Dig a hole about 30 cm deep, the sides of the pond are level all pond will contaminate the water especially true for frogs, toads and round. Many people use surplus with unwanted nutrients. For more newts, which spend most of their lives line it with butyl and refill it with the soil to make a rockery or an earth details, consult one of the guides on land, and mainly use water for extracted soil. Ideally, this area should bank nearby, and these features listed at the end of this leaflet. breeding. A very formal garden will be sited next to your pond in a position can be great winter refuges for have little to offer these amphibians as where it will collect surplus water amphibians. If you make a rockery, The garden around your pond they need dense cover and a plentiful draining from the pond in wet weather. use materials from a sustainable supply of insects and worms for food. The dense, lush vegetation in bog source (not rain- sculptured For many animals, the quality of Try to leave some of the garden near gardens creates a superb habitat for limestone, for example), and if you habitat around the pond is just as your pond un-manicured, for the newly-emerged young frogs and these create a bank, plant it to provide benefit of wildlife. Allow patches of gardens can also support some very cover all year round. border to grow dense and shady, and attractive native flowers. leave areas of grass uncut under trees. • Digging is hard but satisfying work. Digging with a spade and fork You can also create over-wintering makes it easy to make small habitats such as stone and log piles in modifications and adjustments to quiet shaded areas. Rockeries also your design as you go along. make a good amphibian habitat. However, for big ponds you might have to hire a minidigger or Bog gardens approach a contractor for a quote. A bog garden is a great wildlife asset, so A digger and its operator can do a try and find room for one when you huge amount in a day for a modest create your pond. A bog garden is rate, but make sure that you agree Amphibious bistort. permanently damp, and creates an area the plans and costs in advance. Chris Gibson/Natural England Common toad. Roger Key/Natural England

10 11 Native plants for your pond or most of their stems and leaves underwater. They offer a very valuable Plants are vital components of your habitat for animal species in deeper wildlife pond, providing both habitat water, and help mop up surplus and food for a host of animal species. nutrients. Wildlife ponds should have much of their water surface covered by a good Floating leaf plants. In summer, their variety of plants. The more leaves float on the water surface, complicated the underwater providing shade and cover. A good ‘architecture’ of roots, stems and example is floating sweet-grass – this leaves, the more animal species can provides some of the best habitat, and co-exist. Very few animals like clear, is excellent for growing over the edge open water where they can be easily of the liner, giving a natural look. spotted by predators. Emergent plants. This group includes Although some plants will naturally some very attractive species, which colonise ponds quite quickly, many help form excellent invertebrate people will want to introduce plants of habitats. They prefer shallow water their own choice. It is better to plant and most of their summer growth native species, to which our native emerges from the water into the air. animal species are adapted. The They include rushes and reeds, and species listed on pages 14 and 15 are all some very fine flowering species. attractive and easy to establish. However, some are too vigorous for a small pond. Water plants fall into four categories: Marginal and bog plants. These thrive Submerged plants. These live with all at the water’s edge or in wet soil. They

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

12 13 Native plants for garden ponds Suitable Comments for Key: 1 appropriate for all ponds, including small ones Lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula 1 Less spectacular, less invasive than 2 too large or vigorous for smaller ponds spearwort 3 best reserved for larger ponds Spearwort Ranunculus lingua 2/3 Giant water buttercup, up to 90 cm Arrowhead Sagittaria sagittifolia 1/2 Arrowhead leaves, small white flowers Brooklime Veronica beccabunga 1 Blue flowers, straggly, good at the pond edge Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliatea 2/3 Beautiful, invasive but easy to Suitable Comments control for

Submerged plants Tall emergents Curled pondweed Potamogeton crispus 1 Also fennel pondweed P. pectinatus Flowering rush Butomus umbellatus 1/2 Very pretty pink-flowering rush Water starwort Callitriche stagnalis 1 Floating rosettes of rounded leaves Branched bur-reed Sparganium erectum 3 Unusual spiky flower, semi Rigid hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum 1 Thickly-tufted plant, vigorous evergreen Water milfoil Myriophyllum spicatum 1 Caution! Not M. aquaticum Water mint Mentha aquatica 2/3 Pretty, scented leaves, invasive, Water crowfoot Ranunculus aquatilis 1 Partly floating, attractive white good for bees flowers. (Most crowfoots do best Water plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica 2 Small pink flowers, up to 1 m where the water level drops to Greater pond-sedge Carex riparia 2/3 Good invertebrate habitat expose a muddy margin on which Lesser bulrush Typha angustifolia 2/3 Not for small ponds the seeds germinate.) Common reed Phragmites australis 3 Fine plant, but too big for most ponds Floating leaf plants Broad-leaved pondweed Potamogeton natans 2 Excellent for habitat Marginal and bog plants Frogbit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae 1 Attractive white flowers Bugle Ajuga repens 1 Very pretty, deep blue, good for Floating sweet-grass Glyceria fluitans 2/3 Good habitat; plant at the margin insects to float out Marsh marigold Caltha palustris 1/2 Superb yellow flower Yellow water-lily Nuphar lutea 2 ‘Brandy bottle’: smells of alcohol Hard rush Juncus inflexus 2 Less invasive than soft rush; Fringed water-lily Nymphoides peltata 2 Fringed yellow flowers like brown fruits buttercup Lady’s smock Cardamine pratensis 1 Pretty pale purple flowers Water soldier Stratiotes aloides 2/3 Impressive spiky plant that sinks in Yellow flag Iris pseudacorus 2 Superb yellow flowers, red seed winter capsules White water-lily Nymphaea alba 3 Beautiful, but too vigorous for Ragged-robin Lychnis flos-cuculi 1 Pretty, delicate pink flower most gardens Purple-loosestrife Lythrum salicaria 2 Great red-purple spikes Yellow loosestrife Lysimachia vulgaris 2 Fine yellow-spiked plant Shallow water emergents Marsh woundwort Stachys palustris 1/2 Pale purple flower spikes Amphibious bistort Persicaria amphibia 1 Pink flower stalks, dark green Great willowherb Epilobium hirsutum 3 Tall red-flowered plant, seeds leaves freely Water forget-me-not Myosotis scorpioides 1/2 Small, pale blue flowers Hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum 3 Impressive red-purple flowers, seeds freely Royal fern Osmunda regalis 2/3 Superb native fern, dislikes lime 14 15 • New Zealand pygmyweed/ If you think any of these species may Australian swamp-stonecrop have colonised your pond, physically Crassula helmsii. remove as much of the plants as you • Parrot’s-feather Myriophyllum can and then compost them. Keep aquaticum. doing so until you are sure they have disappeared. • Floating pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides. Under no circumstances dispose of even a fragment of any of these plants • Canadian pondweed Elodea in the wild! canadensis. • Nuttall’s pondweed Elodea nuttallii. Where to get plants • Curly waterweed Lagarosiphon It’s illegal to uproot any wild plant major. without permission from the landowner. Your best source may be

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

include some real beauties. If you’ve Invasive aliens made a bog garden alongside your Many species of imported plants have pond, you can use these plants to escaped from garden ponds into the create a very attractive feature that will wild and a few are causing very serious also provide cover for frogs, toads and ecological damage to ponds and rivers. newts. Part of the problem is the ability of Non-native plants these plants to reproduce from very small fragments and then form dense There is a view that a wildlife pond choking mats of vegetation. Some of should only contain native species. But these species are still on sale in garden there are many attractive exotics and centres but should never be planted in these can provide excellent cover for your pond – they would take it over in wildlife – though they may be less no time. likely to be food plants for insect visitors. It is best to use them sparingly Avoid the following: and let natives form the bulk of the • Fairy or water fern Above: Crassula helmsii – another invasive. Bob Gibbons planting. Above all, beware of the Top right: Marsh marigold. Who needs the cultivated variety when the native one is as beautiful as this? Azolla filiculoides. problem plants listed opposite! Chris Gibson/Natural England Bottom right: Frogbit. Chris Gibson/Natural England

16 17 neighbours, friends or a local Managing your pond plants gardening club, but watch out for plant Once established, most water plants cuttings contaminated by alien species! grow very fast unless they are in heavy Often, your local wildlife trust will be shade. Plants such as bogbean send out doing management work on the ponds long runners and can spread two or in a nearby wildlife reserve, and may be three metres in a season. Bogbean is able to provide material. Alternatively, a easy to control as it has thin brittle list of specialist native plant suppliers stems that can be snapped off. Others, can be found on the Flora Locale like the common reed, form dense, website www.floralocale.org (see also tough, root masses that need a saw to Contacts, page 26). cut them back. For this reason, Although many garden centres now sell common reed is only suitable for the native pond plant species, these may largest ponds. be ‘improved’ garden varieties, which Don’t over-manage your pond plants. are of less use to wildlife. For example, To prevent disturbing your pond’s the double-flowered marsh marigold wildlife, leave the plants alone during Caltha palustris plena is one to avoid as the summer, especially any Migrant hawker dragonfly. Paul Keene it will provide little, if any, pollen or grasses growing out over the pond nectar. Some centres still sell the that the submerged plants in particular pond is easy – they find their own way, margins. It’s best to remove excess invasive plants mentioned above, and have grown very strongly. Remove provided the water quality is good and vegetation in the autumn, when most their native stock may be contaminated excess vegetation and leave it in a pile the right plants are established. Frogs, amphibians have left the pond. When with exotic species. by the pond for 24 hours. This will toads and newts will discover your new clearing out your pond, you might find enable some of the wildlife caught pond quickly, usually within a season amongst the stems, leaves and roots to and even in most heavily urbanised return to the water. Don’t let it rot there areas. Flying insects will turn up within however, or it will return excess days. Other animals, such as snails and nutrients to the pond. This pond small crustaceans, will also arrive, often vegetation can then be composted. travelling on the feet of ducks or bathing birds, or attached to Never put any material from your introduced plants. garden into a wild pond. You could unknowingly be releasing a problem Animals play many roles in ponds. species or diseases into the wild. Freshwater shrimps eat organic debris and rotten vegetation. Water fleas and Animals in your pond others consume bacteria and tiny single-celled organisms living in the There can be dozens of animal species bottom sludge or open water. in a good large garden pond, although Herbivores, including snails, mayflies, some will be too small to see without a caddis-flies and some beetles, eat Great pond snail. Garth Coupland Water scorpion. Roger Key/Natural England microscope. Getting animals into your

18 19 Frequently asked questions from sandbags, old bricks or building blocks (there’s no need to mortar them I have a formal pond – what can I do to together). The space between this wall make it more wildlife friendly? and the pond edge can then be Formal ponds are not designed for backfilled using stones, gravel or wildlife. They tend to have steep sides subsoil (don’t use topsoil as this will without extensive shallow areas. add nutrients to the water). Backfilling Concrete fish ponds can be difficult for to within 5 or 10 cm of the surface will animals to escape from and few have create a shallow water habitat where a the extensive vegetation cover that variety of native plants can establish wildlife needs. To help wildlife, first themselves. ensure that frogs and hedgehogs can Finally, do you really want those fish? A leave the pond. You can do this by pond without fish will support far Emperor dragonfly. Dave Sadler Great diving beetle. creating a ramp using rocks, stones or more wildlife than one with. Don’t Roger Key/Natural England paving slabs. release ornamental fish into the wild! larger algae and plants. Other species Birds, bats and beasts Most pond wildlife prefers shallow Instead, find them a good home with a are predators of other animals. Some water. To create shallow water habitat, fish enthusiast or just wait until your Once your pond is established, it will live all their life in the pond, while build a retaining wall inside the pond fish population diminishes naturally. be a magnet for other animals. Many others, such as dragonflies, stay there near its edge. The wall can be made garden birds such as blackbirds and for several years as flightless larvae, starlings will bathe at the edges, and before enjoying a brief period as flying others will come down to drink. You hunting adults, then returning to the may see house martins and swallows pond to lay their eggs. dipping for drinking water in flight 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. Grass snakes may visit your pond 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, though you will be fortunate to see them. Thirsty hedgehog. Mike Powles House martins collecting mud for nests. Bob Gibbons

20 21 Should I put in a and filter to nets often trap frogs, grass snakes, keep the water clear and oxygenated? birds and small mammals.

These aren’t needed in a wildlife pond. I’m finding dead frogs in and around Pond filters take out suspended my pond – what‘s the problem? particles, but also remove the plankton that is essential to the life in a healthy There are many reasons why frogs die pond. help maintain oxygen in ponds. If you find the bodies of levels in crowded fishponds, but frogs floating to the pond surface in oxygen isn’t a problem in a balanced spring, they may have been killed as a wildlife pond. On the other hand, result of winter ice. Although most fountains and are attractive frogs hibernate on land, a few over- An established pond can be a superb garden feature and However much frogspawn you have in features that do no harm at all to winter in the bottom of ponds. If the wildlife haven. Bob Gibbons your pond, only a tiny number of eggs will develop into adult frogs. Bob Gibbons wildlife. pond water is frozen for a long period, some frogs may be killed by a lack of How can I stop my pond freezing over source to avoid inbreeding. Never take Should I put a net over my pond to oxygen and a build-up of toxic gases. in winter? spawn from the wild and avoid any keep out autumn leaves? Some frogs die in the mating season garden pond where there is a history of Frozen water isn’t really a problem when female frogs are drowned by frog or fish disease. Newts are best A moderate input of leaves does no unless you are keeping fish, or the over-attentive males. There are also a introduced as adults but great crested harm, so it isn’t necessary to net a pond is home to many over-wintering number of frog diseases. One of the newts are protected by law – it is illegal pond unless it is under a large tree. frogs (see opposite). Even then, you most infamous, Ranivirus (also known to interfere with them at any stage of Leaves have little fertilising ability, but only need a small hole to allow gases to as ‘red-leg’) causes starvation, their lifecycle. are food for many small organisms. escape. Float a large ball on the surface unpleasant ulceration and death. For Use a rake to remove excess leaves, to keep a vent open. Alternatively, For more detailed information consult more information go to the Froglife and put them into the compost heap. make a hole by resting a saucepan of the Natural England publication website www.froglife.org (see also Netting a pond can harm wildlife as hot water on the ice to melt through. Amphibians in your garden (see Contacts, page 26). Don’t break the ice with a hammer – the Contacts, page 26). shock-waves can kill sensitive animals. I have too much frogspawn in my There are no frogs or newts in my pond. pond, where should I put it? Where can I go to get some? The amount of frogspawn will vary If your pond can support amphibians, according to the number of frogs and if there is another pond within half surviving in and around your pond, so a kilometre or so, they will usually find there will never be ‘too much’. Nearly their own way to your garden. The all tadpoles die and are eaten each process can take up to a year but is year, the huge numbers hatching in normally much quicker. Alternatively, early spring dwindling to only a few collect a couple of masses of young froglets by the summer. Clearing The grass snake is the largest British snake. Harmless to The linnet is one of many bird species humans, it can spend much of its time in water, often that may drop in for a quick drink. frogspawn from other garden ponds. frogspawn from your pond will also feeding on frogs. Andy Sands Chris Gomersall Ideally, get spawn from more than one increase the survival chances of the

22 23 often reduces the water depth. may glimpse a fox coming to drink. However, these ‘temporary’ ponds can Later, in the heat of the day, watch the be extremely good for wildlife. They dragonflies and other insects flying usually hold water for long enough for over the pond, hunting, mating and successful amphibian breeding, and laying eggs. From late May onwards, acquire a special set of plant and look out for dragonfly larvae emerging animal species which will tolerate and hatching into winged adults – one occasional drying out. If you have one of the most extraordinary events you of these ponds, why not dig a new can witness in a garden. In the evening, pond next to it, to restart the you might see bats hunting for flying succession process? If there isn’t space insects over the water. for this, and you want some standing Many useful books on ponds and Foxes occasionally visit garden ponds but you may need to be The larvae of dragonflies are fearsome water all year, dig out only part of the pondlife are listed on page ?? and these an early riser to see one. Mike Lane predators taking tadpoles and even old pond, to preserve some of the small fish. Roger Key/Natural England will help you identify the plants and valuable ‘drying’ habitat. remaining eggs, meaning you may end will add unwanted nutrients to your animals in and around your pond. The easiest way to study small up with more, rather than fewer frogs! pond, as will the run-off from a Enjoying your pond If you have to remove frogspawn, don’t fertilised lawn or flowerbed. If you can’t invertebrates is to catch them with a take it to a wild pond as you may improve the water supply, there are Don’t spend all your ‘pond time’ on fine kitchen sieve and study them in a inadvertently spread diseases. other ways to reduce the problem. maintenance – take a break and enjoy white plastic tray. Why not record your Remove all blanket weed with a lawn it. There’s plenty to see. All sorts of finds and build up a list of species My pond develops a thick layer of rake as it builds up, and compost it. birds can visit ponds, including pied from season to season and year to blanket weed or duckweed. What’s Duckweed can be skimmed away. To wagtails and their beautiful cousins, year? Eventually, you may become a wrong? reduce nutrients in the pond, remove grey wagtails. In the early morning you pond expert yourself! dying vegetation each autumn so it In moderation, both blanket weed and can’t rot down in the water, and cut duckweed help create excellent wildlife back living plants hard to encourage habitats. However, duckweed can spoil new growth next year. Creating this the appearance of a pond and is almost new growth will help use up nutrients. impossible to eradicate completely. Placing a small bag of barley straw in These weeds can also be dangerous: if a the pond is an effective temporary pond surface is completely covered in control for blanket weed. As it decays, green it can look like a solid surface the straw releases chemicals that and encourage young children and pets inhibit weed growth. to try and walk on it.

A heavy build-up of blanket weed or My old pond dries out in the summer. duckweed usually means there is too Does it need digging out? much fertility in the water. Filling or Drying out is common in older ponds topping up your pond with tap water Arrowhead. Chris Gibson/Natural England The grey heron may not always be a as a build-up of silt and organic matter welcome visitor. Bob Gibbons

24 25 Contacts Plantlife gardens, and shows how they are Freshwater name trail (wall chart). 14 Rollestone Street ecologically linked. See Field Studies Council. Natural England Salisbury, SP1 1DX www.plantpress.com 1 East Parade www.plantlife.org.uk L-H. Olsen, J. Sunesen & B. V. Pedersen. Sheffield, S1 2ET Other titles Small freshwater creatures. Oxford Enquiry Service: 0845 600 3078 Royal Horticultural Society Louise Bardsley. The wildlife pond University Press. 2001. [email protected] 80 Vincent Square handbook. New Holland. 2003. www.naturalengland.org.uk London, SW1P 2PE Pond Conservation. The pond book: a www.rhs.org.uk Trevor Beebee. Pond life. Whittet guide to the management and creation Pond Conservation Books. 1995. of ponds. Oxford. 1999. School of Life Sciences (Available through Oxford Brookes University P.S. Croft. A key to the major groups of [email protected].) Gipsy Lane British freshwater invertebrates. Field Oxford, OX3 0BP Studies Council. 1986. Peter Robinson. RHS water gardening. [email protected] Dorling Kindersley. 2003. D.G. Hessayon. The rock and water Pond Conservation is the national garden expert. Transworld Publishers. charity working to conserve and 1993. protect ponds and small water bodies through research, training and practical management and creation projects. Small wildlife pond. Bob Gibbons

Froglife 9 Swan Court Further information Cygnet Park Peterborough, PE7 8GX This is one of a range of wildlife www.froglife.org gardening booklets published by Natural England. For more details, The Herpetological Conservation Trust contact the Natural England Enquiry 655A Christchurch Road Service on 0845 600 3078 or e-mail Boscombe [email protected] Bournemouth Dorset, BH1 4AP Natural England also produces www.herpconstrust.org.uk Gardening with wildlife in mind, an illustrated wildlife reference. Originally Flora Locale on CD but now also available online, Denford Manor Gardening with wildlife in mind has Hungerford, RG7 0UN detailed information on 800 plants and www.floralocale.org animal species often found in our Azure damselfly. Robin Chittenden

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