All Things Froggy

Build yourself a Pond

So you want a wildlife pond? Here's how to make one in your garden. Once you've made the pond, it shouldn't be long before you are watching wild animals. This is even true of ponds created in towns and cities. We had a wildlife pond in our old garden in London and we saw dozens of frogs, a toad, newts, a hedgehog and five foxes who regularly visited. Remember you need to get your parents' help and permission for this!

WHEN IS BEST TO BUILD YOUR POND?
The best time of year to build a pond is in November - this gives the pond time to settle down before the spring.

WHERE SHOULD I PUT THE POND?
There are a number of points to think about when deciding where to put your pond.

	The ground should be level or the water will run out. If your garden is on a slope - make a terrace.
	Put it in a reasonably sunny position but still give it some shade.
	Don't put it underneath trees or shrubs - otherwise you will spend all Autumn getting the leaves out.
	Don't put it somewhere people will keep disturbing the animals.

If you have small children in the house, be very careful where you put it - ie somewhere they can't fall in. Small children can drown even in a few inches of water, so perhaps you should think twice about having a pond at all, if you can't fence it off.

HOW BIG SHOULD MY POND BE?
Of course this is dependent on the area available but:

	Wildlife ponds need to be at least 60 cm (2 ft) deep in Britain (deeper in colder countries), so that the animals can escape the ice in winter and hot water in the summer.
	In deciding the width and length of the pond, bear in mind that you will need some shallow edges, where the warm water will attract animals such as tadpoles and where animals such as hedgehogs will be able to climb out, if they fall in.

WHAT SHOULD WE MAKE IT OUT OF?
You will need something to line the pond, so that the water stays in. There are two options - a flexible pond liner or a cast pond (made from plastic or fibreglass). Of the two pond liner is the best, because you can get your pond to be the shape you and the animals would like. In particular the cast ponds often don't have the shallow area wildlife need.

You will find your flexible liner in garden centres which have a water garden section. There are many types of pond liner - and they vary in price. Look on the label to see how long the liner will last - Butyl, which is what we used, can last over 20 years. Of course any liner will not last long if it gets punctured - such as by a bird's beak or sharp stones.

You will also need something to protect the pond liner from stones etc - we used an old carpet, but you could use old newspapers or fine sand, and there are materials which you can buy.

HOW MUCH POND LINER DO WE NEED?

	To work out the length the pond liner needs to be - add the maximum length to twice the maximum depth and add 60 cm (2ft).
	To work out the width - add the maximum width to twice the maximum depth and add 60 cm (2ft).

WE'VE GOT THE LINER - NOW WHAT?

	Dig the hole for the pond - the size and shape you want. Remember the size of the hole you dig will need to be deeper than the pond you want to allow for the carpet or whatever you are using to protect the pond liner. Keep the grass to one side.
	Dig a trench around the edge for the liner to be moored in.
	Clear away all the sharp stones from the hole.
	Line the hole with the carpet or whatever.
	Spread the pond liner over the hollow up to the trench.
	Weight down the edges in the trench with a smooth stones

Cover the pond liner with a shallow layer of sieved sub soil and, if you want, smooth pebbles.

AND NOW ADD WATER?

	Yes, add the water slowly. You will find that the water will pull the pond liner down to fit the hole.
	You will probably use tap water - in which case leave it to stand for a couple of weeks.
	Once the pond is full - trim back the liner, anchoring the edge in the trench using stones.
	Put the grass turves back around the pond, going right up to the edge.
	The water will probably go green for a while.

WHEN SHOULD WE PLANT THE POND AND WITH WHAT?
You can plant the pond after two weeks. The best time is in the Spring, but if you are like us you will want to have the pond plants established before the frogs arrive to lay spawn, if so do it earlier.

You must have enough pond plants which provide oxygen - these are called oxygenating plants. There are underwater oxygenating pond plants such as water starwort, milfoil, and willowmoss. Canadian pondweed can also be used, but it grows like crazy and so you may have to remove some after a while. Floating pond plants such as the water spider and water lilies are also useful, giving shade and shelter. Then you will also want plants for the edges of the pond - such as the marsh marigold and water forget-me-not, where animals can hide.

The best way to get pond plants is from someone else who has a wildlife pond. Don't take them from ponds without permission. You could try contacting your local wildlife trust (see contact page) for help.

Rooted pond plants can be planted in baskets filled with soil - you can buy the baskets from garden centres.

AND HOW DO WE GET THE ANIMALS?
Many will turn up by themselves - beetles will fly in, frogs will hop in and newts crawl. Others will come on the plants or in the mud surrounding the plants. You can try adding a bucket of mud from a wildlife pond to yours to add some bugs and their eggs.

Don't put fish into the pond if you want frogs and tadpoles. Fish will eat them!

IS THAT ALL?
No, think about the pond's surroundings. A wildlife pond is no good if there is nowhere to hide near it and no sources of food. Animals, such as frogs and newts, also need somewhere to hibernate. In order to provide these create an area of taller plants close to the water somewhere, a rockery can be created from the soil dug out for the pond (we have a dry-stone wall near our pond), and old logs nearby would also provide shelter.

If you can, do think about not using such things as slug pellets, they don't just poison slugs, but the animals that eat them as well.

How to Raise Tadpoles

Frog tadpoles have got to be the favorite pet of all time! I know more people who have dealt with tadpoles than goldfish... but then, maybe that says more about the people I know than it does about pet owners in general. But I CAN tell you that raising tadpoles can be much more than just fun- it is easy and educational too!

Here's what you need to know for dealing with tadpoles yourself.

First you'll need a suitable container, like an aquarium, fishbowl, plastic garbage bin, paddling pool, or garden pond. Be sure it has good shade---about 3/4 shade is ideal. If you are planning on having a frog pond, be sure there are no Pine trees or other poisonous plants near it! The fallen needles and leaves can be toxic to tadpoles.

Tadpoles absolutely depend on having fresh, clean water. If you take the water from a local stream or pond, be sure it isn't polluted. Ideally, you can get it upstream from any suspected sources like factories, sewers, etc. If using tap water, let it stand exposed to full sunlight for 5 to 7 days. This will allow the Chlorine to be removed by evaporation. If you don't have that much time, you can buy de-chlorinating drops at your local fish-carrying pet store. But at least leave the water out overnight, even after using the droplets. Even a little chlorine is deadly to tadpoles. It is always a good idea to keep a little de chlorinated water on hand.

What do tadpoles eat?

Well, I hear they LOVE lettuce. Boil the lettuce for 10 to 15 minutes and then drain it. Chop it up a little, and then you can lay it on a tray to freeze it. For average home ponds, use an icecube tray- 1 cube every couple of days should be enough. For smaller tanks, just lay some flat on a tray and freeze it, and keep it in a baggie in the freezer. Give the tadpoles a pinch every few days. Remember: too much food will get the water all dirty, and too little will make the tadpoles get nutty and go after each other. If your water gets dirty really fast, slow down on the feeding...and be sure to replace the dirty water with some fresh spare water.

The length of frog development from egg to tadpole to frog usually takes between 6 to 12 weeks. But it is also temperature dependant, so during cold spells it may take a bit longer or even be suspended till the temperatures go up. For example, eggs laid towards the end of summer may hatch, but tadpoles may stay tadpoles until the Spring/Summer period. So if it's cold and your tadpoles don't seem to be growing up very fast, there is no reason to panic.

The length of time a tadpole takes to develop really depends on what kind of frog it came from! I've even heard that some tadpoles can remain in their tadpole stage as long as 8 months, while others only take 6 to 9 weeks! When the tadpoles start getting close to developing legs, they will need some sort of perch so they can get out of the water. Floating water lily leaves and branches are ideal, but you can also create ledges using stones or even tilting slopes of plastic in tanks.

The tilt of the ledge may be important depending on what type of frog you have. Young tree frogs can climb smooth vertical surfaces such as the plastic pond liners and glass, but the ground dwelling frogs will need a rough slope when the time comes to climb out of the water.

At this point, if they aren't big enough to eat crickets but are too large to eat cabbage, you can try starting them off with small insects. A good substitute is bloodworms (live is best) which are usually found in pet stores that carry fish. You can try feeding them to the frogs by taking the lid of a jar and turning it upside down. Fill the cap with a bit of warmish water and lay a bunch of the gross wiggley worms in and usually the frogs will find them. Or you can put the worms directly into their water...

If you're rearing the tadpoles outside, keep the garden well watered and well vegetated. Young frogs will need a lot of ground cover to hide. There is not much point in rearing frogs in a totally hostile environment. In tanks, the same rules apply as for full grown frogs. After all, even if you're not a frog predator, they still like to hide under plants and rocks when they can!

Frog ponds kept year-round may establish a permanent breeding pond.

How to tell what kind of frog you have from a tadpole:

Telling what a tadpole is is very hard to do...
About the only thing I can recommend is to find a regional guide (like go to the library and find a book about what sorts of animals live in your area) and often if there are frogs, they will also show photos of what they look like as tadpoles. There really aren't any obvious distinguishing features that separate frog types at tadpole stage. Remember there are around 3,900 species of frogs in the world!  If the field guides for your region don't have pictures of tadpoles, your best bet is to wait until it becomes a frog and compare the pictures of frogs in the guide..

	The story I had always heard was that the nickname dates waaay back to sometime around the 18th century, when Paris was surrounded by many swamps...The French nobility that would visit Versailles apparently tended to refer to Parisians as frogs because of the swampy surroundings...and only later did the term get picked up to describe the French in general.
	Another story I've heard was that American soldiers adopted the nickname for the French during the World War II because they ate frog legs and hid well when camouflaged.
	I've also heard that a frog used to be on the French Flag, before the Fleurs de Lis was adopted when King Clovis took the throne....

There's a neat webpage that is collecting all sorts of these stories:
If you'd like to hear some other theories on why the French are called frogs, check out Frog Stories