Encouraging Frog and Frogspawn to your Pond
If you are keen to encourage wildlife into your garden, why not help keep your pond frog friendly.
It is the time of year when we strat to see frogspawn appear in our ponds. In warmer areas you can notice the spawn as early as march and in other northern areas around April and May time.
Frogs spend most of their time on dry land, avoiding the direct sunlight by sheltering under rock or in shaded area of your garden.
If you are wanting to encourage frogs to spawn in your pond, you must ensure they can easily crawl out of the water. If the sides of your pond are too steep or have overhanging edges the frogs will be unable to climb out and could drown.
Often plants can act as a ladder for frogs to scramble out of your pond. Another option is to float a piece of wood on the pond surface, as they will be able to use this as a float.
If you want to make a purpose built frog ladder try using a plastic mesh and secure this to the edge of the pond or the surrounding ground. Remember the ladder must extend below the water level. This method can also help hedgehogs escape if they fall into your pond.
Frogs will lay frogspawn at the shallowest point of your pond, you can use stones to reduce the water level if need be. If you are wanting to create a frog friendly pond avoid using large paving slabs as frogs can stick to these in particularly hot weather, dehydrate and die.
Instead allow plants and grass to grow to the edge of the pond to create a safe haven for frogletts.
If you have fish in your pond it is not a good idea to encourage frogs to lay their spawn. Fish are carnivores and will not only eat frogspawn but newt eggs and dragon fly larvae.
Once the frogspawn has hatched most established ponds should provide enough food for tadpoles to grow to maturity.
Once the frogs have layed their spawn they will head back into your garden and return in summer to sun themselves or find cool shelter. In late summer they will disappear again to hibernate. They will return to lay the frogspawn next spring.