Make me like frogs - I want a pond!

We sometimes find frogs when mowing the lawn. We've a very damp garden and ponds in gardens either side.
I once found a very sleepy newt when weeding a flower bed - it was curled up under the earth.
There were some quite large frogs when we finally tidied my FiL's urban garden and not a pond in sight.
So, MamieJoy how about keeping the numbers down by moving some of the spawn, if you get any, to a suitable pond elsewhere? Not sure if that's allowed these days......

I have been told that you either have frogs and toads or newts but often not both. Seems to be the case in my garden, one year newts next toads!

I completely appreciate your fear of coming across a frog unexpectedly in the garden, Mamiejoy - we have them and I’m always nervous when weeding in long grass.

When I was a child we also had lots of frogs in the garden - there must have been hundreds as my mother once collected about 80 and sold to the zoology dept in university. She bought a new hat with the proceeds! Another time when I had a birthday party, aged 8 or 9, my mother organized a frog hunt as a game. Each child was given a flower pot and could catch a frog by trapping under pot, then sliding hand underneath and transferring to under a garden sieve. Interestingly, I don’t remember any children being afraid of catching the frogs, which were released afterwards.

I would love another pond, but we don't have the room for one. In our last house we used to have frogs hopping through our garage, but they weren't in the pond. We never knew where they came from, or where they were going.

JaneA - that sounds lovely! I don't have a lawn anymore - maybe that's why the frogs don't stay around.

I made a pond in a pot recently, and I am waiting for it to become inhabited. So Mamiejoy, send them to me and I will look after them . The ‘pond’ is tiny, but I live in hopes

Can't mow my lawn at the moment as there are dozens of tiny, tiny frogs jumping all over it. Don't want to chop them up.......

We have a very small garden, and subsequently a rather small pond. it is surrounded by plants and herbs , together with pond plants. Because it has a gently sloping edge it is used by birds, bathing and drinking, and the occasional hedgehog.Every spring it is full of frog spawn.
Small can be both interesting and beneficial to both humans, and the local wildlife, providing a refuge and breeding area for frogs, toad and newts, and many insects too.
Maimejoy, build your pond and they will come. Your may never even see them, let alone handle them, but hear them gently plop into the pond as you approach it.

We've just expanded what was a useless pond (always dried out in the summer). I was worried that the frogs wouldn't come back to the new pond but they have: when they mate, there are so many that the pond looks as though it's boiling, there's such a lot of activity. Then we have tons of frogspawn and then tons of tadpoles, but I rarely see the frogs. Sometimes you see the tiny ones, but they go away and live somewhere else, and only come back to mate and lay eggs. So I don't think you need to worry about being overrun with frogs, MamieJoy. Think of it as doing your bit for nature and biodiversity. And it's lovely watching a pond as well - great opportunity to get some different plants in the garden too.

bluebelle we inherited a very large pond in our new house,I t seemed empty of wildlife. Over the past 3years people have given us toad and frog spawn, but ,like you nothing. We do however have a lot of newts.

My advice to anyone planning a garden pond is to make it as big as possible - ideally about a third of the area of the garden (or that part of your garden if you have more than one area of garden). Tiny ponds don't add much interest and can just look silly but a large pond will reflect the sky and surroundings and attract a good variety of birds and wild life - including frogs, which you might grow to love.

I wish frogs and toads would come to my garden, there is a feast of slugs and snails that the well fed birds are not getting to grips with. My son once had a family of huge toads in his garden, living under a cardboard box. (He is not tidy). Perhaps that is the answer. An untidy garden with plenty of cover.

I love frogs and have done everything possible to have them I have had a small very well looked after pool for over 20 years, friends have given me frog spawn on numerous occasions but they have never ever become the little frogs I so want in my garden

Thank you crystaltipps! Now the slug-eating aspect is a strong argument in favour! The bucket idea is great too. I am wavering...

Frogs do a great job of eating slugs and bugs, the frog spawn and tadpoles are good for birds and other wildlife. They are more scared of you than you are of them. There is no reason why you should ever pick one up. If you ever did need to move one a bucket and plate are useful and mean you’d never touch one. If you have frogs in your pond then you know your pond is clean and provides a focus for all sorts of species which are threatened- newts, dragon flies, and yes frogs. They only live in the pond whilst mating, the rest of the time they will be elsewhere keeping themselves to themselves.

No, sorry CrazyH not motivation enough!

Mamiejoy, you never know, one of them might turn out to be a prince. ?
I would go for it.........