Frogspawn

Not yet but I have one eye on the pond... trouble is I'm having to keep the covers on it as I spotted a Heron last weekend.

Not yet but last year had frog and toad spawn third week of February.

Our pond is full of several tons of snow- so no, I don't think so ;)

The best thing in our pond are the large blue aeschne dragon-fly larvae. In the middle of Summer they come up and climb the reeds, attach themselves then start the long process of pushing back with the neck to open a breechn and keep pushing backwards for a couple of hours until the dragon-fly is fully out, hang on for dear life until dry and fly off. Wonderful.

We have quite a few alpine newts too- smooth and nearly black, with the brightest of orange bellies.

Hard to tell. We've paved over our pond to save the GC from falling in, just leaving gaps here and there for the frogs to go in and out, which they mainly do at night.

Anya I cannot imagine your pond, paved over with gaps ?, it sounds incredibly dangerous but I'm sure its not . Can you put my mind at rest please?

Surely if the gaps are small enough to prevent an accident, it would not have enough light getting in for any life-form?

I was more worried that any weight on the paving would result in a collapse into the water.. but yes it does need light of course.

It's not a huge pond and there is a series of brick pillars holding up the paving stone. Over these are laid cobbles and pebbles so no one actually walks onto it. There are no water plants living there of course, bar the odd bit of algae that grow everywhere. The gap between paving stone and water varies depending on rainfall and in a drought I add water to keep my frogs happy.

They seem to do ok. It's been in place for a few years now and plenty of frogs come out and wander around the garden at night. Water snails also live there. There is a solar pump which circulates the water.

It was a small pond when we moved in and I wanted a solution that protected the frog population and the GC. This seems to work. So it's a subterranean pond.

Thanks Anya, now I see what you mean.. how nice that you preserved it for the wild life it must be interesting without all the faff of looking after a fish pond... I always wanted a wild life pond but after OH spent so long building it I didn't have the heart to stop him putting fish in it.. which of course completely defeated the object of a wildlife pond.. so we have fish and I have to watch for frogspawn and hoik it out before the fish eat it all and put it in an old container to grow the grandkids love to watch them mature and turn into frogs..

I HAVE A LOAD OF FROGSPAWN!

That's brilliant Galen!
No sign here in North Wilts but must be imminent I hope - haven't heard any frogs calling yet.

Frog spawn has appeared! We had two male frogs arrive mid-week, then a female and now this morning there's a couple of clumps of frog spawn in the pond. Hopefully it'll survive the colder weather, in previous years it's been hammered by frosts.

The pond on our allotment is full of frog spawn. Let's hope we get lots more frogs to eat the slugs and snails. That was the original idea and it seems to work well. Bees come for a drink too so it is a useful little pond.

We have a load of frogspawn in our garden here in London and next door's has loads too plus lots of amorous frogs, we have quite a few lonely male ones as well all trying to jump on the few poor females.

We have noisy amorous frogs too! Hopping between one pond and another. At least DBH hasn't mown any yet this year.

I have been promised a jar of frog spawn to start things off in my new pond which is being installed next week. I hope to encourage plenty of wild life by planting suitable wild life friendly plants, in a recently inherited virtually bare garden, which was used as a veg plot.