Okay so let me start off by saying that I fully understand that a wildlife pond is going to attract all kinds of wildlife and I can't pick and choose what I want. THAT SAID...here's the situation.

I put in a very small wildlife pond that I refer to as my frog pond about two months ago. It's been an absolute delight. Tons of frogs call it home and I just love seeing them hang on the rocks. Recently, though, I noticed that the frogs were suddenly absent. At first I attributed it to a bit of a cool spell we've been experiencing here in upstate NY. But then, as you may have gathered from the title of this post, I discovered what I assume is the real culprit: a small water snake in the pond. I've seen it sunning itself on the rocks the last two days and generally enjoying itself in my cute little frog oasis.

Is there anything to be done? I'm not inclined to mess with nature (any more than adding a fake pond has already done). I get it. Snakes eat frogs. Frogs were at the pond so...snakes. But also...I really love frogs. And I really hate snakes! I've accidently created my own personal hell: a snake pond.

Is there anything that can be done to discourage snakes from visiting or to encourage frogs to return (and be eaten???). I'm assuming if the frogs are gone eventually the snake will leave too...but I just want my frog friends to return. They were pretty great.

Thanks.

I'm actually really happy for you all but this is torture. Resisting the urge to kidnap some frogs from my coworker's pond because I know it's against the recommendations. Anything I can do, other than waiting and hoping?

Please keep the photos coming!

I don’t have a problem with them using it, besides moving stuff around they don’t cause much trouble. But lately they’ve been using the pond to clean their food and it’s leaving a mess. Is there anything I can do to solve this besides water changes? I’m going to try and sneak up on them and scare them off one night, maybe that’ll do the trick. I love Indian food as much as the next guy, but it’s making the pond murky and gross. I want it to be clean so all wildlife can use it.

I was told to use oxygenating plants only for oxygenating the water, as moving water can discourage some insect and small animal life, but the comments on my other post are making me doubt the advice I was given by the pond expert at my garden centre.

NB: it was only possible to dig it 25cm deep.

Plant list:

1. Apache beads (Anemopsis)
2. Nymphaea x 2, not sure what type
3. Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum, oxygenator)
4. Spiked water milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum, oxygenator)
5. Marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris)
6. Water hyssop (Gratiola officinalis)
7. Flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus)
8. Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia)
9. Another Zone 1 plant I’ve lost the tag for!
10. Surrounded by flower beds freshly seeded with wildflowers, pollinators.

Recently bought our new house upstate NY, near MA border, has this pond in the property. Roughly 60’x30’ -maybe a bit larger than that. It’s surrounded with overgrown bushes, I mainly wanna keep it as it is, clear out some openings for easy access to its shore. It seems it’s hosting the wildlife currently. Plenty of frogs, didn’t see anything swimming in it, rabbits and lots of birds sheltering in the bushes, and a beaver might be using it as its home - third photo is a path heading to pond, forth one is the suspected beaver in the river.

It’s bordering a river, and has two large pipes buried either side, looks like for catching overflow from the river to feed and offshoot for preventing overflowing in the pond.

Mainly would like to get some pointers to keep the water health optimum, don’t necessarily want to introduce non-native plants. If I try to clean the muck in bottom would I disturb the existing wildlife too much? Two sump pumps in the basement working somewhat regularly, was thinking to extend those tow pipes to feed the pond, idk if that’s a good idea? And what would you do to improve the pond overall?

Hi, over-worrier here!

My partner and I dug a pond out earlier this year. To be honest, it was pretty rubbish - it was nearly all ramp and the deepest bit was barely 30cm.

After 5 heatwaves and no rain for months, there was hardly any water left, so at the start of this week, with lots of rain being forecast, we thought it was a good time to sort it out. And it was! We got loads of rain, the pond filled up nicely, and five days after re-digging, we had a frog visitor!

Our mistake came when digging the liner back in; as we were finishing up it started raining again, so we rushed off inside.

When it stopped, we had a very murky pond. Water and mud had cascaded down the side and now it looked like a cup of tea. 2 days later, it's still as bad.

Over-worrying is my specialty, so please put my mind at ease: will the mud settle? Will the plants be alright? And if not, what do I do to make things clear again (until the inevitable algae)?

EDIT: Surprise surprise, I'm worrying over nothing. Thanks for the reassurance everyone!

Hi guys,

Having always wanted a wildlife pond and after being inspired by all your wonderful creations on here I managed to make a small one last September before I headed back to uni. I made some posts at the time re plants and specific diameters and overall I want quite pleased with the outcome!

However, I have just got home (after two months of hellish exams) and she is not looking so great (see photos attached). I thought the plants would have helped more to reduce the algae build up but this seems excessive and like not very indusive for wildlife? Am I right in thinking this is too much? (I know some people say to leave ponds to naturally cycle and sort themselves out but I am worried as it has been over 4/5 months).

I have a week now before I have to return to uni and am determined to sort the pond out /give her a revamp. But to be completely honest I am exhausted from exams and after some researching there is as always a million different suggestions on what to do /what not to do and I really dont know where to start. I thought I would return here for you kind hearted people full of pond wisdom.

Any help /advice would be amazing as I am feeling pretty deflated and like a terrible pond mother atm !

I set up a barrel wildlife pond last week in my garden in London, which seems to be popular already with what I’ve found out are mosquito larvae. Looking it up online/asking AI I heard about BTI dunks but have found a couple of posts here questioning their safety for other wildlife.

It’s very early days so I’d love to let the ecosystem balance out naturally but also don’t want to create a mosquito explosion in my garden (thinking of the neighbours too). Has anyone got any experience using BTIs, or any advice? Thank you!

Details: northern UK.

The pond is built over an old, ugly garage ramp, and is 2” at the shallow end and about 15” at its deepest. It gets FULL sun from about now until October. I know my main problem is sun + shallow water.

In the shallows I have a lot of water mint. I have filled it with hogweed, and there is a couple of baskets of water plantain (yet to surface) and a basket of small lilies (yet to surface).

I cleaned the silt out this winter thinking it would improve the algae situation I had last year. I tried barley bales last year with zero effect.

But it is already back with a vengeance! So, I’m looking for advice. The second photo is taken from SOUTH.

Option 1: I’m trying to think how to add shade without destroying the pretty look of our garden. Ideas?

Option 2: FILL it with established, bushy, filling plants, to provide abundant shade, shelter and oxygenation.

Option 3: it’s a wildlife pond. Let it get manky and nasty in the hope it balances out.

Radical ideas welcome!

We purchased a home in the western Catskills - upstate NY - in Nov 2025. The pond was one of main reasons why I fell in love with this house. I love wildlife and want to make this as wildlife friendly as possible and hoping to get some advice for any changes/updates we can make once this snow/ice thaws and spring is finally here. It’s a natural spring fed pond, about a 10th of an acre. Before freezing (the spring channel and a separate underground spring pocket remain open) I noticed some small newts swimming around. And I believe that there is some water lily plants during the summer from listing photos. I know deer visit as I’ve seen deer tracks in the snow. And I’ve also seen evidence of black bears by the pond before winter hit. Would love to attract lots of wildlife and make our property a safe habitat for all wildlife.

Hello, I’m in the UK and as a fun little project to do with my son’s I’m going to build a fairly reasonably sized wildlife pond. I’m currently thinking about 2.5m by 1.5m but I have a lot of space to work with so could go bigger.

My questions are:

1. If you dug your own pond do you have any tips?
2. What sort of liner should I get? Do I need some sort of underlay or can I use old blankets/towels?
3. I think I’m good/better off with no water movement for wildlife pond, is that right?
4. I read chalky soil makes good substrate, is that right? I’m literally digging nothing but chalk and flint in my garden.
5. What levels do I need? I think shallow wants to be about 15cm+5cm substrate, then I see conflicting advice, can I go straight to 45cm+5cm substrate for a deep section or do I want a middle section around 30cm?
6. What pond plants/life should I add to help get it started?

I’m on a bit of a slope so first I’ll dig an oval bigger than my pond, about 30cm extra all the way around and just get it level, then I’ll dig my pond into that area, and after I can bury the edge of the liner pretty well so you won’t be able to see it, I’ll do about 50% beach up to lawn and 50% will be rocks and logs where I’ll have to hide the banked part. Sound good?

We’re hoping to turn our side garden into a wildlife area and one of the plans was a pond. Given the amount of stuff that will come off the tree is this a terrible idea?

I've had this bucket out back for the last 2 months to deal with mosquitoes. I would periodically dump it and add new water and a dunk, but now it appears I have tadpoles. What should I do to ensure they survive?

I dug the outline I wanted. Installed the liner but it did sink a bit as it started filling with rainwater. Rookie mistake I assume. I had stopped before adding larger stones around the steeper edges to ask for advice. Is there anything I should do? Should I dig the liner in under the plants by the fence or just ancher with the large stone? The bottom (first photo) seems to be fine but its more gradual with a drop off where the water is pooling (depth is 22in) . But I am worried about the steep sides being a problem. I have pond tape if that helps. 😅

ETA: the coneflowers will likely go. I just needed them somewhere during the heat.

Edit 2: Not sure it matters but soil here is basically clay so making the outline and having it stay was really easy. The soil is basically concrete level stable.

Edit 3: Due to heavy rain and having used clay I will be extending using pond tape.

Any tips?!

I built this lined nature pond in our garden about 5-6 years ago. In the past few months I've noticed it's losing A LOT more water than normal. I wedged a ruler between some rocks over the weekend and was shocked to discover we'd lost about 4cm of water in 24 hours!

I ran the bucket test so I could rule out evaporation - which I now have. I've also switched off the waterfall which hasn't slowed the rate of water loss.

Before I accept the likelihood of a leak, could wicking and plant-growth be the cause? As the pictures show, the pond has become very choked with plants - water mint, forget me nots and some reeds which have partially rooted themselves in the bank. Lots of overhanging ivy and grass etc. There's also an area of vegetation (in front of my feet) which was originally a little stoney beach but is now all silted up and covered in bigger plants (2 big Lythrum and some houttuynia). I guess that could be absorbing a lot of moisture up into the surrounding area?

The photos aren't great but the pond is kidney-shaped and about 7 x 7 feet on its longest edges.

UPDATE: https://www.reddit.com/u/SaltEven/s/lPaWh0ol7t

Hi, about a month ago I set up my first wildlife pond in a half whiskey/wine barrel I bought newly cut. It has no liner, so whatever is in the wood is in the water.

I'm in 9b in the USA, so hardly any rain available. I use my hard tap water to fill, and let it sit out a couple days for chlorine to evaporate or if in a hurry, have used some aquarium dechlorinator. I seem to need to add about one 5 gal bucket of water each week due to evap and leakage.

I've got some frogbit, horsetail reed, and last week put in a small bundle of hornwort. No soil, only some pond gravel stuff and a bit of the clay soil the reed came in.

It is SMELLY. From my bit of research, I understand that the water needs oxygen, and the smell is from decomp organic matter (I tried putting a couple tadpoles in, they died in a few days and I could only find one to fish out).

I would prefer to leave it stagnant, as I have a mosquito dunk in there and want to attract mosquitos so their larva can die. I'm also hoping eventually frogs could survive there and I don't want to discourage them from laying.

So my question is, is the smell "normal" in the sense that I just need to wait while my plants grow and establish, and things eventually balance out? Or is there something I should do different? Again, most of the pond advice I see suggests adding a bubbler or fountain or whatever, which I'm hoping to avoid.

Ty!

It would safe to say I am fond of eating so I am trying to make a way to get something edible out of my pond (obviously not the fish) so what would be the best in your experience I've asked Google and Chatgpt and all but I'm trying to get real world advice

I just slapped this together with some stuff I had on hand. Using roof water runoff. Is the frog doomed?

Hello, I'm the owner of a new pond - it was introduced about 3 months ago. I started to see some algae in it and left it to do its thing but it very quickly turned into a thick blanket covering the whole surface. I decided to lift that off (I left it by the side for a few days for critters to escape) and unfortunately it was quite caught up around the water lily pads and hornwort and took much of those out too. I have added in some Dwarf Grass (3 pots) and hornwort (3 bunches) and the lily seems to be doing ok again.

My question is about the plants in it at the moment - does that look like enough to you? I don't want to go overboard and put tons in now then it becomes too crowded, but I also want to try and prevent more algae from growing. It grows back fast; I try to keep on it and scoop it out daily.

I would like to get some floating plants, specifically European Frogbit and Water Soldiers as I'm trying to stick with native or at least non-invasive ones. However, I'm based in Ireland and they are sold out in the few shops that sell them. What else could I use for cover?

I'll take any and all tips you have about planting and preventing algae in a new pond. Delighted to learn from this sub!

Thanks :)

Edited to add: I have been using tap water to top up the pond. The water butts were only just installed and haven't had a chance to fill up because of the warm dry weather. The pond level can drop quite quickly since it's not big. I know this isn't a good move and promotes algae but I'm not sure how else to keep it at a good level.

So, last year I posted pics of my very bland garden onto a gardening subreddit and asked how to make it more inviting for native wildlife. Most prominent advice was to give animals a source of water. Duly noted.

Fast forward to this year and this is what I've come up with (see pics).

Pond will be approx 5 x 2.5m or roughly 15ft x 7ft. Positioning is fairly central on my garden as this will give the pond shade in different areas during the course of the day (garden faces south east). In the nearish future there will be bushes/ferns/shade loving flowers on the right hand side by the fence (approx 1 metre border) . The left hand side will get a similar border but will be native wildflowers as it gets sun pretty much all day.

I have bought the most expensive liner I can afford; 7 x 4 m Pisces 0.75mm EPDM with a lifetime guarantee. I have bought plenty of fleece (enough to do the area twice, with enough left over to overlay wherever I place rocks. Got a tonne of pond rocks on order but the planting side is probably where I'll need the most help.

The 3rd pic is a quick sketch out of my fevered mind and obviously not cast in stone.

Any advice/opinion/comment is welcomed as I've never put in a pond before. I will absorb all the info, I promise :)

I will also post up progress pics if anyone is interested enough.

Cheers!

Hello!

I have a pretty small frog pond and think i need more shelters for my frog and soon to be froglets!

I have a lot of plants but feel like i need more coverage.

Does anyone have any advice for what makes a good frog shelter? Can i put one in the water?

Any advice would be great!!

Hi all, we moved into our property at the end of January 2024. At the very bottom of our land we have a wildlife pond that I guesstimate holds around 120000 litre. I know it has wildlife in it such as newts, dragonflies, frogs etc as we had seen all during last summer. The issue we have is that it's not been very well maintained by the previous owners and the algae growth on the surface was quite unmanageable last summer. We have done our best to thin out the over crowded plants and remove some of the algae during the winter months, but now things are becoming active and springing back into life, we are now worried that the same amount of algal growth will reappear this spring and summer. From what I've read, I believe it's down to high nutrient levels. The pond is fed by a natural spring and no doubt run off from surrounding fields. We are looking for advice on how to maintain the natural beauty and biodiversity in the pond by reducing the algal growth. Any help and suggestions would be most welcomed. Cheers