We got spawn! Not as much as last year, more like one clump not 3, but definite spawn. We had it by the 19th Feb. Then there were several big storms but it seems okay. I thought this was early but it seems not by last year’s frog spawn, which says “last week of feb”
Category Archives: Pond
Me vs Fuschia, Fuschia vs Pond
One of the things about trying to garden in a different way, is that I sometimes don’t have anything to do. Not that my garden is finished – it’s still a mess – but that if I am trying to let nature do more, then I need to do less. For ex, usually this time of year, I would clear up and cut back, but I am trying to let things die and rot back into the soil.
Today everyone was driving me nuts and I wanted to do some soothing gardening. But I couldn’t find anything to do. Then I turned to the fuschia, as I often do, because you can hack great bits off it with impunity and really no result.
As previously discussed, the fuschia needs chopping because it’s too big and not actually a tree and always trying to be a bush. Ilove it when I cut it’s shape clearly. I’m going to go back and cut more later and I’m thinking about turning it into one of those pom-pom trees! I think I need to learn more about pruning.
Too many…. 
sticky out bits
Also as previously discussed, the fuschia is killing the pond. Today I took out a ton of old rotting leaves and disturbed a very cross looking frog. It seems a shame to have got the pond properly done with bricks and tadpoles into maturity and let the bushy tree kill it off.
Tiny weeny frogs
We got these about 4 days ago. You can’t really see because they look like tiny droplets but there are frogs in all these pictures!
It’s easy but dangerous to undervalue the ones that haven’t got legs once you’ve got ones that have so here’s a pic of one of those.
They’ve ALL got legs
In the last week, we’ve gone from a few tadpoles with legs to everybody having them. Some of them have got tiny arms too I think but it’s hard to spot. Jade – who loves her pond even more than me – has got baby froglets with no tails at all.
The most advanced ones hang out in the shallow bit that gets the most sun. Is this because the ones that like the warmest bit, grow quicker? Or is it that the quick growing ones grab the best spots?
With legs comes consciousness. When they’re plain tadpoles, they don’t shy from anything. You can stick your fingers in the pond and they just wiggle round you. But the more like frogs they get, the more they notice movement and dash away when you approach. So it’s harder to take pictures but I will.
Flag Irises
I had these for several years and then last year, they flowered! I was surprised! This year, they have again. They don’t last long but they are beautiful.
They’ve got legs!
They don’t know how to use them! (As ZZ Top sort of said). But they’ve got legs. They are WIERD looking animals.
Tadpoles nearly froglets
They are going strong. There are LOADS of them. They are slightly changing shape so they look more sculpted. They don’t look like black dots, they look like brown geometric shapes. They don’t have stubby back legs yet. Loads of them squish into the shallows under the rocks in the sunny bit (it HAS been v cold).
Tadpoles hatching
The tadpoles hatched! Our first ever. We’ve had tadpoles before but not from spawn (from other ponds). They started hatching about the 23rd March. They come out very sleepy. They don’t move a lot and at first I thought they might be leeches that had eaten the tadpoles but they are not. Here’s a pic with some still in, some coming out
Frog spawn
We got some! Last week of Feb, we got three lots. We’ve had single clumps before but they’ve only once made it to tadpoles. It seems very early and lots of it is not IN the water but floating above. But we have to assume the frogs know what they are doing.
Pond swizzled
I love my pond.
It’s only a couple of feet long and a couple of feet deep at its deepest.
It has brought huge happiness into our lives. I am pretty sure it the only reasons I have a garden – because it distracts my children and instead of trashing the garden or playing football, they spend ages gazing into the pond.
We have frogs and toads and snails (2 kinds!) and hairy water lice and freshwater clams; we once found the skeleton of a water spider, the birds come and bath in it in the summer and the foxes poo round it in the night. But….
It is hard work! Everyone says get a pond, it will be easy, nature will take over. It will thrive. But that’s not what happened in our pond.
It has taken more work than any other square foot of my garden. It has brought more concentrated joy than any other square foot but it is a lot of work.
It need lots of clearing and cleaning. I’ve dug it out three times and the last time we had to pay to have it done professionally (so hopefully no more).
It is very hard dealing with pond weed (normal garden plant knowledge doesn’t seem to apply. It needs the right amount of sun – not too much not too little and it can only have rain water in it, which is tricky when it gets really dry.
And all advice about having “small” ponds (once you’ve got one) turns out to be about ponds at least 10ft wide. And you can’t get ANYONE to realistically tell you when you can do serious maintenance as everyone says something different.
And though we have many many frogs, and sometimes spawn, we never have tadpoles. We have to get them in a jam jar from school – which isn’t right I know because of disease – but they seem to live very happily, wiggle into becoming frogs and the hop off around the garden (and then most of them get eaten by cats).
I would always have one – I would never get rid of it now and I’d even maybe like a bigger one – but it is hard work..
My Garden 