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Page Last Updated:
Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Home>Council Services>Environment>Gardens for Wildlife (G4W)>Creating a Garden for Wildlife!>Recipe - A frog-friendly pond with unpolluted water
Many gardens already have frogs frequenting them but you only hear them calling during the breeding season if they have a suitable breeding site established in the form of a frog pond or bog. Tadpoles, which grow to frogs in water, feed on the pond’s algae and decaying vegetable matter and as they mature into frogs switch to insects as their main food.
A frog’s skin is permeable so contact with air and water pollutants can harm and even kill frogs whilst frog’s soft eggs and free-swimming tadpoles are vulnerable to water pollutants such as insecticides, heavy metals and herbicides. It is essential therefore that if we encourage frogs into our garden we do not use any form of chemicals in that habitat.
Click on the links and images at the bottom of this page for more detailed information on frogs that reside in Knox and how to make your garden frog-friendly.
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| The ideal frog garden would contain:
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 | an unpolluted bog or suitable pond - ideally with indigenous native vegetation planted both in and around the water; | | shelter - such as plenty of shady trees, luxuriant shrubbery and reedy grasses; | | hiding spots - such as damp mossy crevices, some fl at stones or bits of bark, a few clumps of unmown grass, a compact tangle of dead branches and logs, thick groundcover rich with organic mulch, twigs and fallen leaves to keep frogs hidden from predators.
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| An unpolluted bog or suitable pond should have:
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| a gently sloping side or bank or log placed strategically to allow frogs to get in and out of the water easily; | | shallow areas for calling, mating, egg deposit and for tadpoles to bask in sunlight; | | two thirds of the water surface in shade to keep pond cool or bog moist; | | one third of the water surface in part sun as light encourages growth of algae and plants that provide part of tadpole’s diet; | | unpolluted water – never allow algae or plant growth to completely cover the surface as it would deprive the pond and the frogs of oxygen – never place under trees or shrubs with toxic leaves - regularly remove any debris or excess vegetation to maintain the health of the pond.
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| It is important not to introduce fish or turtles into the pond as they eat frogspawn and tadpoles.
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