Wildlife gardener, adding beneficial water features.

[Variable Potpourri]

Greetings, all!

I’ve been a wildlife gardener for about 20 years, but until now only relied on bowls and basins for watering the creatures, which is a daily duty to refill.
After relocating to zone 7b and finding green tree frog tadpoles in a kiddie pool that didn’t yet make it into storage two years ago, and then again last year, I decided to go ahead and construct a small pond especially for the purpose on the northern side of my property — the only area that will have a minimal amount of overhead debris to deal with and no black walnuts (much swearing).
About that: I was going to build a larger natural pond in the back (eastern exposure) next to my woodland lot, to blend with the cottontail, ratsnake and box turtle-friendly garden, but then learned about juglone and how I was not going to be able to win the battle against two mature black walnut trees on either side of the garden; these trees make relaxing in the area impossible during late summer and autumn (large falling nuts) and also pollute the water features with leaf-fall...

At this point I’ve just finished the pit, packed the clay, placed the 35 gallon pre-formed liner in the ground (and set up a safety exit of rocks for anything that might fall in) while I work out the details of flagstone and planting around it. The pond itself has the beginnings of a small bog area and will offer oxygenating plants, varying depths of water and an area for sunning, sheltering, and escape. The site is set in part shade, which worked well for the other accidental ‘pond’.
I’m planning on incorporating a gentle, small stone aerator for the tadpoles, but no filter/pump. Unfortunately I have clay silt muddying the pond, so may need to empty and refill with rainwater if I can’t adequately skim enough out by hand; I know most sediment will settle, but right now it looks like coffee with cream and is making me twitchy.
When that’s a bit further along and clarified, I’ll post an image.

We’ll continue to see freezing temperatures until mid-April, so I don’t anticipate many terrestrial creatures visiting until springtime, and that kiddie pool is still set up (with perennial grass and hornwort, rocks and safe leaf debris) behind my garage for any earlier breeding.

I’ll be mulling through the forum specifically for aquatic plant recommendations and fellow wildlife/amphibian enthusiasts, as that will be my primary focus.

I’m very glad to have found this site. Thanks for having me. : )

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Two of my early frogs say "Welcome!" and would like to thank you for creating something special for their friends & relatives.

 

[JRS]

Welcome!

 

[Variable Potpourri]

Thank you for the welcome.

BKH — I’d seen a post somewhere in the past month of someone local who must be downhill from me, already having tree frogs in the reservoir of her hanging planter. I’m located on a foothill and tend to run a few degrees cooler, with gardens blooming later than neighbors a few blocks away, so my first sighting is always a gray tree frog hanging out by the door of my greenhouse, usually late March or April.

Still murky but starting to settle on its own, will give a few more days before grabbing a bucket and changing out the water (there’s an old fuzz-free cotton towel in there right now grabbing some of the descending silt, and I also have a fine mesh skimmer, because pollen). I’m trying to decide how much of what and the shape of the bog as I build it up. My original desire was to have all the stonework flat in the ground with hewn, overlapping edges to cover the liner, but the amount of ancient dead tree roots and boulders under the soil have had me go in a more casual direction; I’ll probably keep to something a bit more rustic and plant groundcover and ferns or low grass around the edges.
Groundcover and pavers are a must. As you can see, my soil here is nothing but red clay. The stuff in the back woodland is somewhat more pleasant to work with (some humus and pebbles along with the clay to hold onto).
The far right edge is planted for the cottontail who have had litters in this area several years in a row. My goal is to limit the lawn grass to minimal amounts (enough to nibble or shear by hand) and encourage native grasses and ornamental plants for shelter; fruit, flower and vegetables for the wildlife. I had just started on this area, previously just roses and lawn, in September 2019 when I discovered sciatica, and am just now able to get my hip to cooperate. It’ll be slow-going to make sure I don’t wind up in physical therapy again. ; )

 

[j.w]

@Variable Potpourri

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our Group of pond lovers! I had frogs show up as soon as I had a hole in the ground no water.

 

[zeuspaul]

All of my ponds are for the benefit of the local native tree frogs. None of them have filtration or aerators. The local frogs prefer still water. I try to provide a footing around the inside edge of the entire pond to prevent drowning of our lizards. They can't swim around to find an exit.

 

[j.w]

My frog pond is a bathtub w/plenty of plants. Have another one that is full of Duckweed and sometimes Azolla and I see the frog heads hanging out in their also. They are also in my big pond.

 

[addy1]

My frogs are everywhere, big fish filled pond, tiny stream ponds, deck pond, fishless ponds in the loop. Even breed in the bog.
The toads hit first, they seem to like to mate in the big pond, but find most of their eggs in the smaller ponds.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I’ll be mulling through the forum specifically for aquatic plant recommendations and fellow wildlife/amphibian enthusiasts, as that will be my primary focus.

My frogs always hang out in the waterlilies, naturally. They also started liking my new Bog Bean once it started growing larger last year.
My best advice would be to add native plants outside of the pond that attract a wide variety of pollinators. My frogs spend much of their days watching my milkweeds, hyssop, and other natives, just waiting for the perfect moment to leap toward their next meal.

 

[Variable Potpourri]

This is as far as I’ve gotten before the hip said, yeah, enough; still needing to change the water out (was hoping to time it with a rainstorm or two). Bog is functional, with a pooling area under that log and exits on either side for creatures.
I already have forest grass, horsetail and reed with a Tiger ‘lotus’ and pond lily submerged (we’ll see — that Tiger didn’t look too promising). I’m a moss and fern fan, so there will be more of that.
Frogbit and more hornwort are in transit to me; whatever seems like too much will be given away to other neighborhood pond people. (I oversee a small community garden here, so can pretty easily find someone interested in extras.)

 

[Variable Potpourri]

Getting there.

 

[j.w]

Very nice set up and how do you keep the bog part upright from falling down into the water side? I assume you used some kind of bricks or rock and is there soil all the way from top to bottom or rocks or gravel. Love the tiny ferns, moss and plants that you are using.

 

[Variable Potpourri]

Very nice set up and how do you keep the bog part upright from falling down into the water side? I assume you used some kind of bricks or rock and is there soil all the way from top to bottom or rocks or gravel. Love the tiny ferns, moss and plants that you are using.

I built the bog with pea gravel, rinsed flat stones from the woodland, just a tiny bit of clay/humus, old dry sheets of carpet moss and wet New Zealand Sphagnum all in layers; above all that I laid a coconut husk basket liner (large, folded) and shaped that around everything, including the reeds on either side. There is a thick tree limb under the mossy log that holds that up and I compressed every layer as it went in — is pretty sturdy. There are large flagstones on each of the preformed planter steps and I used that to shape the ‘land’ and leave areas for traveling between the bog and pond area. (I’ll continuously check ph levels for leaching, etc.)
On top of that, more clean pea gravel, clumping clay humus (sparingly), shedded bark with polypody fern (vine) that I have on my property, mosses, what looks like spleenwort fern and rocks collected from my back yard.
I have native bloodroot and trillium in my garden - I am trying one bloodroot tuber high in the bog, and will plant more trillium in the shadier areas (I’m going to purchase a few other varieties).

I really like hosta, but so do the cottontail and deer. I’ll try one over here, tucked away, and *maybe* I’ll succeed in having one manage to hold its leaves.
I have astilbe all around the yard, but that gets eaten, too. Everything gets eaten, except for butterfly bush and hellebore. Have a wildlife garden; expect wildlife. ; )

I will go out and take a picture of that entire area, so you can get a feel for what I’m trying to build on that side of the house. It’s messy right now, but should be prettied-up in a month or two.

 

[Variable Potpourri]

I’m working the whole garden, which will have some height, texture and privacy as everything fills in. The bricks are down to help me visualize where grass needs to come up, pavers should go.

BTW - those concrete tikis aren’t planned for that area, but I couldn’t resist; Lowe’s had them on clearance for $16.00usd a piece. When I got to the register, they were SEVEN dollars each. Yep, came home with me. Maybe I’ll set up a proper cocktail garden on the other side of the house after this end is done.