How to create a frog pond

Giving frogs a home in your garden will help with natural pest control and boost your garden’s ecosystem – not to mention the smiles that break out when that enthusiastic male choir gets going.

ONE of the delights of being in the country is the symphony of frog song that comes from a dam in a paddock, often at dusk. If you don’t have access to wetlands, providing a home for frogs – even in highly urban areas – can be as surprisingly easy as providing water and sheltered spots in your garden.

One inner-urban dweller in a rented home in Melbourne, Fergus, has filled his entire front garden with natives and scattered tubs of water hidden among the dense foliage providing homes for his large tribe of indigenous Southern Brown Tree Frogs (top image). During mating season in late Spring his garden is a front row seat to a concert.

Another way to create a habitat for frogs in your garden is to create a frog pond. The easiest way to do this is to dig a hole (about 1m or so deep at the middle) with shallow tapering edges and a few deep ledges for potted plants. Put down fine sand all over the base of the hole to a depth of 4cm. Line with geo-textile to soften the edges of any sharp stones and then drape a layer of wildlife-friendly rubber – called EPDM or Butyl (the cheaper of the two with all of these fabrics available at selected nurseries or online) – across the hole and wrap around rocks at the edge that are dug into the bank. Spend some time on the edges of the pond adjusting the rocks and making sure the pond lining is pulled up high and concealed. This task will take the longest as it is difficult to arrange rocks to look naturalistic. Plant the edges with reeds, rushes and sedges, such as Knobby Club Rush (Ficinia nodosa), making sure there are plenty of private sheltered spots where frogs can escape from predators.

Fill the pond with water – ideally rain water – and aquatic plants such as Water Lily (Nymphaea sp.), dwarf Lotus (Nelumbo sp.), Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), Lizard’s Tail (Saururus cernuus) and natives such as Nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) and Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). Aquatic plants need different depths so make sure to build in two or three deep flat shelves into the bank of your pond to house pots. Some plants can be submerged to a depth of 1m, such as Water Lily, Lotus and Papyrus, and can be sited in the middle of the pond where it is deepest.

Ideally, site the pond under a gutter to catch rainfall, or direct this to your pond, providing a way for water to overflow during storms and drain in a way that does not pool under your residence but waters garden beds and ultimately flows into a stormwater drain. On really hot days evaporation will literally take inches off the water level and must be topped up.

Frogs and fish don’t mix well as the fish will eat small tadpoles, but water snails can happily live with frogs and help keep the aquatic environment clean by eating algae. As naturalist Konrad Lorenz observed as a young boy, a body of water with aquatic life and plants will quickly form its own ecology and does not need feeding or cleaning – the opposite of a high-maintenance indoor fish tank, which requires constant feeding, cleaning, maintenance and chemicals. In your self-sustaining frog pond, the frogs will forage for their own meals but quite like an occasional crumpled lettuce or chicory leaf tossed into their pond.

Best of all, the water body will cool your garden, the frogs will help support a thriving resilient ecosystem, help keep on top of unwanted pests and support beneficial insects.

And another thing…

In Australia frogs are under threat with four species now extinct. Scientists have created a national frog map using citizen science to track what is happening in the wild (see here). If you’re out in the country and want to know what frogs you’re seeing, check out their prize-winning Frog ID App.

And just to put a smile on your face, here’s the story of one woman’s delightful interaction with a Motorbike Frog (see here).