Garden Frog (Novice Gardener)

[AlisonP1965]

Hi
I was sat at the pond this morning and noticed something odd moving on the edging slab. I realised this was the garden frog I had spotted a few weeks earlier in the garden. A Common Garden frog. The frog had obviously come out of the pond as it was covered in the small floating plants we have in there.
The pond has only been here since March, is approx 4ft deep ( we would have dug a little deeper but the ground was so full of boulders and stones my partner had 'mined' enough. I made a rockery with waterfall leading to the pond from the contents of the hole he had mined/dug) and approx 8 foot x 6 feet wide/long. We have 7 shop bought goldfish, who are very happy, having spawned several times since March and we now appear to have quite a few baby goldfish of varying sizes (not sure the smaller ones will make it if Mr Frog gets hungry - he appears to be a large frog , easily the size of a adults fist) There is a shelf edging the pond where we placed plants, which have grown considerably and covered 95% of the surface area of the pond, along with some floating plants and underwater lily.
My question is ... will the frog live in this type of pond, or would he have just been taking shelter? There is no easy way for him to get in and out other than having to jump at least 6 inches vertical, which is what baffled me when I saw him.
We have another small wildlife pond I made with easy access in and out that is no more than 6 inches deep with sloping sides that I thought may attract frogs eventually.so I was a little surprised he was in the big pond especially as there is a 4 tier waterfall and movement of water.
Ive never had a garden before, and I am loving the fact I get to see all these lovely creatures ( we have a family of 3 hedgehogs visit 9.30pm every night too ) .. Anyway sorry for rambling a little, just a bit concerned for the frog in the deep pond.
Alison

[Chipchopper]

Your pond seems plenty deep enough.
What I did with my pond, was provide a ramp, so that anything could climb out if it got in (accidentally or not). what I used was a tree branch which also looked natural.

[albaqwerty]

Alison, that sounds lovely !
(not jealous at all :-D )

The B&B where I used to work, had a pond in the back garden, (giant goldfish - Koi, if I remember) and like Chip, there was a large branch to help whatever fell in get back out again.

The resident frog use to lie in wait for one of my colleagues, and only her, never bothered with the rest of us mere mortals lol

Enjoy ! xx

[murraymints]

the shelf is obviously adequate for the frog to live around, but I would be a bit concerned if the surface was 95% covered in vegetation.. I would have no more than 60%

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=622

[Togo]

Pond sounds like a good one. The frog should be able to survive if there is something on the bottom for it to hibernate under during the winter months. I am sure that they hibernate usually burying themselves in the mud or silt at the bottom. I think I also read once, that if you have a pond with frogs hibernating that it is a good idea to prevent it completely icing over for any length of time, but not to smash the ice as the pressure spike can damage them as they lie dormant. Lucky you.

[murraymints]

a floating ball or two for the ice thing

[Tilly2]

Please provide a ramp so that things can get out of your pond. Hedgehogs for example.

[AlisonP1965]

thank you all for your advice, we have plenty of branches about so will pop one in as a get out and have just removed some of the floating plants(duckweed - I found out from the link murraymints provided) to reduce the coverage to about 2/3rds. I try and keep the coverage down, i had moved some to the small unfiltered pond and have discovered baby goldfish in there too - they must have been eggs attached to the plants I previously transferred. This pond is only inches deep, so I will try and transfer the fish into the bigger pond at some stage

[scooping]

Consider yourself blessed and worry not.

[AlisonP1965]

Update : I spotted Mr and Mrs Frog in the corner of the pond last night, it is the quieter darker end, and they seemed quite happy in there :)

[murraymints]

thanks for the update..you may like to remove some spawn when it appears lest you be swamped by frogs !! ..I had a fairly large pond and had to remove a few buckets every year..cat was already having a nervous breakdown with what was already there ! lol...

[ladybirder]

Lucky you Alison, those were the days when I used to have Hedgehogs visiting. Just one little thing, you say you will place a branch so that anything that falls in can get out. Great, but just wondering whether a Hedgehog could manage a branch and perhaps as Tilly suggested, a plank would be the best thing? But well done I love to hear of people helping our wildlife.