frogs

[LARCH]

When I moved to this house there was a small pond ( without a filter) in the garden and it was murky.I have emptied and refilled it and there were 4 frogs in it but no frogspawn. Have I harmed the frogs? Should I plant vegetation for them? Or is there something I can feed them with? There are stones around the edge of the pond so that they can get out, any advice would be appreciated, thanks, C

[WendyS]

No Larch, I don't think you've harmed the frogs although if you cleaned the pond around February, you may have disturbed their mating pattern for this season which is why there is no forgspawn. Also, if you filled your pond with tap water, as opposed to rain water, the frogs may not have liked all the chlorine in it, which may take time to evaporate. (It's always a good idea to top up the pond level with fresh rainwater if have a water butt as the water will be more chemical free and more friendly to wildlife). Frogs normally return to the same pond each year to mate, so they'll probably hang around and return early next spring although they don't spend all their time in water, migrating to the land to eat slugs, worms and other insects. It's a good idea to put lots of oxygenating plants in your pond, both to improve the quality of the water and provide some shade and protection for the frogs, and possibly newts which may make their way there. Hope you get a lot of pleasure from your pond.